著者

川坂 和義 カワサカ カズヨシ

雑誌

Gender and sexuality : journal of Center for Gender Studies, ICU

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, pp.5-28, 2013-03-31

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This paper examines the mainstreaming of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender/sexual) rights in North American and European countriesin recent years, and its international effects. This paper analyzes the rhetoricof President Obama's LGBT Pride month declaration and the discourses ofthe Internet news media reporting about the LGBT pride month receptionat the US embassy in Tokyo. It argues that LGBT human rights contributes torepresentations of U.S. superiority as the advanced, liberated country andalso points out that such representations of U.S. superiority subtly obscurethe inequality and other human rights issues that the Obama administrationfaces. Further, this paper examines the arguments of "homonationalism" byJasbir Puar, which is one of the most influential theoretical works in queerstudies today and points out one of the weaknesses of her arguments: thedualism between the "West" and "Islam/other," especially when sheconceptualizes a narrative of "U.S. sexual exceptionalism." This paper notesthat her concept of "U.S. sexual exceptionalism," which stresses the dualismbetween "the West" and "Islam/Other," cannot properly analyze thecharacteristics of the Obama administration's narrative for LGBT rightsespecially as expressed in Secretary Clinton's groundbreaking speech, "gayrights are human rights" at Geneva. In her speech, Secretary Clintonaccented improvements of LGBT rights issues of "third countries" for globalsexual politics which are neither "the West" nor the countries officiallyagainst LGBT rights, but have been changing their social systems as "theWest" have done already. Finally, this paper concludes by pointing out thatthe US-centric LGBT rights rhetoric has begun influencing Japanese societyas well. The ideas of the US-centric LGBT politics and human rights havebeen introduced as normative standards in society, especially by the massmedia which had rarely paid attention to LGBT issues in Japan before. Thenormalization of LGBT rights can cause politically problematicrepresentations of LGBT rights as merely the "Americanization of Japanesesociety" and ignore the context of Japanese society and history of LGBTactivism in Japan.