LGBTQ radical activism in the Lebanese Revolution

Abstract

The Lebanese Revolution (2019) made two forms of LGBTQ activism visible. While Helem (2004–present), the first and the most renowned LGBT organization in Lebanon and the Arab World, called for wide participation, affirming the importance of visibility, pride, and equality, others expressed more radical forms of the LGBTQ political agency. In this article, I concern myself with the second form, analyzing LGBTQ radical resistance as an approach and a new form of self-politicization. I look at the meanings behind their critical engagements and tactics, arguing that radical activists have broadened LGBTQ activism beyond the homonormative discourse of visibility and equality. They experience new forms of mobilization in the public space that stand against assimilation politics and respectability politics while creating a new form of what I call “LGBTQ emergent care” that appeared to empower and validate the self and the other.