Civilizational Politics at the Commonwealth Games: Identity, Coloniality and LGBTIQ+ Inclusion

Abstract

In 2022, the United Kingdom hosted the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, with this games featuring a pride programme that promoted LGBTIQ+ inclusion around the Commonwealth. With British colonial norms and laws often providing the origins of homophobic and transphobic policies in Commonwealth member states, this paper sees LGBTIQ+ inclusivity narratives at the games as a significant object of study. Focusing on the theme of “welcoming,” the paper interrogates the various welcomes that were extended to different communities at the games; welcoming athletes from around the Commonwealth to Birmingham, welcoming queer people into the world of sport, and welcoming Commonwealth citizens into the LGBTIQ+ framework. Encapsulating these welcomes, it argues, was a liberal progress narrative that ignores ongoing British colonial violence, for example through the United Kingdom’s carceral border policy, or through culture war debates that demonize trans women. Contesting depictions of British democracy as the zenith of human development, this paper highlights the inconsistency of this with the UK Government’s politics of exclusion and the ways in which civilizationist agendas detract attention from the ongoing operation of coloniality. It also reflects on opportunities for resisting colonial violence in complex socio-political contexts.