Queer Movements in Europe: the Rise of a Transnational Movement

Sexuality has always been a hot debate within the left all across Europe (Bell and Binnie, 2000). The sexual liberation movements of the 70’s disengaged themselves from the broader leftist movements where they belonged (FHAR, France; Gay Liberation Front, England). AIDS crisis also contributed to the autonomization process of gay politics, which led to the contemporary LGBT movement. In the wake of the main alter-globalization movements (Genoa, Prague), one can however observe a new process at the grassroots level. In the early 2000’s, a diverse crowd of activists organized in networks and mobilized in solidarity with the global ‘movement of the movements’ (Isaac, 2008). Within these networks, radical feminist and queer groups formed ‘pink blocs’ and advocated a collective identity, different from the traditional and institutionalized gay one (Foti, 2008).

 Since then, European queer activism has been built upon transnational networks of groups, belonging to the broader alter-globalization, leftist political scenes. The, until lately, presence of the transnational network Queeruption, testifies its transnational and networking character. The paper aims at tracing the birth of contemporary transnational queer festivals, and link them to the alter-globalization movement of the beginning of the century in Europe. Through secondary sources, actual interviews with queer activists and sociological analyses of their affiliations with other leftist movements, I will try to explore the birth and the eventual transformations of the links between radical queer activism and the other transnational activist networks of Europe today. Doing so, I will question the notion of identity and belonging in Europe with regards to the politics of sexuality.