Gay Propaganda brings together original stories, interviews and testimonials to capture the lives and loves of LGBT Russians living both in Russia and in exile today. It is an intentionally provocative riposte to Russia’s recently passed and ill-defined ban on “homosexual propaganda.”
As part of a strategy to consolidate political control in Russia following massive pro-democracy protests that shook the government, President Vladimir Putin decided it needed an enemy to unite the country. The Kremlin opted to demonize gays and lesbians. In June 2013 Putin signed a bill banning the “propaganda” of so-called non-traditional relationships. Predictably, in the months that followed, anti-gay attacks spread across Russia.
The stories gathered in Gay Propaganda offer a timely and intimate window into the hardships faced by Russians on the receiving end of state-sanctioned homophobia, as well as the the humor, passion, and resilience people show in the face of adversity. Here are stories of men and women in long-term committed relationships as well as those still looking for love; of those raising kids or negotiating difficult family dynamics; of those facing the challenges of continuing to live in Russia or joining a rapidly growing exodus.
Geopolitical Exotica examines exoticized Western representations of Tibet and Tibetans and the debate over that land’s status with regard to China. Concentrating on specific cultural images of the twentieth century-promulgated by novels, popular films, travelogues, and memoirs-Dibyesh Anand lays bare the strategies by which “Exotica Tibet” and “Tibetanness” have been constructed, and he investigates the impact these constructions have had on those who are being represented.
Although images of Tibet have excited the popular imagination in the West for many years, Geopolitical Exotica is the first book to explore representational practices within the study of international relations. Anand challenges the parochial practices of current mainstream international relations theory and practice, claiming that the discipline remains mostly Western in its orientation. His analysis of Tibet’s status with regard to China scrutinizes the vocabulary afforded by conventional international relations theory and considers issues that until now have been undertheorized in relation to Tibet, including imperialism, history, diaspora, representation, and identity.
In this masterfully synthetic work, Anand establishes that postcoloniality provides new insights into themes of representation and identity and demonstrates how IR as a discipline can meaningfully expand its focus beyond the West.
Dibyesh Anand is a reader in international relations at the University of Westminster, London.