Sex for pleasure, rights to participation, and alternatives to AIDS : placing sexual minorities and/or dissidents in development

This paper addresses a contradiction that lies at the core of the relationship between rights and participation. Participatory development emphasises ideals of consensus, of openness to differences and to resolving any conflicts these might create, and of the importance of grounding development solutions in communities’ own knowledge and preferences. Yet, as many writers have now demonstrated, terms like “the community” and “full participation” mask dissent and disquiet, exclusion and disempowerment. Nowhere is this more the case than in contexts where non-normative sexual preferences and identities are the focus for prejudice, discrimination and even acts of violence that directly violate human rights. This paper takes the tension between rights and participation as a starting point for exploring the relationship between rights, sexualities and development. It explores the evolution of discourses on sexualities in development, examining the ways in which the participation of sexual minorities and/or dissidents comes to be framed by the development industry. It focuses in particular on the ready placement of sexual minority rights and well-being struggles within an HIV/AIDS framework. It goes on to identify and consider alternative strategies for realising sexuality rights. It examines how rights-based approaches to development (RBA) might be adapted to this purpose, and how the affirmation of sexual pleasure as a basic human right might offer the promise of the kind of changes that are needed. The author considers which, if any, of these “new” development agendas provides the most promise for negotiating the rights and well-being of sexual minorities and/or dissidents and for their inclusion in processes of decision-making that affect their lives, their families and their communities.