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This article questions the conditions in which solidarity is given or withheld in response to expressions of dissent. Drawing on the August 2011 riots in England as an example, the article reflects on why some forms of dissent attract support whereas others do not. The author argues that “unpalatable” forms of dissent, particularly those enacted by groups already constructed as deviant or suspect, are often figured as least deserving of support, even though their actions may arise from the highest needs. The article then considers how these patterns can occur in response to more everyday articulations of dissent, such as those expressed by disenfranchised university students. The article suggests a rethinking of the politics of dissent and the distribution of solidarity in order to address broader patterns of power and dispossession.

This article examines the changing relationship between sexual politics and the carceral state. While sexual and gender nonconforming people have been historically punished for transgressing social norms, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists in Europe and North America have begun to invest in the state punishment of others. Whether supporting hate crime legislation, calling for more police in gentrifying neighborhoods, or participating in police recruitment campaigns, organisations that formerly fought against criminalisation trends now actively support expanding forms of state violence and punishment. Focussing on examples from the British and US context—and drawing from the concept of ‘queer necropolitics’—this article considers how the carceral state has shifted from a key target of queer protest to celebrated guardian of sexual citizenship. Arguing that this process constitutes more than just another story of queer assimilation and co-optation, the article suggests this shift reflects a deeper reconfiguration of sexual politics, where citizenship norms and practices are increasingly infused with a chillingly punitive and deathly logic.

This article considers the state’s punitive response to the civil unrest that swept across England in August 2011. Surveying measures taken by police, courts, and politicians—including lengthy prison sentences, violent police raids, increased surveillance, and proposals for new benefit sanctions—the article highlights the targeting of disaffected young people, impoverished neighborhoods, and racialized communities. Considering these measures alongside the accompanying political rhetoric, the article argues that the state’s actions worked to depoliticize the riots and generate a narrative of blame that worked to rationalize the state’s own vindictive violence.

Book synopsis: Queer Necropolitics addresses the changing parameters of sexual justice that accompany the contemporary regimes of coloniality, the war on terror, incarceration, border enforcement and global neoliberalism.

A short article on why market logics curtail possibilities for genuine alternatives to prison.

In September 2009, Raw Nerve Books, a small independent feminist publisher in Britain, issued a public apology to prominent gay right activist Peter Tatchell for content they had published in an edited collection titled, Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality (2008b). It has been widely speculated that this apology was the result of a threat of legal action. The book contained an article critical of Tatchell’s gay rights activism in Britain, arguing that some of his work contributes to larger patterns of racism and Islamophobia (Haritaworn et al. 2008). Both the article and book offered important and timely analysis of the ways that discourses of queerness and raciality have been silenced, displaced and marginalized within more dominant LGBTQ politics and human rights work. The book had been initially scheduled for reprint following a sold out first run. However, in November 2009, amidst considerable controversy surrounding their