This publication is part of the inquiry The Against Nature Journal, initiated in 2014 as commission by the NGO Legal Agenda and arts organisation Ashkal Alwan in Beirut.

The Against Nature Journal is a biannual arts and human rights magazine exploring “crime against nature” laws and their legacies, in print, in person, and online. Authors and readers from law, activism, social sciences, and the arts are brought together to foster dialogue on sexual and reproductive rights and rethink nature anew.    

The Against Nature Journal features internationally renowned writers, scholars, poets, journalists and activists from across the world, with a focus on countries where prosecution and criminalization of LGBTQI+ persons are still enforced as the result of colonial histories. T.A.N.J. intertwines six themes, each becoming the major focus of one issue: religion, migration, medicine, love, death, nature.Future issues will intertwine six themes, each becoming the major focus of one issue: Religion, Migration, Medicine, Love, Death, Nature.

After an issue devoted to religions and spirituality, this second issue – launching 1st February 2021 – confronts the theme of migration, a crucial topic when addressing the forced dis- placement of LGBTQI+ people from contexts where “nature” is still used to criminalize consensual same- sex conduct or gender expression.

We are honored to publish a new short essay by JASBIR K. PUAR that updates her work on homonationalism. In an interview with Indian activist ALOK HISARWALA GUPTA, we discuss how laws also cross borders, while legal researcher WARUGURU GAITHO and activist CARL COLLISON offer different approaches to reporting on asylum claims. FATIMA EL-TAYEB’s vibrant essay invites us to consider the meaning of a queer “we,” while iconic writer and filmmaker ABDELLAH TAÏA tackles everyday xenophobia in France. Poems by GLORIA ANZALDÚA and DIVYA VICTOR offer personal reflections of homelessness and alienation, which resonate with photographs by artist ZOE LEONARD that focus on the quotidian movements of crossing the river border between the US and Mexico. Historian ZEB TORTORICI addresses the notion of “against nature” through an engagement with the archive, while our Columns section brings news from Brazil, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, and the UK, in a season marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Help maintain the publishing, education, and community activities of The Against Nature Journal by joining our membership program (€45) available on our website.

For more information on how to support the project please write to Grégory: gregory(at)theagainstnaturejournal.com

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