Terms of Exclusion

Analyzing LGBTQ politics, this week's review criticizes the exclusionary nature of rights-based politics and instead supports "a more radical and coalitional politics focused on eliminating oppressive structures and systems."

Posted on June 24, 2024 in Reviews of the Month

Terms of Exclusion: Rightful Citizenship Claims and the Construction of LGBT Political Identity

Murib, Zein. Oxford, 2023
306p bibl index, 9780197671498 $99.00, 9780197671504 $29.95, 9780197671528

Murib (Fordham Univ.) has written a strong critique of liberal, rights-based politics through an examination of political identity formation and its tendency toward exclusion and marginalization. Rights-based politics necessarily creates exclusion and marginalization out of the need to create legitimacy in the eyes of political majorities. This form of politics has benefited white gay men, with some benefits for white lesbians, to the detriment of trans people, bisexual people, and people of color in the LGBTQ community. Rights are also fleeting, Murib argues, as represented by the 2022 decision of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Chapters explore the post-Stonewall formation of gay activist groups, lesbian feminism of the 1970s, the rise of the transgender rights movement, and the movement for bisexual recognition and equality. Murib calls for an abandonment of rights-based politics, to be replaced by a more radical and coalitional politics focused on eliminating oppressive structures and systems. Students and scholars looking for a critical analysis of mainstream LGBTQ politics will find rich analysis in the book, which also provides important lessons for the politics of marginalized groups on how not to replicate harmful exclusion in their movements.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: J. A. Pierceson, University of Illinois at Springfield
Interdisciplinary Subject: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Political Science – U.S. Politics
Choice Issue: Apr 2024

Terms of Exclusion

Analyzing LGBTQ politics, this week's review criticizes the exclusionary nature of rights-based politics and instead supports "a more radical and coalitional politics focused on eliminating oppressive structures and systems."