LGBT political movements in the United States have been successful in expediting the growing acceptance of sexual and gender minorities and increasing public support for LGBT rights. However, not all segments of what has come to be called the "LGBT community" have benefited from these gains; even marginalized identity groups have internal hierarchies that determine whose political claims are heard or ignored. In Terms of Exclusion, Zein Murib looks at the LGBT community in the US as it formed into an identity-based social and political group. Drawing on an extensive archive of movement documents and publications, Murib argues that the strategic use of "rightful citizenship claims," or the assertion that lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people are owed rights as citizens, created opportunities for the recognition of white, gender-normative, monogamously partnered gay men and lesbians at the expense of other community members. The rights wins made as a result of these opportunities are celebrated as evidence of progress, even while they simultaneously foreclose representation and political gains for those members whose cross-cutting identities challenge or elude the boundaries of normative citizenship. By focusing on the effects of mobilization tactics seeking assimilation, Murib shows that within-group marginalization is not an accident of political expediency or due to relatively fewer resources, but rather a discursive strategy employed by political actors to make a group palatable to lawmakers and the general public. Terms of Exclusion thus constitutes a significant revision to existing scholarship on LGBT politics in political science and joins a growing body of interdisciplinary work that focuses on how a seemingly benign strategy of political movements foregrounding citizenship claims entails silence and erasure for the most precarious members of the group.

About the Author
Zein Murib is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fordham University. Their research and teaching interests are located at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality; interest groups and social movements; and American politics. Their scholarship has been published in Politics & Gender; Laws; Signs; and Politics, Groups, and Identities.

Reviews
Terms of Exclusion is a triumph of intersectional scholarship that reshapes our thinking of who gets elevated to represent 'a group' and who is relegated to the back-or even left behind-in processes of brokering identity. Murib combines a richly documented history and masterful theoretical framework for understanding how marginalizations overlap, as well as how the lived experience and political power of people identifying as LGBT are far from singular. It is among the most thoughtful books to-date on US LGBT politics and activism. * Phillip Ayoub, Professor of International Relations at University College London, and author of When States Come Out *
In Terms of Exclusion, Zein Murib argues against an LGBT politics premised on 'rightful citizenship claims,' arguing that such demands privilege the rights and interests of those who most fully conform to normative depictions of the citizen. Driven by a desire to center the political interests and needs of those LGBT subjects most subject to violence and harm, Terms of Exclusion demonstrates why the need to think creatively and generously about the politics of membership is more urgent than ever. * Cristina Beltran, author of The Trouble with Unity and Cruelty as Citizenship *
The argument's tight, the tone's polite, but the critique this book offers is scathing. Murib calls out the exclusionary politics of 'rightful citizen claims' advanced by minority populations that do little more than secure the blessings of provisional belonging for the most normative and privileged of their members. It invites us to move beyond a liberal politics of inclusion towards a more fundamental sense of living fairly and freely amidst all of our differences-and helps guide us toward that goal. * Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution *
Students and scholars looking for a critical analysis of mainstream LGBTQ politics will find rich analysis in the book, which also provides important lessons for the politics of marginalized groups on how not to replicate harmful exclusion in their movements. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. * Choice *


Awards
Winner of Winner, 2024 Best Book Award, American Political Science Association section on Sexuality & Politics.



Book Information
ISBN 9780197671504
Author Zein Murib
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 158mm * 236mm * 19mm