TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction 3 Melinda Chateauvert Part I Theory and Sexuality Is Sexuality the End of Utopia? 8 Francis Ronsin (France) The Absent Foucault: Bulgarian (Mis)uses 13 Stanimir Panayotov (Bulgaria) Mêmeté and the Critique of Sexual Difference: On Monique Wittig=s Deconstruction of the Symbolic Order and the Site of the Neuter 23 J. Edgar Bauer (Germany) Part II Sexual Politics in the East Constructing a Narrative: The History of Homosexuality in Poland 32 John Stanley (Canada) Invading Law and Public Space? The Situation of LGBT Persons in Poland 51 Patrycja Pogodzinska (Poland) The ASexual Revolution@ in Bulgarian Socialism 59 Karin Taylor (Austria) The LGBT Movement in Bulgaria 75 Monika Pisankaneva (Bulgaria) Melting the Iron Curtain: the Beginnings of the LGBT Movement in Slovenia 83 Bogdan Lešnik (Slovenia) New Social Movements in Turkey: Kaos GL as a Sexual Identity Organization 94 Mustafa Kemal Coskun and Tuba Ozkan (Turkey) Feminism and its Impact on a Couple=s Life 105 Maria Nicoleta Turliuc (Romania) 1 Part III Sexual Politics in the West The Connection Between the Squatter, Queer and Alterglobalization Movement: The Many Diversities of Multiculturalism 117 Saskia Poldervaart (The Netherlands) The Demise of Gay and Lesbian Radicalism in the Netherlands 117 Gert Hekma (The Netherlands) Antiracist Queer Politics: a Gramscian Approach 142 Nancy Wagenknecht (Germany) Walking the Streets: The U.S. Prostitution Rights Movement from An International Perspective 153 Antonia Levy (Germany) Respectability, Sexuality and Citizenship: Comparing the U.S. Civil Rights and Gay Rights Movements 164 Melinda Chateauvert (United States) 2 INTRODUCTION Melinda Chateauvert1* The essays in this anthology have been written by scholars from across Europe and North America for the sixth meeting of the Socialism and Sexuality network in October 2004. The conference, hosted by the Department of Philosophy of the University of Sofia, was the first network meeting in Eastern Europe. The geographical expansion brought together scholars and topics from former Communist countries as well as western Europe and North American under the theme, “New Social Movements and Sexuality.” Most of the presenters have con- tributed their papers to this book; some scholars were unable to attend, but shared their work prior to the conference. The geographical diversity of conference participants is also reflected in the essays. During the warm, late-summer days in Bulgaria’s capital, panel presentations ranged from theoretical issues in sexual politics to the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgen- der (LGBT) activism in Europe to comparisons of various radical social movements since the 1980s. As the many presentations focusing on Eastern Europe showed, the sexual liberation and LGBT movements have, for the most part, been excluded from public discourse in many of those countries, even after the enormous political and social changes of the 1990s. Conse- quently, the lively and engaging discussions among participants soon focused on the reasons for this absence and possible ways to bring LGBT issues to public attention and on the political agenda, frequently citing movements in the West as examples. Leaping beyond the confines of the conference, these issues were taken up by Bulgaria’s newly founded LGBT organization, Queer Bulgaria.a Conference organizer Monika Pisankaneva and University of Amsterdam at- tendee Gert Hekma subsequently appeared on Bulgaria Public TV, drawing national attention to the conference and its theme. The merging of scholarship and activism was not unexpected; previous meetings of the Socialism and Sexuality network have deliberately explored the connections between politi- cal discourse and scholarship. Founded by Francis Ronsin of the University of Burgundy and other scholars associated with the Institute of Contemporary History in Dijon as well as the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the “SocandSex” network has annu- ally held conferences since 1999, starting with its first meeting in Ghent in conjunction with the Archives and Museum of the Socialist Worker’s Movement conference on “Gender and Class.” The following year, the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam hosted the second conference on the topic of “Free Love and the Labor Movement” which considered the sexual ideologies of anarchist feminists, individualist socialists, anarcho-syndicalists, and utopian socialists in Europe. The third conference, “Labor Organizations and Sexuality,” held in October 2001, was organized by the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Burgundy in Dijon to explore the sexual politics of Western labor organizations in the last two centuries. It was followed by the first North American meeting on the theme “Sexuality and Millennialism,” hosted by the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University in April 2003 which considered movements whose ideologies held that the liberation of the body and its desires leads to spiritual redemption and the regeneration of society. The fifth conference on the theme “The Past and Present of Radical Sexual Politics,” was held in 2004, at the University of Amsterdam, organized by Gert Hekma and Saskia Poldervaart – who have both contributed to this volume. Thus, in Sofia, scholars from the East and West used an interdisciplinary ap- 1 *With the assistance of Antonia Levy. 3 proach in the study of radical social movements and their ideologies in an effort to understand the problems faced by contemporary activists. As conference convener, Monika Pisankaneva wisely foresaw that a forum focusing on Eastern Europe would encourage participants to examine the historical and ongoing tensions over sexuality and citizenship. Certainly the requirements for joining the European Union promises to have a significant impact on sexual and gender politics in Poland, as Patrycja Pogodzinska demonstrates in her analysis of laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Similarly, gay and lesbian activists in Bulgaria, Slovenia and Turkey are hopeful that EU-mandated anti-discrimination laws will bring new freedoms for the GLBT communities in their countries. Many of the essays here examine the emergence of national GLBT movements in the East since the collapse of the Soviet Union. For westerners, the growing pains of these new social movements are reminders of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in the U.K., the Netherlands, and the United States. The Stonewall Riots of 1969 have assumed a worldwide significance, repre- senting a halcyon moment of gay identity and political struggle that gay activists in Eastern Europe yearn to experience in Sofia, Krakow and Istanbul. Almost forty years later, activists in the west have perhaps forgotten the difficulties of establishing and sustaining new LGBT organizations, and the debates over protest strategies, the constant shifts in leadership and political alliances (which were sometimes based on current or former sex partners), even the frightening thrill of publicly marching in the first gay pride parade, or dancing all night at the city’s first gay club. But for activists in Eastern Europe, these are still new experiences. Even as they struggle to create community and found organizations, activists realize that “out” communities are more likely to experience violence and harassment. Justifiable fears for personal safety may explain why some people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered appear to be active only in “cyberspace” and rarely venture into public space, as Pisankaneva notes in her paper on the LGBT movement in Bulgaria. Bogdan LeÓnik reminds us of the deadlier consequences of public visibility in recounting the events that led to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian and Serbian nationalists railed against “decadent” Slovenian liberalism, citing in particular a gay and lesbian film festival being organised in Ljubljana as a “worldwide congress of homosexuals.” As historian George Mosse showed many years ago in his study of German nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century, in times of upheaval, nationalist assertions of sexual immorality represent a quest for stability and com- munity. (Mosse 1985) Recent history reminds us that the visibility of gay men, lesbians and transgendered persons in public spaces can provoke a “sex panic” for which ethnic and reli- gious minorities may be blamed. The panic over public displays of sexuality can backfire in other ways too. The famous Dutch tolerance for religious fugitives has been challenged by gays and lesbians who blame the growing conservatism regarding sex and sexuality on the immigrant Muslim population. Gert Hekma questions the optimism with which many people view the sexual openness of the Netherlands, noting in his survey of recent developments the shifts away from frank and honest acknowledgment of human sexual behavior. Perhaps more disconcerting is that some GLBT leaders voice support for the policing of public displays of queer sexuality. In their em- brace of “respectability,” Melinda Chateauvert compares the strategies of today’s GLBT move- ment in the U.S. to the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s, noting that both movements base their rights claims on notions of citizenship as a fixed, “biological” identity. As a result, the GLBT movement has focused on marriage, employment rights and other dis- crimination issues, while distancing itself from queers