Perestroika and Its Queer Discontents: Mobilizing Social Advocacy in the Late Soviet Union

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: Q*ASEEES: Society for the Promotion of LGBTQ Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies

Brief Description

How did perestroika change the lives of those who had not yet experienced any public representation in the late Soviet Union? By addressing this question, our panel emphasizes a social dimension of perestroika that is typically overshadowed by political developments. The panelists will analyze a range of archival sources to illuminate the ways queer people, trans people, and individuals living with HIV declared their existence and demanded rights with the support of allies in the late Soviet Union.

Sub Unit

• Gender/LGBTQ Studies

Chair

• Roman Utkin, Wesleyan U

Papers

• 'Their Lives Depend on the Attitude of Those Who Surround Them': Understanding Transgender People in Soviet/Post-Soviet Russia, 1988-1993 - I R

• The Epidemic without Faces: The Unique Soviet Photoshoot of HIV+ People - Ekaterina Suverina, U of Konstanz (Germany)

• Outcasts/Izgoi: The Last Queer Soviet Generation - Roman Utkin, Wesleyan U

Discussant

• Juliane Fuerst, Centre for Contemporary History (Germany) / Central European U (Austria)