Policy & Impact Brief: When Social Movements Meet Their Moment: How LGBTQ+ Rights Get Made
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POLICY & IMPACT BRIEF #3 | JULY 2026
When Social Movements Meet Their Moment: How LGBTQ+ Rights Get Made
New Rutgers SPAA Research Shows How LGBTQ+ Rights Advance More
Where Collective Action Meets Political Opportunity
Dr. Diego Galego, assistant professor, Rutgers SPAA
How do marginalized communities win rights in political systems built to exclude
them — and how do they hold onto those rights once won? A new book by Dr. Diego
Galego from Rutgers University takes up that question with his “queering process
framework,” testing it against 101 LGBTQ+ rights decisions in Brazil, Mexico, South
Africa, and the United States from 1831 to 2024. The puzzle driving the book: even
where decriminalization came early, legal change has rarely guaranteed safety or
acceptance in everyday life for queer individuals.
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