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What’s in a name? The personal and political meanings of 'LGBT' for non-heterosexual and transgender youth in Kyrgyzstan
In this article, we focus on the ways in which non-heterosexual and transgender youth involved with the non-governmental organization ‘Labrys’ in Kyrgyzstan have begun to demand the protection of their basic civil and human rights on the basis of self-identification as ‘LGBT’. This acronym, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, is relatively new to Kyrgyzstan and other post-Soviet states, and represents a change in the terms used by non-heterosexual and transgender people to describe themselves. We frame our discussion using the concepts of sexual citizenship, private/public divides and stigma and base our discussion on debates amongst the staff and community of Labrys about the purpose and scope of the organization. Centrally, we suggest that the strategic use of ‘LGBT’ as a public and politicized identity represents a new, pro-active form of stigma management. By employing this strategy, young LGBT people become ‘would-be’ sexual citizens and challenge traditional societal norms that seek to keep discussion of sex and sexuality in the private sphere and restrict rights to heterosexual, cisgender citizens.
History
Journal
Central Asian surveyVolume
29Issue
4Season
Special issue: Youth in the former Soviet south: Everyday lives between experimentation and regulationPagination
485 - 499Publisher
RoutledgeLocation
Oxon, EnglandPublisher DOI
ISSN
0263-4937eISSN
1465-3354Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2010, Taylor & FrancisUsage metrics
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