International legal norms on the right to sexual orientation and gender identity: Australian reforms contextualised

The burgeoning scholarship on queer criminology seeks to critically engage with the complex socio-legal apparatus that regulate, silence, and punish individuals and communities whose desires, sexual practices, or performative modes run counter to heteronormative expectations. The elision of non-normative sexual subjectivities from criminal justice discourse operates in mutual reinforcement with the exclusion of those same subjects from the protection of the law. Against this context, this chapter argues that the last two decades have seen the rights of sexual minorities gain increasing attention within both international human rights discourse and the domestic legal contexts of many states. Redress for the legal exclusion of sexual minorities is long overdue and, accordingly, the increased attention to the rights associated with sexual and bodily diversity is welcome.