Queer Alliances: How Power Shapes Political Movement Formation (2020, Stanford University Press) investigates coalition formation among LGBTQ, immigrant, and labor rights activists in the United States, revealing how these new alliances impact political movement formation.
In the early 2000s, the LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements operated separately from and, sometimes, in a hostile manner towards each other. Since 2008, by contrast, major alliances have formed at the national and state level across these communities. Yet, this new coalition formation also came at cost. Today, coalitions across these communities have largely been reluctant to address issues of police brutality, mass incarceration, economic inequality, and the ruthless immigrant regulatory complex. Queer Alliances examines the extent to which grassroots groups bridged historic divisions based on race, gender, class, and immigration status through the development of coalitions, looking specifically at coalition building around expanding LGBTQ rights in Washington State and immigrant and migrant rights in Arizona. The book traces the evolution of political movement formation in each state, and shows that while the movements expanded, they simultaneously ossified around goals that matter to the most advantaged segments of their respective communities.
Through a detailed, multi-method study that involves archival research and in-depth interviews with organization leaders and advocates, Queer Alliances centers local, coalition-based mobilization across and within multiple movements rather than national campaigns and court cases that often occur at the end of movement formation. The book argues that the construction of common political movement narratives and a shared core of opponents can help to explain the paradoxical effects of coalition formation. On the one hand, the development of shared political movement narratives and common opponents can expand movements in some contexts. On the other hand, the episodic nature of rights-based campaigns can simultaneously contain and undermine movement expansion, reinforcing movement divisions. Queer Alliances ultimately examines the extent to which inter- and intra-movement coalitions formed to win rights or thwart rights losses represent and serve intersectionally marginalized communities—groups that are often absent within contemporary accounts of social movement formation.
You can receive a copy of Queer Alliances beginning July 14, 2020 through Stanford University Press or Amazon:
Stanford University Press: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=30439
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Dvk4YA
Select Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters:
Erin Mayo-Adam, “LGBTQ Immigration and Queer Migration,” In Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2020), https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1308
Erin Mayo-Adam, “LGBTQ Family Law and Policy,” In Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2020), https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1216
Erin Adam, “Intersectional Coalitions: The Paradoxes of Rights-Based Movement Building in LGBTQ and Immigrant Communities,” Law & Society Review, 51(1): 132-167, 2017, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lasr.12248
Additional Research Projects Listed in CV
In the early 2000s, the LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements operated separately from and, sometimes, in a hostile manner towards each other. Since 2008, by contrast, major alliances have formed at the national and state level across these communities. Yet, this new coalition formation also came at cost. Today, coalitions across these communities have largely been reluctant to address issues of police brutality, mass incarceration, economic inequality, and the ruthless immigrant regulatory complex. Queer Alliances examines the extent to which grassroots groups bridged historic divisions based on race, gender, class, and immigration status through the development of coalitions, looking specifically at coalition building around expanding LGBTQ rights in Washington State and immigrant and migrant rights in Arizona. The book traces the evolution of political movement formation in each state, and shows that while the movements expanded, they simultaneously ossified around goals that matter to the most advantaged segments of their respective communities.
Through a detailed, multi-method study that involves archival research and in-depth interviews with organization leaders and advocates, Queer Alliances centers local, coalition-based mobilization across and within multiple movements rather than national campaigns and court cases that often occur at the end of movement formation. The book argues that the construction of common political movement narratives and a shared core of opponents can help to explain the paradoxical effects of coalition formation. On the one hand, the development of shared political movement narratives and common opponents can expand movements in some contexts. On the other hand, the episodic nature of rights-based campaigns can simultaneously contain and undermine movement expansion, reinforcing movement divisions. Queer Alliances ultimately examines the extent to which inter- and intra-movement coalitions formed to win rights or thwart rights losses represent and serve intersectionally marginalized communities—groups that are often absent within contemporary accounts of social movement formation.
You can receive a copy of Queer Alliances beginning July 14, 2020 through Stanford University Press or Amazon:
Stanford University Press: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=30439
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Dvk4YA
Select Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters:
Erin Mayo-Adam, “LGBTQ Immigration and Queer Migration,” In Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2020), https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1308
Erin Mayo-Adam, “LGBTQ Family Law and Policy,” In Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2020), https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1216
Erin Adam, “Intersectional Coalitions: The Paradoxes of Rights-Based Movement Building in LGBTQ and Immigrant Communities,” Law & Society Review, 51(1): 132-167, 2017, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lasr.12248
Additional Research Projects Listed in CV