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.