Posted on December 22, 2025 | Academic research is often derided as insular and disconnected. Intimately linked to the question of real-world relevance is accessibility – getting critical social studies into the hands (and minds) of the populations social scientists are analyzing. In 2005, I hit the road on a cross-Canada book tour to promote my first book Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada. Twenty years later, I travelled to Mexico, Korea and Japan to speak about my latest book, Queer Diplomacy: Homophobia, International Relations and LGBT Human Rights. These journeys got me thinking about how these books, both published by the academic press, have generated ripples of awareness at very different moments in the LGBTQ movement’s evolution. Academic publishing has changed considerably over the past twenty years. In 2005, the University of Toronto Press’s Pink Blood press releases attracted mainstream media coverage. There was a high-profile book launch at the National Library in Ottawa – with catering and a live pianist! Nothing was electronic: books were sold in community bookstores. I travelled across Canada without a cellphone or newsfeed, on planes, trains and even in a van through the Maritimes. Often I arrived to packed campus auditoriums and meeting halls. LGBTQ activists lined up at the mike, venting their outrage and demanding new policies and legislation to combat homophobic and transphobic violence. Afterwards, when I was signing their books, they would sometimes share their stories with me. And they would weep. None of that grassroots emotion was on display after the 2022 publication of Queer Diplomacy. At speaking engagements in Europe, Canada and the US, there was a post-pandemic vibe: fewer live participants, many virtual discussions, on-line book sales, and few opportunities to sit down face-to-face: it’s hard to sign an electronic book. (Five years from now, this statement will probably seem quaint.) But here’s the thing: according to my publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, readers from around the world have downloaded Queer Diplomacy for purchase more than 6,000 times. It might not feel like it, but I am reaching a broader and more global readership than I was able to do in 2005. But then in 2025 the opposite happened, and it was yesterday once more. Queer Diplomacy’s Korean translation by Hantijae Press was published – but not as an electronic version; only as a book. Within a few months, nearly a thousand hard copies of the Korean version were sold. During my visit to Seoul in July 2025 to promote the book, the thirst for new ideas was obvious during my lectures, panel discussions and meetings with dozens of diplomats, queer activists, academics, and government officials. Koreans are actively looking at ways to elevate the debate on the human rights of LGBTQ people in Korea. And I felt privileged to be part of that! The blistering July visit to Seoul exceeded my expectations. As a first-timer, I feasted on the peninsula’s history at the National Museum of Korea, discovered ancient shrines and temples, reveled in the dizzying street culture, Read more
Category: What’s New
Queer Diplomacy at the University of London
Posted on October 12, 2024 | Check out this YouTube video, filmed on May 2, 2024, when I had the pleasure of speaking about my book Queer Diplomacy at the University of London! Many thanks go to Dr. Corinne Lennox and the Human Rights Consortium for hosting this event, which took place at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies within the School of Advanced Study. Academics, diplomats and community activists came together for a thought-provoking discussion on multilateralism and LGBTQ rights.
Reflecting on my Queer Diplomacy speaking tour!
Posted on October 12, 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.
Queer Diplomacy European Tour 2024!
Posted on April 12, 2024 | This year I will be embarking on a six city speaking tour engaging scholars, policymakers, and peers about my book Queer Diplomacy: Homophobia, International Relations and LGBT Human Rights. BELFAST Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Queen’s University Belfast, Canada Room, University Road, Belfast B27 1NN More info and RSVP here. GLASGOWWednesday, May 1, 2024, 3:30 PM to 5:00 PMUniversity of Glasgow, Room 916, 42 Bute Gardens (previously known as the Adam Smith Building) More info and RSVP here. LONDONThursday, May 2, 1:00 PM to 2:30 PMInstitute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonRoom G35, Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HUMore info and RSVP here. SOFIAFriday, May 10, 6:00 PMRainbow Hub, Knyaginya Maria Luisa blvd. 45, 1000 SofiaMore info.
Listen to a CBC interview with Douglas Janoff about Queer Diplomacy
Posted on February 8, 2024 | 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:
Queer Diplomacy Panel, Ottawa
Posted on October 13, 2023 | 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…
Reading & Discussion at Glad Day Bookshop
Posted on October 13, 2023 | 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). GLAD DAY BOOKSHOPWEDNESDAY MAY 3, 20236:00- 8:00PM
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.