The Politics of (Dis-)location: Queer Migration, Activism, and Coalitional Possibilities

Abstract

This paper deals with the interrelatedness of borders and queer identities, bodies, sexualities, and the politics of (dis-)location in the U.S. and Germany. Looking into the relations between bodies and borders and the different ways in which activist groups in the U.S. and in Germany have attempted to develop new (re-)configurations of corpo-realities, this article shows how these groups help develop global and embodied forms of citizenship that present new forms of coalitional activism. As can be seen, processes of de- and reterritorialization increase the need for building alliances, which can function both as coalitional moments and revolutionary connections, revealing what Mohanty calls the “the temporality of struggle” (122) in the politics of location.