Gender norms, LGBTQI issues and development: a topic guide - By Evie Browne

As there is a dearth of literature looking specifically at the nexus of norm change around sexuality and gender identity and how they affect LGBTQI people in developing countries, we have drawn evidence from a variety of contexts and age groups, in order to present a holistic viewpoint of what might work for norm change. [...] There has been a great deal of attention to gender and development over the past few decades, but the discourse continues to focus on cisgender and heterosexual women, given the understanding of gender as a cisnormative binary (Weerawardhana, 2018). [...] One of the most common concerns in the literature, and in discussions with activists, is the lack of development programming that supports LGBTQI people into employment and to develop skills or education. [...] The positive legal change in 2018 seems to be a result of consistent campaigning and awareness-raising, a legal framing of homosexuality as natural and inherent to pre-colonial Indian culture (Dhillon, 2018), and of course the legal precedent of right to privacy. [...] The police did not prevent the attack, and the media response was not to condemn the attackers but to publish the names of the participants (ibid.).