Gay-Friendly or Homophobic? The Absence and Problems of Global Standards

The place of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual (and, although often not addressed) Trans, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) rights in a nation’s agenda and its link to economic growth is being used as a development indicator for nations across the globe. This intervention outlines the available measures to highlight that there is no systematic evaluation or standardized approach used globally; instead there are measures independently created and used by LGBTIQ organizations, corporate entities, and academic sources. We then argue that this absence could offer a welcome opportunity to work with LGBTIQ people across different contexts and cultures to create our own measures and analyses, and thereby disrupt attempts by commentators, nation states or international organizations to standardize data and measures in ways that reiterate geopolitical power relations.