ABSTRACT
The homonormative and homonationalist framings that drove marriage equality campaigns significantly impacted mainstream LGBTQ immigrant rights activism in the United States. First, it narrowed the types of issues–and people–that were imagined as “deserving” and “acceptable” immigrants. Second, post-DOMA framings of the United States as a “safe haven” for people fleeing homophobic and transphobic persecution elsewhere effectively obscured the dangers and discriminations faced by LGBTQ-identified immigrants within U.S. borders. These narratives overlap with–and have been used to promote–orientalist and specifically Islamophobic attitude, which justify militarized and racist border securitization measures and imperialistic “interventions” overseas. In this context, queer immigration activists have fought to center voices excluded from mainstream narratives, and to promote more radical conceptualizations of rights, freedoms, and LGBTQ subjectivities. This chapter explores a range of areas where these urgent interventions are already underway. The co-authors draw on their respective research, activisms, and personal experiences to discuss family reunification, asylum, immigration court hearings, labor trafficking, detention and incarceration, and NGO and grassroots organizing. They approach these topics as interrelated, and as intersecting with issues of socio-economics and class, policing and state violence, racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and the politics and practices of NGOs. Considering potential challenges to addressing these issues, the authors argue for a more critical, intersectional vision of queer migration politics “after marriage,” and conclude with concrete suggestions for achieving that aim.
