Queering Repression: How the Global Crackdown on Civil Society Affects LGBT+ NGO Foundings

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) emerged over the 20th century to become instrumental aspects of domestic civil society, globally. These organizations are associated with improving many outcomes, such as support for minority populations like LGBT+ communities.

Over time, however, a significant number of countries have enacted policies repressing civil society, generally, and LGBT+ organizations, specifically. What effects have these policies had?

This presentation will address this question by utilizing an original dataset of LGBT+ NGO foundings across the Global South. Using quasi-Poisson models with two-way fixed effects, new research from Kristopher Velasco assesses how various repressive policies affect subsequent foundings of new LGBT+ NGOs between 2000 and 2017. Results demonstrate that repressive policies surprisingly have no clear association with overall NGO foundings – even under the most extreme conditions. However, this finding masks important heterogeneity: repressive policies diminish foundings of service-oriented NGOs but boost explicit LGBT+ advocacy-oriented ones. Finally, interviews with LGBT+ NGO leaders in Singapore and Ghana, two countries that have experienced civil society restrictions, elucidate underlying mechanisms. This longitudinal study contributes new insights into on-going threats to liberalism in the international arena by focusing on how civil society actors survive and mobilize during periods of illiberal repression.

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 12:30-2:00 PM EST, join Kristopher Velasco, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Princeton University for a hybrid research seminar on the effects of repressive policies on LGBT+ NGO foundings.

This seminar is part of the Spring 2025 Human Capital Initiative Research Seminar Series.

Register to attend on Zoom: https://gdpcenter.org/HCI-February-2025-Zoom