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Posted on March 11, 2024 | Last year, I spoke about my book Queer Diplomacy to over a hundred people at five universities and a bookstore – in the US, Canada, Sweden and the UK. After years of incubating these ideas, it was so satisfying to set them free to circulate the world of ideas.

•  In January 2023, I spoke to graduate students at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. They came prepared – having read excerpts of my book – leading to a lively Q&A that touched on post-colonial constructs of sexuality and the role of US foreign policy. The Patterson School has a dynamic Master’s program with an impressive faculty that prepares graduates for careers as foreign service officers, business leaders and community advocates. In 2014 and 2015, I was in Lexington as Diplomat in Residence; the year was gratifying and intellectually stimulating at a time when I was travelling to Geneva and New York to research the UN human rights system.
  
  
• In April 2023, I travelled to Sweden to speak to students in the University of Gothenburg’s Gender and Diplomacy Program in the Department of Political Science, under the leadership of Dr. Ann Towns, an expert on the gendered practices and hierarchies in diplomacy. During my presentation and our frank discussion that ensued, I was impressed with the diverse backgrounds, interests and theoretical perspectives of the scholars I met. I wandered the rainy streets and explored the cozy cafes around the massive campus, eavesdropping on intellectual discussions percolating throughout a new and hopeful generation of global citizens. 
  
  
• In April 2023, I also visited Queen Elizabeth House, the nerve-centre of the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development. My lecture to graduate students about my book was organized by Dr. Corneliu Bjola, a global expert on digital diplomacy and strategies for countering disinformation and propaganda. The students took careful notes: very polite and a bit reserved! Some sought out my views on the UN Human Rights Council; others were probed the intersection of queer identity and diplomacy. As they pondered the careers in international affairs that unfolded before them, I fondly recalled a time of great idealism and my hunger to absorb, sponge-like, new ways of knowing.
  
  
• In May 2023, I spoke to members of the queer community about my book at the Glad Day Bookstore in Toronto. The event was organized by Dignity Network Canada, a coalition of Canadian organizations working to strengthen global LGBTQ rights, and moderated by Dr. Momin Rahman, a sociologist and expert on queer identity at Trent University. This talk was recorded, and excerpts appeared on a podcast on CBC IDEAS on February 7, 2024. 
  
  
• In July 2023, I was invited by Dr. Nadine Fabbi, a Canadian Studies scholar at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, to do a lecture on global homophia. UW helped develop a two-day global studies seminar for community college faculty from across Washington state coming from a wide array of disciplines and perspectives. The overarching theme was a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DIE), a movement now under attack in many quarters of the USA. I was struck by the difference in the questions of these participants – with more lived experience, they viscerally connected to the links I made between the personal and the political in my research. 
  
  

  

  
  
• In November 2023, I participated in a panel discussion in my hometown, at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies. Titled “Queer Diplomacy,” the well-attended panel was organized by Dr. Stephen Brown, a leading scholar on global LGBT rights, decolonization, and the impact of decriminalization in the Global South. The event was co-sponsored by Dignity Network Canada, the German Embassy in Ottawa, and the Pride Network at Global Affairs Canada. I was in excellent company; the other speakers were: German diplomat Karina Hausimeier; Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity; and Caleb Orozco, Executive Director of UNIBAM – an LGBT human rights organization in Belize – who joined via videolink. We were peppered with a range of questions that reflected the diverse experience of the audience, which included foreign diplomats, Canadian policymakers, human rights advocates, and academics. I slept well that night, grateful in the knowledge that, a year after its publication, Queer Diplomacy did not live in an ivory tower: it was “out there” for the world to debate! A two-hour YouTube video of the panel discussion is available here.

Posted on February 8, 2024 | In 1984, activist Douglas Victor Janoff marched to the United Nations in New York to demand international LGBTQ rights. 35 years later, he became a Canadian diplomat – and started pushing for change from within. He reflects on the struggle for global LGBT rights, both as an insider and an outsider, in his book Queer Diplomacy: Homophobia, International Relations, and LGBT Human Rights.

There are 3 ways to listen to the full episode:

• Click on this link and you can automatically listen to the podcast on your computer or phone; or
  
• Click on this news article and then, at the beginning of the article, click on the link to listen to the interview; or
  
• Listen to CBC IDEAS wherever you get your podcasts, and click on the program for Feb. 7, 2024. 

Posted on October 13, 2023

Event Date: November 1, 2023 – 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Registration: Google Forms

Presented by CIPS in partnership with the Dignity Network Canada, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ottawa and GAC 2SLGBTQI+ Pride Network

Diplomats have become increasingly assertive in their promotion of the rights of sexual and gender minorities, both in their bilateral relationships and within multilateral bodies such as the UN, by developing strategic alliances with civil society organizations that aim to protect LGBTQI+ rights in the Global South. Join us for a panel discussion with participants from Canada’s and Germany’s foreign services and from LGBTQI+ rights organizations based in Canada and Belize to discuss their experience of directly or indirectly engaging in “queer diplomacy” and to reflect on its successes, its challenges and its future. Read more.

Posted on June 7, 2023 | I was interviewed about my book Queer Diplomacy in the June 2023 edition of The World Today. I have posted the interview below.

The magazine is published by Chatham House, the headquarters for the Royal Institute of International Affairs. After the interview, I was given a tour of the stunning 18th century mansion overlooking St James’s Square, the home of three UK Prime Ministers and known by diplomats and politicians around the world as the birthplace of the “Chatham House Rules.” Canadian philanthropists donated it to the Institute 100 years ago.

Douglas Janoff: ‘Gay diplomats willingly visit anti-LGBTQ countries’

The Canadian Foreign Service officer tells Mike Higgins about queer diplomats’ difficult postings and the perception that LGBTQ rights are a western imposition.

Originally published by The World Today, June 2, 2023 by Mike Higgins, Senior Content Editor.

Queer Diplomacy: Homophobia, International Relations and LGBT Human Rights
Douglas Janoff, Palgrave Macmillan, £89.99.

In ‘Queer Diplomacy’, Douglas Janoff examines LGBTQ human rights diplomacy from the perspective of diplomats, LGBTQ activists, human rights experts and specialists in multilateral diplomacy. Janoff was appointed to Canada’s Foreign Service in 2009, with diplomatic postings to Washington, Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

In 1984 you were protesting for gay rights outside the United Nations in New York, and 30 years later you were promoting LGBTQ issues inside the same building as a diplomat. How does that progress feel to you?

When we were marching many western countries still had laws that criminalized sexual orientation. Same-sex marriage was unheard of. There was rampant violence and discrimination, and few laws that prevented discrimination against LGBTQ people. The trans element was completely invisible.

But there was some space for a tiny core to discuss, protest and create a sense of solidarity with LGBTQ people in countries where it was still ‘the love that dare not speak its name’. I wonder if people take for granted how recently that international movement coalesced.

The turning point was Hillary Clinton’s speech in December 2011 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva when she said gay rights are human rights. That meant that even those opposed to LGBTQ rights in international politics realized that this was an issue that needed to be taken seriously.

Clinton’s speech crystallized a lot of progress in these rights around the world, particularly around the accession of states to the European Union. Domestically throughout the 1990s and 2000s the tide was rising – every time a country strengthened laws protecting LGBTQ populations, it had a trickle-up effect into foreign ministries.

How has your own experience as a gay man informed your career as a diplomat for the Canadian foreign service?

I am fortunate that I work in an environment where it is illegal to discriminate against anyone else because of issues of sexual orientation, gender identity or race. But we are working on these issues in a complex diplomatic environment with LGBTQ diplomats from other countries.

Some are in the closet because they could lose their jobs if they come out. Others feel they aren’t going to progress because of social norms. Certain gay diplomats are in the unenviable situation of having to defend countries where homosexuality is criminalized but are able to express some aspects of their identity when they are abroad.

International organizations frequently put on seminars about democracy or human rights which allow diplomats from countries with weak track records on those issues to learn more. My aspiration is that the same could be done for LGBTQ rights.

Foreign ministries are full of bright, curious people and there may be great interest in just this sort of consciousness-raising initiative, particularly if their governments aren’t inclined to offer it for various reasons. These diplomats come from all over the world to Brussels, New York, Vienna, Nairobi – the cities where the international organizations are. What better opportunity for LGBTQ learning and consciousness-raising? I think a lot of diplomats would be interested. 

Are there specific countries that LGBTQ diplomats resist postings to?

From my experience and my acquaintance with fellow lesbian and gay officers, I don’t think gay and lesbian people shy away from any posting. I know some who have been willingly posted to countries that are very difficult. The larger point is the need for leadership in foreign ministries to avoid a paternalistic approach and support the ambitions of LGBTQ diplomats.

Thirty years ago, female diplomats would probably have been discouraged from a posting in a conservative-religious country. Rightly, the push back was, why does a man get to advance his career in that posting at the expense of a woman – and aren’t you buying into discrimination by not supporting abroad the rights I enjoy at home? That thinking has evolved for women, but despite progress it is still spotty for LGBTQ diplomats.

Sixty-seven countries criminalize same-sex conduct and often defend their stances by saying the West is imposing its liberal values on traditional cultures – how can LGBTQ rights advance in that context?

Lots of human rights are opposed by more conservative traditional states using the discourse of cultural relativism, not just LGBTQ rights. When the West was making initiatives related to female genital mutilation, it was accused of imposing its cultural values, as it has been around issues of religious tolerance and freedom of expression. So, it is not surprising that states that do not respect the human rights of their LGBTQ population draw on those narratives to deflect criticism.

We need to find ways to frame LGBTQ rights on the world stage as not just an occasional item on a UN special session but in the mainstream of international human rights discourse. The UN appointed its first Independent Expert on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in 2016. That momentum is not going away. But nor are the complaints from certain countries that this is a western imposition on our culture.

The challenge is how do you frame the rights of LGBTQ people in non-western countries as something that is not just worthy but fundamentally essential? As one of my interviewees states, ‘These aren’t LGBTQ rights. These are equal rights for LGBTQ people.’

Some groups felt strongly that the role of the UN’s Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity should include issues around abortion and sexuality education. Does the role’s remit hinder promoting LGBTQ rights?

A decade or more ago, there was a vision that LGBTQ rights would fall under the umbrella of other sexual rights such as the right to experience sexual pleasure, the rights of people with HIV/Aids and so on. The debate centred on how we could bring on LGBTQ rights in conservative countries that don’t support abortion or bans on female genital mutilation. The strategy, a legitimate one, was to have those different advocates together supporting one another, working like a Trojan horse.

But in my research, I found that the theory didn’t work in practice. For better or worse, the issues related to LGBTQ people separated from the other issues of sexual and reproductive health. What I have seen over the years is LGBTQ status has crystallized as a thematic human right, which more and more UN member states and organizations are supporting as a single issue.

he strategy of the Independent Expert for sexual orientation and gender identity seems to have worked so far in raising the profile of discrimination against LGBTQ people. To what extent it could have been more successful if the UN had included people that were having their human rights violated because of other sexual and reproductive rights is an issue of debate.

Canada has a feminist international assistance policy that pledges to promote the human rights of vulnerable, marginalized groups. Has that feminist foreign policy been effective for LGBTQ people?

It is a question in the ether – I was recently asked whether linking feminist foreign policy to broader LGBTQ issues complicates that policy. Though a number of countries are adopting it, we are in new territory with feminist foreign policy.

As with the debate about the UN Independent Expert role, it will be interesting to see if, 10 years from now, there is a feminist foreign policy and a sexual orientation and gender identity policy, or if the two will merge.

Posted on April 13, 2024 | Join us to celebrate the publication of Queer Diplomacy: Homophobia, International Relations and LGBT Human Rights (Palgrave Macmillan 2022), by, Douglas Victor Janoff, Ph.D. Drawing on interviews with diplomats, queer activists and human rights experts, the book demonstrates how Western efforts to combat homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence have triggered conflict from opposing states seeking to minimize LGBT rights as a “legitimate” human right. Doug will be in conversation with Dr. Momin Rahman (Trent University) and Doug Kerr, Executive Director, Dignity Network Canada.

Douglas Victor Janoff, Ph.D. is a seasoned Canadian Foreign Service officer, human rights negotiator and former community journalist,activist and researcher.

His career has included diplomatic postings to Washington, D.C., Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is also the author of Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2005). 

Welcome to my new website!

Posted on October 22, 2022 | Thank you for checking out my new website douglasvictorjanoff.com, a platform that will allow me put out the occasional blog. To kick things off on a high note, consider the image on the right, taken in Dubai in 2019 in the shadow of in the shadow of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

As Sophia in the Golden Girls would say, “Picture this!” It was Christmas 2019. I was serving as the human rights officer at the Canadian Embassy in Afghanistan and had managed to sneak away for a few days of R&R, shopping at gourmet delis and luxuriating by the pool. It was the calm before the storm. Two months later, the US and the Taliban signed an agreement that triggered an explosion in the number of Afghan civilian casualties, including some of the human rights activists who had visited me at the Embassy just before this picture was taken – hunted down on the streets of Kabul and assassinated.

Meanwhile, the pandemic was beginning its grim global march. Less than three months after this picture was taken, as the first wave was decimating Europe, I ended up in a Madrid hospital. I was evacuated to Canada and spent several months recovering in a hotel room in Ottawa. There was tremendous suffering at that time: Jaime, a Colombian friend who had saved my life 37 years earlier, died in a New York hospital.

During the lockdowns, I channelled my energy into other projects, including finishing my Ph.D. dissertation, which provided the basis for my book Queer Diplomacy. For a detailed overview of the contents of the book, you can go to the publisher’s link, scroll down to the list of chapters, and click on each chapter to read an abstract.

Many thanks to Toronto artist, writer and director Raymond Helkio for patiently creating this website. It began as a platform for information about Queer Diplomacy and what people are saying about it – I also share a few details of my life, my professional experience, my previous writings and research, and how to contact me. However, since I’m not very active on social media, I’m hoping my book – and this website – will take me a step closer towards bursting the residual bubbles of grief and isolation and reconnecting me the wider world. Feel free to connect with me anytime.