When States Come Out: Europe's Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility. Talk by Phillip M. Ayoub, PhD Associate Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs, Occidental College

In the last two decades, the LGBT movement has gained momentum that is arguably unprecedented in speed and suddenness when compared to other human rights movements. This book investigates the recent history of this transnational movement in Europe, as well as backlashes to it, focusing on the diffusion of the norms it champions and the overarching question of why the trajectories of socio-legal recognition for LGBT minorities are so different across states. The book makes the case that a politics of visibility has engendered the interactions between movements and states that empower marginalized people - mobilizing actors to demand change, influencing the spread of new legal standards, and weaving new ideas into the fabrics of societies. It documents how this double-edged process of 'coming out' empowers some marginalized social groups by moving them to the center of political debate and public recognition and making it possible for them to obtain rights to which they have due claim.