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