Governing the Terrain Called Beauty : The Queerness of Political Economy in Cuba and the United States

This book uses a richly contextualized comparative and genealogical method to illustrate how historical conditions during and after the Cold War shaped Cuban and American sexual identities and legal reforms. It is an ideal resource for readers interested in sexuality/gender, Cuban studies, law, political economy, as well as queer theory.

Revolutionary Cuba does not recognize the liberal rights on which LGBTQ advocates in the United States rely. How then, has legal progress occurred for LGTBQ people in Cuba? This book traces the history of LGBTQ identity and law in Cuba and the US from the turn of the twentieth century through the legalization of same-sex marriage. It investigates material and discursive conditions during and after the Cold War and the under-recognized importance of legal consciousness. Applying comparative legal analysis, genealogy, critical social theories, and interviewing, the book produces an encounter between Cuba and the US that directs attention to the millions of constitutive run-ins that occur daily between the global and the local. Rich and insightful, it reveals how law and identity evolve under imperialism, anxious nationalisms, racial stratification, and economic hardship.