Author: Laura Valentina Ojeda (Bogotá, Colombia)
Gender has become a hot topic and a resourceful analytical tool when approaching peace and conflict studies during the past few decades (Gizelis, 2018). Within the Peacebuilding practices in divided societies summer course from the Peace Academy, there was even a complete module dedicated to the presentation and discussion of this topic. Yet, this module followed a very common and mainstream conception of the term “gender”, where the concept has been reduced or equalized to women, within a binary perspective of gender. This approach may have a lot of sense, since gender studies have been deeply related to women studies, given the unfavorable position when it comes to relational power within the sex-gender system for the feminine gender roles. Yet, understanding gender just as two faces of one coin (that is, female and male) is deeply violent. This essay aims to expose how reducing gender studies to women studies turns out marginalizing and excluding historically invisibilized populations and the potential of queerness within peace studies to address this topic. The purpose of this essay is, therefore, to expose how a non-binary vision of gender can, from a queer perspective, feed the gender discussion and promote debates within peacebuilding theory and practice.
For years, feminist and gender studies have highlighted the complex system of oppression that constrains women to several and diverse forms of violence, whether it be direct or structural violence, manifested through psychological, economic, sexual or physical violence, among others. This dominant stream within peace study and practice was reinforced by the Women Peace Agenda and has been followed by scholars and mainstream academic discussions (Schiwal & Kuehnast, 2021). Yet, it is necessary to highlight other identities that are also constrained by patriarchy and that suffer from double oppression given an intersectional perspective: those whose gender identities and sexualities do not fit within the restrictive binary and heteronormative conceptions.
It is true that society at large is mainly constituted by binarisms when it comes to gender and sex. When we are born we are medically assigned with either sex; when we start growing and getting into the social world, there are certain roles related to the sex we were given as newborns, whether it was male or female. Yet, this is not the reality for everybody. For years, western culture and values have led us to comprehend our identities in this restricted, binary worldview. Nonetheless, there are some places where pre-colonial and non-western gender expressions have highlighted how it is possible for us to comprehend not just two ways of gender expression and identity, but rather a more complex wide form of it. Some of these are the Hijra in India (New York Times, 2018), the Kathoey community in Thailand (Jet Set Times, 2019), or the Muxes in Oaxaca (BBC, 2019). Also, not only in non-western cultures there are expressions that do not fit the binarism of the sex-gender system; queer culture and queer gender expressions and identities have been a marginalized sector of society, invisibilized and ignored.
Prior to following the discussion, what is it to be queer? I would not dare to give a single definition, since this is a complex, non-essentialist term that cannot be reduced to just one conceptualization. What can be said, though, is that queerness challenges heteronormativity by examining and exposing how subjects come into being through discursive interactions. In this sense, this is a critical approach, which aims to think about how subjects are constituted through heteronormative discourses, highlighting how subjects become intelligible through binary identity categories such as male/ female, masculine/feminine, and heterosexual/homosexual. It disturbs and disrupts what is considered “normal” and explores possibilities outside of patriarchal, hierarchical, and heteronormative discursive practices (Ruffolo, 2009). Now, the reason why I want to introduce this critical view and why I consider it is important for the peacebuilding studies field is that, if we are going to talk about diverse forms of violence, and ways to build peace within complex, plural societies, then we need to consider that there are people everywhere in the world who place themselves within queer identities, and a basic point of start for any peace initiatives is to guarantee the inclusion and recognition of diversity within society, pursuing the eradication of any forms of violence and discrimination (Schiwal & Kuehnast, 2021).
Take as an example the Colombian case, where the LGBTI population has lived with extreme exclusion from the conversation of victimization along the several peace attempts that have taken place throughout the long lasting armed conflict. Within the 2016 peace process between the government and the FARC-EP guerrilla, there were efforts in order to include the LGBTI population’s discussions and interests within the gender approach of the process. These efforts were given from two dynamics, both top-bottom and bottom-up. Regarding top-bottom efforts, on February and March 2015, the negotiation table invited representatives from two of the most influential LGBTI civil organizations in Colombia[1] in order to address a gender committee for the point six of the peace accord (victims of the armed conflict), where they emphasized on the importance of the truth regarding violence focused on queer people all over the country, which takes the form of homicides, forced displacements, threatening pamphlets, and physical assaults (Maier, 2020). Regarding the bottom-up efforts, many civil organizations, social leaders and interest groups surrounding queer agenda, designed efforts in order to train LGBTI leaders and social organizations, where they promoted mobilization around the post-conflict and peace agendas through forums, workshops, and conferences. These are examples of attempts of societal changes created through networks, where the construction of these networks among individuals aims to advocate for better connections between like-minded people (Wheatley and Frieze, 2006).
Yet, many civil organizations and NGOs claimed that there was no actual representation, rather, some of the people who attended the negotiations had no connections to LGBTI and queer people on the ground (Maier, 2020). Also, it is crucial to mention that this topic was strongly debated by religious and right-wing sectors, who initiated a whole campaign against the peace agreement, targeting the “gender ideology” it came with (Colombia Plural, 2016) and having a key role in the “No” results for the referendum that put to scrutiny the peace agreement for the Colombian people. This controversial results where nothing but evidence showing how queerness and non-heteronormative identities are still struggling to have a position in society and the uncomfortableness it creates within conservative sectors of society.
Even though the Colombian peace negotiations aimed to include queer and LGBTI discussions, the power of the right-wing, conservative and religious sector ended up undermining this population’s inclusion within the final peace agreement document. This is just one more example of the many scenarios of anti-queer violence that many groups and sectors in society have held, and it is precisely here where the importance of expanding the debate and highlighting the importance of queer approaches and discussions lies upon. Only since the signature of the Colombian peace agreement on September of 2016 until the date (October of 2021), more than 1450 queer people have been immerse in human rights violations, such as homicide, threats, and police violence (Colombia Diversa, 2021). Given the importance of taking into account a differential approach that notes the diverse violences that queer people have faced not only within the Colombian civil armed conflict, but within the society at large, many NGOs and civil social organization have formed groups and initiatives in order to follow up the peace agreement implementation along these years (GPaz, 2018).
Queer resistance aims for diversity, for resistance, for exploration and deconstruction of rigid, binary and heteronormative gender roles; struggles from this population have enrichened the public debate in many ways, and it is an effort necessary for peacebuilding to adopt the considerations it holds. If a society is to build and work towards inclusive, diverse peace initiatives, then queerness, gender and sexuality diversities need to be part of that process.
References
BBC. (2019). Quiénes son los muxes, el tercer género que existe en el sur de México: "Hay hombres y mujeres, y hay algo en medio". Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/vert-tra-46374110 (09/03/2021).
Colombia Diversa. (2021). Sin Violencia LGBT. Retrieved from: https://colombiadiversa.org/cifras/ (09/27/2021).
Colombia Plural. (2016). Jesucristo contra la paz con “ideología de género”. Retrieved from: https://colombiaplural.com/jesucristo-la-paz-ideologia-genero/ (09/27/2021).
Gizelis, T. (2018). Systematic Study of Gender, Conflict, and Peace: . Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 24(4), 20180038. https://doi.org/10.1515/peps-2018-0038
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Maier, N. (2020). Queering Colombia's peace process: a case study of LGBTI inclusion, The International Journal of Human Rights, 24:4, 377-392, DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2019.1619551
New York Times. (2018). The Peculiar Position of India’s Third Gender. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/style/india-third-gender-hijras-transgender.html (09/03/2021)
Ruffolo, D. (2009). Post-Queer Politics. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing limited.
Schiwal, J. & Kuehnast, K. (2021). Why Gender and Sexual Minority Inclusion in Peacebuilding Matter. Retrieved from: https://www.usip.org/publications/2021/06/why-gender-and-sexual-minority-inclusion-peacebuilding-matters (09/03/2021).
Wheatley, M. & Frieze, D. (2006). Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale. Retrieved from: https://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/emergence.html (10/12/2021).
[1] These were Corporación Caribe Afirmativo, represented by Wilson Castañeda, and Colombia Diversa represented by Mauricio Albarracín.
