Σώμα, φύλο, σεξουαλικότητα: ΛΟΑΤΚ πολιτικές στην Ελλάδα [Body, gender, sexuality: LGBTQ politics in Greece] ed. by Anna Apostolelli and Alexandra Halkias (review)

The condition of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer) people in Greece is currently at a crossroads. The rise of the Golden Dawn neofascist party has amounted to an increasing danger that LGBTQ individuals may experience with a rise in violent attacks against them. Simultaneously, recently passed legislation—such as the laws recognizing same-sex unions (2015) and streamlining gender identification in the issuing of public documents (2017)—is meant to safeguard some of the rights of LGBTQ people.

In this context, a variety of LGBTQ organizations have been active, including Thessaloniki Pride, Athens Pride, the Colour Youth, OLKE (Ομοφυλοφιλική και Λεσβιακή Κοινότητα Ελλάδας, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece), LOA (Λεσβιακή Ομάδα Αθήνας, Lesbian Group of Athens), Οικογένειες Ουράνιο Τόξο (Rainbow Families), and the SYD (Σωματείο Υποστήριξης Διεμφυλικών, Greek Transgendered Support Association), among others. Moreover, LGBTQ voices have appeared in publications, such as the magazines I Ntalika, Terminal 119, and 10%, as well as the publications of Μωβ Καφενείο (Purple Café). Research on sexuality, gender, and the body has also been gaining momentum in Greece since the 2000s.

The new volume of essays edited by Alexandra Halkias, a key professor in the field, together with Anna Apostolelli, an activist, successfully manages to echo this new dynamic and contributes to the wider cross-fertilization of fields of research and activism related to LGBTQ issues. The volume contains contributions both by scholars and by people involved in protest movements, who from different perspectives debate strategies that could possibly promote or harm the empowering of LGBTQ individuals in Greece.

In probing strategies for the empowering of LGBTQ people, the volume critically evaluates a number of concepts and practices. One issue examined in most of the contributions is how LGBTQ people become more visible in public spaces. A relevant topic is the practice of coming out of the closet, which refers to the moment an individual decides to articulate verbally her/his nonheterosexual and nonnormative sexual orientation. The volume explores the emergence and unfolding of this practice in Greece (Yannakopoulos's chapter). Contributors also raise a thought-provoking concern: is such an act necessarily empowering for LGBTQ subjects? Several authors caution against a straightforward positive response. In particular, Anna Apostolelli and Alexandra Halkias point out the intersection of sexual orientation, gender, social class, and race, inquiring whether coming out has been a pursuit of white, middle-class ομοφυλόφιλοι (homosexuals, a term employed in a discriminatory and clinical manner in Greece, especially from the 1930s, but also used by gays and lesbians as a term of self-identification, sometimes interchangeably with the term gay, which has rendered its usage no longer clinical; Tzanaki 2016, 160–161, 170, Faubion 1993, 237). Individuals from different social class and race backgrounds may wish to express their desires and practices in different ways, as Apostolelli and Halkias suggest. Apostolelli also adds that coming out could be far riskier for trans individuals in comparison to cisgender ones (211).

In stressing the intersection among parameters such as gender, social class, and race which shape the experiences and identities of LGBTQ individuals, Apostolelli and Halkias also demonstrate in their respective chapters that LGBTQ people are not necessarily beacons of resistance. For example, Halkias refers to the phenomenon of sexual nationalism, namely, the potential nationalist attitudes of some LGBTQ individuals (229). This issue is particularly timely and has repercussions beyond Greece. For example, Alice Weidel, leader of the Far Right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) party in Germany identifies as a lesbian woman. Nevertheless, I would have welcomed a more extensive reference to the ways in which diverse migrant LGBTQ individuals construe their desires, practices, and, potentially, identities, an issue I have debated elsewhere (Papadogiannis 2016) and that certainly merits further study. Furthermore, the intersection of sexual orientation, gender, and location—in particular, the condition of the LGBTQ people who live in the periphery of Greece—needs additional investigation. There is little reference to this in the reviewed book, including their attitudes to coming out and their visibility in...