ARRIOLA, Aimar; CASTERA, Grégory; TOGNON, Giulia (eds.)
The Against Nature Journal #1 (Summer 2020)

As of summer 2020, the “restoration of natural order” is back on the agenda of many alt-right movements across the world, and “unnatural” sexual orientations and behaviors are still condemnent to imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty in over seventy countries.

The Against Nature Journal is a biennal arts and human rights magazine exploring “crime against nature” laws and their legacies, in print, in person, and online. Authors and readers from law, activism, social sciences, and the arts are brought together to foster dialogue on sexual and reproductive rights and rethink nature anew.

This inaugural issue outlines the intersections between legislation, human rights activism and spirituality. We celebrate the magical legacy of the late writer Binyavanga Waininaina with his first piece of fiction, accompanied by an essay on his lifework by Amatesiro Dore. The issue also includes legal scholar Vivek Divan's commentary on a seminal verdict in the history of “crime against nature” laws from India, essays on non-normative approaches to spirituality and religion by Martti Nissinen an Linn Marie Tonstad, poetry by Abu Nuwas and Chekwube Danladi, an inspirating text on the moral authority of “nature” by science historian Lorraine Daston, images from the colonial period in Vietnam by artist Danh Vo, and columns on recent events in Barbados, Brazil and Abya Yala, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, and Poland. [publisher’s note]

Published by Council, 2020
Design by Julie Peeters
Periodicals / Gender Studies / Queer Culture / Politics