Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Underrepresentation or Overexposure

Queer Ambivalence to the Global Healthification of Injustice

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems

Abstract

In an era when the right to health has refashioned global health policymaking, how has global health addressed LGBT health disparities? To identify the ways in which institutional and epistemological apparatuses of global health policymaking have made LGBT health concerns “scientifically” ignorable, this chapter begins with an analysis of a related debate at the World Health Organization (WHO) that took place between 2013 and 2016, when the issue was “closeted” again. Reviewing this debate and drawing on the interactions between international organizations and queer activists in Asia enables us to critically understand state-centered LGBT health politics. Queer activists from this region have been concerned about representation issues related to LGBT health issues – either being underrepresented or being overexposed by mainstream media and national policies.

This chapter considers such ambivalence toward “global healthification,” to extend Meyer and Schwartz’ (American Journal of Public Health, 90(8), 1189–1191, 2000) concerns about the public healthification of social injustice issues. Reframing discrimination and marginalization against LGBT people as a public/global health issue is potentially helpful to draw the attention of scientific and epidemiological researchers; it may also harm queer people at the local level due to the power to define diseases and determine control measures held in the hands of the states. Through presenting the ambivalence toward the global healthifying of social injustices against LGBT people, this chapter argues that global health policy studies should broaden the understanding of the social and political determinants of health and recognize sexual and gender diversity as a precondition of global health justice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Altman, D., & Symons, J. (2016). Queer wars. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berjot, S., & Gillet, N. (2011). Stress and coping with discrimination and stigmatization. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhambra, G. K. (2010). Historical sociology, international relations and connected histories. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 23(1), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557570903433639

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blondeel, K., de Vasconcelos, S., García-Moreno, C., Stephenson, R., Temmerman, M., & Toskin, I. (2018). Violence motivated by perception of sexual orientation and gender identity: A systematic review. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 96(1), 29–41L. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.197251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, W. (1995). States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Byne, W. (2007). Biology and sexual minority status. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 65–90). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • CESCR. (2016). General comment no. 22: The right to sexual and reproductive health (article 12 of the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights). Retrieved from.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chevrette, R., & Eguchi, S. (2020). “We Don’t See LGBTQ Differences”: Cisheteronormativity and Concealing Phobias and Irrational Fears Behind Rhetorics of Acceptance. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 7(1), 55–59. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.7.1.0055

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, P. (2007). The medicalization of society: On the transformation of human conditions into treatable disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daulaire, N. (2013, 13 August 2013). Bringing LGBT Health Care to the World Health Organization. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-health-organization-lgbt_b_3430849

  • DiPlacido, J. (1998). Minority stress among lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals: A consequence of heterosexism, homophobia, and stigmatization. In G. M. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation: Understanding prejudice against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (pp. 138–159). Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Drescher, J. (2002). Ethical issues in treating gay and lesbian patients. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 25(3), 605–621. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0193-953x(02)00004-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drescher, J. (2009). When politics distort science: What mental health professionals can do. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, 13(3), 213–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/19359700902964222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckhert, E. (2016). A case for the Demedicalization of queer bodies. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 89(2), 239–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliason, M. J., & Schope, R. (2007). Shifting Sands or solid foundation? Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identity formation. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 3–26). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, S. (2003). Sexualizing governance and medicalizing identities: The emergence of ‘State-Centered’ LGBT health politics in the United States. Sexualities, 6(2), 131–171. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460703006002001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, S. (2007a). Inclusion: The politics of difference in medical research. University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, S. (2007b). Targeting the state: Risks, benefits, and strategic dilemmas of recent LGBT health advocacy. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 149–168). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Esterberg, K. G. (1997). Lesbian and bisexual identities: Constructing communities, constructing selves. Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fassinger, R. E., & Miller, B. A. (1997). Validation of an inclusive Modelof sexual minority identity formation on a sample of gay men. Journal of Homosexuality, 32(2), 53–78. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v32n02_04

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fusco, C. (2006). Inscribing healthification: Governance, risk, surveillance and the subjects and spaces of fitness and health. Health and Place, 12(1), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2004.10.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glassgold, J. M., & Iasenza, S. (Eds.). (1995). Lesbians and psychoanalysis: Revolutions in theory and practice. Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomes da Costa Santos, G., & Waites, M. (2019). Comparative colonialisms for queer analysis: Comparing British and Portuguese colonial legacies for same-sex sexualities and gender diversity in Africa – Setting a transnational research agenda. International Review of Sociology, 29(2), 297–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2019.1641277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herek, G. M., Chopp, R., & Strohl, D. (2007). Sexual stigma: Putting sexual minority health issues in context. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 171–208). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hossain, A. (2017). The paradox of recognition: Hijra, third gender and sexual rights in Bangladesh. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 19(12), 1418–1431. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2017.1317831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karkazis, K., & Feder, E. K. (2008). Naming the problem: Disorders and their meanings. The Lancet, 372(9655), 2016–2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61858-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, J. M., & Johnson, C. (2004). Stigmatized individuals and the process of identity. The Sociological Quarterly, 45(4), 807–833.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerner, K. F. (1995). Health care issues. In K. Jay (Ed.), Dyke life: From growing up to growing old, a Celebration of the lesbian experience (pp. 313–331). Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, M., Semlyen, J., Tai, S. S., Killaspy, H., Osborn, D., Popelyuk, D., & Nazareth, I. (2008). A systematic review of mental disorder, suicide, and deliberate self harm in lesbian, gay and bisexual people. BMC Psychiatry, 8(1), 70. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-8-70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, S. (2013). Philanthrocapitalism and the Healthification of everything. International Political Sociology, 7(1), 96–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/ips.12011_3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitzinger, C. (1997). Lesbian and gay psychology: A critical analysis. In D. Fox & I. Prilleltensky (Eds.), Critical psychology: An introduction (pp. 202–216). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langlois, A. J. (2003). Human rights and modern liberalism: A critique. Political Studies, 51(3), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.00438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langlois, A. J. (2015). International relations theory and global sexuality politics. Politics, 36(4), 385–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.12108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavers, Michael K. (2016, 15 March 2016). Randy berry: LGBT rights ‘a global issue’. Washington Blade. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/03/15/randy-berry-lgbt-rights-are-a-global-issue/

  • Lawrence, A. A. (2007). Transgender health concerns. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations (pp. 473–505). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P.-H. (2018). The demagogies of ‘lack’: The WHO’s ambivalence to the right to health of LGBT people. Global Health Governance, XII(1), 17–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P.-H. (2019). Queer Asia’s body without organs: In the making of queer/Decolonial politics. In J. D. Luther & J. U. Loh (Eds.), Queer Asia: Decolonising and reimagining sexuality and gender. Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P.-H. (2020). Multiplicity of queer activism in East Asia: A cosmopolitan imagination for justices. In J. A. Jaworski (Ed.), Advances in sociology research (Vol. 30, pp. 37–64). Nova Science Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P.-H. (2022). Un(ac)countable no-bodies: The politics of ignorance in global health policymaking. Critical Public Health, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lick, D. J., Durso, L. E., & Johnson, K. L. (2013). Minority stress and physical health among sexual minorities. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(5), 521–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613497965

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liinason, M. (2020). Challenging the visibility paradigm: Tracing ambivalences in lesbian migrant women’s negotiations of sexual identity. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 24(2), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2019.1623602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Logie, C. (2012). The case for the World Health Organization’s commission on the social determinants of health to address sexual orientation. American Journal of Public Health, 102(7), 1243–1246. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2011.300599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (1993). Risk as moral danger: The social and political functions of risk discourse in public health. International Journal of Health Services, 23(3), 425–435. https://doi.org/10.2190/16AY-E2GC-DFLD-51X2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luther, J. D., & Ung Loh, J. (Eds.). (2019). Queer Asia: Decolonising and reimagining sexuality and gender. Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madrigal-Borloz, V. (2020). Practices of so-called “conversion therapy”, Report of the independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Retrieved from Geneva: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/53

  • Matebeni, Z., Monro, S., & Reddy, V. (Eds.). (2018). Queer in Africa LGBTQI identities, citizenship, and activism. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mays, V. M., & Cochran, S. D. (1988). Issues in the perception of AIDS risk and risk reduction activities by black and Hispanic/Latina women. The American Psychologist, 43(11), 949–957. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.43.11.949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meads, C., Carmona, C., & Kelly, M. P. (2012). Lesbian, gay and bisexual people’s health in the UK: A theoretical critique and systematic review. Diversity and Equality in Health and Care, 9(1), 19–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, I. H. (1995). Minority stress and mental health in gay men. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36(1), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, I. H. (2007). Prejudice and discrimination as social stressors. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 242–267). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, I. H., & Northridge, M. E. (Eds.). (2007). The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, I. H., & Schwartz, S. (2000). Social issues as public health: Promise and peril. American Journal of Public Health, 90(8), 1189–1191. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.90.8.1189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milani, T. M. (2014). Querying the queer from Africa: Precarious bodies – Precarious gender. Agenda, 28(4), 75–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2014.963940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millett, G. A., Peterson, J. L., Wolitski, R. J., & Stall, R. (2006). Greater risk for HIV infection of black men who have sex with men: A critical literature review. American Journal of Public Health, 96(6), 1007–1019. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2005.066720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosbergen, D. (2015, 12 October 2015). ‘We were treated like animals’: The story of Indonesia’s LGBT activists. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbt-indonesia_n_5614ed2de4b0fad1591a0ceb

  • Padilla, M. B., del Aguila, E. V., & Parker, R. G. (2007). Globalization, structural violence, and LGBT health: A cross-cultural perspective. In I. H. Meyer & M. E. Northridge (Eds.), The health of sexual minorities: Public health perspectives on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations (pp. 209–241). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pega, F., & Veale, J. F. (2015). The case for the World Health Organization’s commission on social determinants of health to address gender identity. American Journal of Public Health, 105(3), e58–e62. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pompili, M., Lester, D., Forte, A., Seretti, M. E., Erbuto, D., Lamis, D. A., … Girardi, P. (2014). Bisexuality and suicide: A systematic review of the current literature. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11(8), 1903–1913. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsm.12581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puar, J. K. (2013). Rethinking Homonationalism. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45(Special Issue 2), 336–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, M. (2014). Queer rights and the triangulation of Western exceptionalism. Journal of Human Rights, 13(3), 274–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2014.919214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs, 5(4), 631–660.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosario, V. A. (2002). Homosexuality and science: A guide to the debates. ABC-CLIO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosario, V. A. (2009). Quantum sex: Intersex and the molecular deconstruction of sex. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 15(2), 267–284. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2008-138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (2006). The politics of life itself: Biomedicine, power, and subjectivity in the twenty-first century. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (2007). Social and ethical aspects of pharmacogenomics in psychiatry. Psychiatry, 6(2), 80–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mppsy.2006.11.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schilt, K., Meadow, T., & Compton, D.’. L. (2018). Introduction: Queer work in a straight discipline. In K. Schilt, T. Meadow, & D.’. L. Compton (Eds.), Other, please specify: Queer methods in sociology (1st ed., pp. 1–34). University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, S., McDonnell, L., & Dawson, M. (2016). Stories of non-becoming: Non-issues, non-events and non-identities in asexual lives. Symbolic Interaction, 39(2), 268–286. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (2010). Queer theory and native studies: The heteronormativity of settler colonialism. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16(1), 42–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. (1989). Illness as metaphor and AIDS and its metaphors. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stangl, A. L., Earnshaw, V. A., Logie, C. H., van Brakel, W., Simbayi, L. C., Barré, I., & Dovidio, J. F. (2019). The health stigma and discrimination framework: A global, crosscutting framework to inform research, intervention development, and policy on health-related stigmas. BMC Medicine, 17(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1271-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TGEU. (2016, 30 March 2016). Trans day of visibility: Over 2,000 trans people killed in the last 8 years. Trans murder monitoring. Retrieved from https://tgeu.org/transgender-day-of-visibility-2016-trans-murder-monitoring-update/

  • Thoreson, R. R. (2011). The queer paradox of LGBTI human rights. InterAlia: Pismo Poświęcone Studiom Queer, 6(6), 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmermans, S., & Mauck, A. (2005). The promises and pitfalls of evidence-based medicine. Health Affairs, 24(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.24.1.18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldby, C. (1996). AIDS and the body politic: Biomedicine and sexual difference. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, C. (2015). Why is there no queer international theory? European Journal of International Relations, 21(1), 27–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066114524236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilton, T. (2000). Sexualities in health and social care: A textbook. Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilton, T. (2002). Lesbian and gay health: Power, paradigms and bodies. In D. Richardson & S. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of lesbian and gay studies (pp. 253–270). SAGE.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wojcieszak, M. (2015). Hostile public effect: Minority status mobilizing political participation. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 29(1), 46–69. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yosephine, L. (2016, 24 February 2016). Indonesian psychiatrists label LGBT as mental disorders. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/24/indonesian-psychiatrists-label-lgbt-mental-disorders.html

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health Program, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Po-Han Lee

Authors
  1. Po-Han Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Po-Han Lee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Rajendra Baikady

  2. Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    S.M Sajid

  3. Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

    Jaroslaw Przeperski

  4. Department of Social Work, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa

    Varoshini Nadesan

  5. Inst of Social Welfare & Res, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    M. Rezaul Islam

  6. Sch of Philosophy & Social Development, Shandong University, Central Campus, Jinan, China

    Jianguo Gao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Lee, PH. (2022). Underrepresentation or Overexposure. In: Baikady, R., Sajid, S., Przeperski, J., Nadesan, V., Islam, M.R., Gao, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_105-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_105-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-68127-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-68127-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation