Rainbow diplomacy: LGBTQ+ rights and everyday diplomatic practice at Pride

Abstract This article explores how LGBTQ+ advocacy and involvement in local LGBTQ+ activism is enacted by diplomats and mediated by everyday practices of diplomacy. The article analyses the interconnections and disconnections between high-level foreign and diplomatic policy discourses and local enactments and positions of embassies and diplomats. In doing so, the article considers states with an expressed commitment to feminist or LGBTQ+ advocacy in foreign policy, assessing the reality of these commitments on the ground. We argue that, as with debates about the ‘pinkwashing’ or ‘rainbow washing’ of LGBTQ+ rights activism by corporations and states at LGBTQ+ Pride events, a focus on ‘rainbow diplomacy’ at Pride reveals the inconsistent and changeable application of these commitments locally and transnationally, and across time. It also reveals the precarity and vicarious nature of human rights commitments in general and of LGBTQ+ advocacy in particular. The article draws from interviews and ethnographic participant observation of British, Canadian, European Union and Swedish diplomats' engagement with Pride events and LGBTQ+ advocacy in China, Cuba, India, Russia, South Africa and Taiwan. The article demonstrates the influence of individual diplomats in shaping and enacting LGBTQ+ rights support, but emphasizes that reliance on individual agency also makes such commitments precarious and subject to change. We argue for consistent leadership and material support in order that ‘rainbow diplomacy’ can be more than a symbolic and transient engagement at Pride.