ABSTRACT
The first edition of this Routledge Handbook was published nearly 15 years ago (Aggleton and Parker 2010). At the time, research on sexuality and sexual health was undergoing rapid development and there was a sense that things could only improve. Since then, much has changed. As the second edition of the Handbook – now re-named as the Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights – is published what seemed to be developing consensus on the importance of gender, sex, sexuality and human rights has fractured. Where once there was recognition and celebration of openness, contextuality and diversity, there is now closure. What started as conservative opposition to new identities, practices and relationships has now been transformed into fully-fledged gender wars, state-sanctioned homophobia and transphobia, and the criminalisation of anything seen to threaten the normative order and its shared roots in patriarchy, capitalism and colonialism. This editorial introduction documents some of these changes, together with the resistance they have engendered. It offers hope for continuing progress – albeit it in troubled times – towards health and well-being, justice and recognition for all, regardless of gender, sex or sexuality.
