DECOLONIZING THE LAW: LGBT ORGANIZING IN NAMIBIA AND SOUTH AFRICA Ashley Currier ABSTRACT This chapter considers how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists in Namibia and South Africa appropriate discourses of decolonization associated with African national liberation movements. I examine the legal, cultural, and political possibilities associated LGBT activists’ framing of law reform as a decolonization project. LGBT activists identified laws governing gender and sexual nonconformity as in particular need of reform. Using data from daily ethnographic observa- tion of LGBT movement organizations, in-depth qualitative interviews with LGBT activists, and newspaper articles about political homophobia, I elucidate how Namibian and South African LGBT activists conceptua- lize movement challenges to antigay laws as decolonization. ‘‘Sexual colonialism’’ is a problem that some Namibian and South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists have identified as blocking demands for gender and sexual minority rights (Mzizi, 2009). 1 ‘‘Sexual colonialism’’ refers to post-independence state leaders’ appropria- tion of colonial homophobic discourses and practices. At the heart of 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 Special Issue: Social Movements/Legal Possibilities Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 54, 17–44 Copyright r 2011 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1108/S1059-4337(2011)0000054005 17