Why sexuality?
“Sex is always political”, and its politicization involves the continual attempt to draw boundaries between “good” and “bad” sex, based on “hierarchies of sexual value” in religion, medicine, public policies and popular culture. These hierarchies “function in much the same ways as do ideological systems of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious chauvinism. They rationalize the well-being of the sexually privileged and the adversity of the sexual rabble.” But in some historical periods, negotiations over sexual “goodness” and “badness” become “more sharply contested and more overtly politicized” (Gayle Rubin, 1984). (1)
We are living in one of those periods. The ethical and political conflicts that Rubin warned us about, far from being resolved, are more prevalent today than ever—on a global scale. In the current context—with the revival of religious extremisms of all kinds, backlashes against women’s and LGBT movements, the “war on terror” and its rationalization of unrelenting militarism and torture (including sexual torture), US economic and military hegemony (especially with a Christian fundamentalist at the helm), and an atmosphere of unbridled power—the victims are peacefulness, human rights, and environments where people can live full and pleasurable lives.
Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) is a global forum composed of researchers and activists from a wide range of countries and regions of the world. Launched in 2002 as the International Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy (IWGSSP), in 2006 the forum changed its name to Sexuality Policy Watch.
Since its establishment, SPW has undertaken a series of strategic analysis devoted to the critical mapping of conditions prevailing in sexual politics landscapes globally and locally. It has also consolidated itself as a credible source of up-dated information on facts, research findings and public debates around a wide gamut of sexual rights areas, such as: abortion, gender-based sexual violence, sex work, LGBTI rights, HIV and AIDS. In 2013, SPW began a cycle of capacity-building programs on the linkages between sexuality research and political change.
SPW Secretariat is based at the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA).
Co-Chairs
Richard Parker, USA – Professor in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University, Director of Columbia University’s Center for Gender, Sexuality and Health and President of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA)
Sonia Corrêa, Brazil – Associate Researcher of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA)
Steering Committee
Gloria Careaga, Mexico – Professor in the Department of Psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Rosalind Petchesky, USA – Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York
Advisory Group
Adenike O. Esiet, Nigeria – Executive Director of Action Health Incorporated
Carlos Cáceres, Peru – Professor of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University, Lima, Coordinator of the Master’s Course in Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Member of the HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Network for Latin America and the Caribbean
Cesnabmihilo Aken’ova, Nigeria – Executive Director for International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights (INCRESE)
Codou Bop Senegal, Senegal – Researcher and activist, coordinator of International Network on Women Living under Muslim Laws (GREFFELS)
Hossam Bahgat, Egypt – Independent human rights researcher
Ignacio Saiz, Spain –Executive Director of the Center for Economic & Social Rights (CESR)
Kenneth Camargo Jr, Brazil – Associate Professor at the Social Medicine Institute/Rio de Janeiro State University and Board Member of ABIA, the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association
Le Minh Giang, Vietnam – Senior Research Associate at the Center for Research and Training on HIV/AIDS at Hanoi Medical University
Maria Luiza Heilborn, Brazil – PhD in Social Anthropology and Assistant Professor at the Social Medicine Institute/Rio de Janeiro State University
Mario Pecheny, PhD in Political Science, Professor of Political Science and Sociology of Health at the University of Buenos Aires.
Michael L. Tan, Philippines – Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Radhika Ramassuban, India – Director of the Centre for Social and Technological Change
Rafael de la Dehesa, PHD in Political Science, Associate Professor of sociology at the City University of New York (Graduate Center and College of Staten Island
Rhoda Redock, Trinidad and Tobago – Professor at the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies
Wanda Nowicka, Poland – Founder of the Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASTRA), Member of the Polish Parliament
Regional and international partner organizations
Akahata, Amnesty International Brazil, ARC, AWID, DAWN Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Coalition of African Lesbians, CLAM, CONECTAS Human Rights, CREA, Equal Rights Trust, Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE), Global Health Rights, IGLHRC.
ABIA Secretariat
Coordinator: Sonia Corrêa
Communication officer: Rajnia de Vito
ABIA – Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association
Presidente Vargas, 446/ 13th floor – Rio de Janeiro/RJ – 20.071-907 – Brazil
Phone: +55.21.2223-1040 Fax: +55.21.2253-8495
E-mail: admin@sxpolitics.org
