The Pink Line

The World’s Queer Frontiers

Mark Gevisser

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781788165150
  9781788165143
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782837008
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Gender & The Law
• Index: Law

Guardian's Best Paperback of the Month

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S and FINANCIAL TIMES' BOOKS OF 2020

'In intimate, often tender prose, Gevisser brings to life the complex movement for queer civil rights and the many people on whom it bears.' Colm Toibin, Guardian
'Powerful... meticulously researched' Andrew McMillan, Observer Book of the Week

Six years in the making, The Pink Line follows protagonists from nine countries all over the globe to tell the story of how LGBTQ+ Rights became one of the world's new human rights frontiers in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

From refugees in South Africa to activists in Egypt, transgender women in Russia and transitioning teens in the American Mid-West, The Pink Line folds intimate and deeply affecting stories of individuals, families and communities into a definitive account of how the world has changed, so dramatically, in just a decade.

And in doing so he reveals a troubling new equation that has come in to play: while same-sex marriage and gender transition are now celebrated in some parts of the world, laws to criminalise homosexuality and gender non-conformity have been strengthened in others. In a work of great scope and wonderful storytelling, this is the groundbreaking, definitive account of how issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author’s Note
• Prologue: A Debt to Love
• 1. The World’s Pink Lines
• 2. Aunty’s Story: Chimbalanga Village—Blantyre—Cape Town
• 3. A New Global Culture Wars?
• 4. Michael’s Story: Mbarara—Kampala—Nairobi—Vancouver
• 5. The Pink Line Through Time and Space
• 6. Amira and Maha’s Story: Cairo—Istanbul—Amsterdam
• 7. Pink Folk-Devils
• 8. Pasha’s Story: Lyubertsy—Moscow
• 9. Gender-Theory Panic
• 10. Zaira and Martha’s Story: Guadalajara
• 11. Pink Dollars, Global Gay
• 12. Fadi and Nadav’s Story: I’Billin—Tel Aviv—Jaffa (and Ramallah)
• 13. The Transgender Culture Wars
• 14. The Riot Youth Stories: Ann Arbor and Beyond
• 15. The New Pink Line: Gender Identity
• 16. The Kothi Stories: Devanampattinam—Cuddalore—Pondicherry
• Epilogue: On It Getting Better
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Acknowledgments