Both deeply personal and global in scope, Pride and Prejudices presents the life story of international human rights lawyer Keio Yoshida alongside an urgent, engaging overview of the state of LGBTQ+ rights worldwide.
Keio Yoshida came of age in socially conservative Ireland, where homosexuality was criminalized until 1993. Experiencing discrimination and stigma, Yoshida lived a closeted existence, pressured by their loved ones and by larger society to self-censor and hide their true desires and gender expression until they left the country after college.
Intimate and engaging, Pride and Prejudices pairs Yoshida’s story—from coming out as a lesbian, becoming a trailblazing human rights advocate, to later becoming a nonbinary transmasculine rainbow parent—with a treatise on the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights around the globe. Fascinating examples of landmark case law are covered from the US, Sri Lanka, the UK, India, and more—from Oscar Wilde’s trial in 1895 to Obergefell v Hodges, from “Don’t Say Gay” to Bostock v Clayton County, from Rosanna Flamer Caldera v Sri Lanka to the “gay cake” case.
By weaving together personal history and legal analysis, Yoshida illustrates the devastating consequences of discrimination and criminalization on queer and trans lives, and the importance of stronger legal protections.
Today, as we see increased hostility toward queer and trans communities in the US, Pride and Prejudices offers a hopeful vision of the future—one filled with queer joy and love and liberation—where each of us has the freedom to live our lives authentically, on our own terms.
This brighter and more just world is possible, Yoshida argues, but we must keep fighting for it.
“Filled with joy and hope, Keio’s beautiful book charts a course towards a future where the law enables joy, liberation and love for everyone. Combining deeply personal stories from his lived experience, together with his expert, accessible legal analysis, this book is unique: it is a must read for all who care about equality and a much-needed antidote to attacks on trans rights.”
—Jennifer Robinson, Barrister
“[An] informative, at times heart-wrenching survey of laws pertaining to LGBTQ+ people around the world … It's an enraging window on the ongoing battle to secure LGBTQ+ rights.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An important addition to the body of literature on the history of the LGBTQ+ community and emphasises the global nature of the movement.”
—Booklist
“International human rights advocate and lawyer Keio Yoshida compiles an impressive body of research in Pride and Prejudices … As useful to students considering human rights law as it is to allies and activists, this book does much more than just Inform.”
—BookPage
“[An] informative, at times heart-wrenching survey of laws pertaining to LGBTQ+ people around the world … It’s an enraging window on the ongoing battle to secure LGBTQ+ rights.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An important addition to the body of literature on the history of the LGBTQ+ community and emphasizes the global nature of the movement”
—Booklist
“International human rights advocate and lawyer Keio Yoshida compiles an impressive body of research in Pride and Prejudices … As useful to students considering human rights law as it is to allies and activists, this book does much more than just Inform.”
—BookPage
“There’s a lot of talk recently about LGBT rights coming under attack. Pride and Prejudices shows that LGBT rights have always been under attack: around the world, queer and gender-nonconforming people have always been subject to prejudice, censorship, and criminalization, abuse, and injustice. But what this book also shows is that there have always been courageous, clever, relentless activists like Keio Yoshida who work for a better, brighter, more inclusive future for everyone. Read this book, see how much has been achieved and how much there is to be done. Read—and resist!”
—Diarmuid Hester, author of Nothing Ever Just Disappears
“An inspiring account of the global struggle for LGBT+ human rights.”
—Peter Tatchell, LGBT+ and human rights campaigner
“Keio Yoshida weaves insightful threads of personal narrative into the stories of LGBTQ+ rights around the world. This is an important book, reflecting changing times, which reveals how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.”
—Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language
“A personal gut punch into how queer lives intersect with the law … There are no dusty law books in sight as Yoshida weaves personal stories through their legal analysis, making complex legal concepts easy to grasp … Yoshida gives us the human scale of the legal system and the lived reality of the struggle for recognition, safety and dignity for queer people worldwide.”
—Justine Hyde, The Saturday Paper
“Yoshida is impelled to fight for a more considered recognition of queer lives, and Pride and Prejudices imagines how the law can tell queer stories differently.”
—ABC News
You might also be interested in:
