Homosexual Rights as Human Rights: Activism in Indonesia, Singapore and Australia

This book has been awarded the George Duncan Memorial Award 2005. This book examines homosexual rights as human rights in the light of recent insights of cultural theory into identity, cultural values, rights discourse and homosexuality. The focus of the study is on the activist who is regarded as both the representative of perspectives, actions and attitudes as well as the embodiment of tensions and broader struggles that reflect and rupture dominant discourses of power. The book interrogates the homosexual activist and the theory and practice of human rights in three distinct nations: Indonesia, Singapore and Australia. It discusses and analyses the ways in which activists in these three polities devise strategies of survival and negotiate the limits of justice. The interface between Australia and Southeast Asia is a poignant context, which highlights different and overlapping (Western and Asian) perspectives on notions of rights, law, identity, activism, culture and sexuality.