This panel addresses the links between race, LGBTQ politics, (post)colonialism, and neocolonialism, focusing on the relation between Europe and the Caribbean. It explores how queer postcolonial subjects redefine citizenship through specific cultural and political practices – both in the (post)colony and in the metropolis and at different points in time: from the contribution of decolonization movements to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, through the formation of queer of color collectives in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, to the contemporary intersections between race and sexual politics in Europe as well as the Caribbean. In order to analyze these practices of citizenship, the panel draws and combines insights from the fields of postcolonial studies, queer studies, cultural studies, sociology of social movements, cultural history, and citizenship studies.

Paying specific attention to the legacies of enslavement and colonialism, the diasporic influences and migratory flows, and the intricacies of national and political sovereignty between Europe and the Caribbean, the papers in this panel argue that an understanding of the (post)colonial condition forces us to rethink the European field of LGBTQ politics. Focusing on the Netherlands and France – two countries that did not sever ties with their Caribbean colonies – the case studies presented in this panel question the very borders of Europe, hence the boundaries of what counts as European LGBTQ politics. The ultimate goal is to chart the practices and discourses emerging at the intersections of sexual politics and (post)coloniality, where alternative practices of citizenship take root.