ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book includes thirteen chapters dealing with fifteen countries all over the world: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It focuses on lesbian and gay activism. Case studies have been chosen because of their importance and representativeness for studying the lesbian and gay movement and because there are political scientists or sociologists investigating them. Indeed, research on LGBT movements is still poor, and many countries are not being studied. In that perspective, the disappearance of the French gay and lesbian movement would largely be due to the closure of the French state to social movements and to an electoral system which privileges a high left/right polarization. Indeed, the development of the gay and lesbian movement and its success or its failure is strongly influenced by transnational politics.
