Jack Hayes
1Australian National University, Australia
Biography:
Jack Hayes is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. His research expertise includes LGBTQ+ representation in Australian politics and abroad, democratic and electoral health, and good governance in public service. Jack’s current doctoral research engages with global samples of LGBTQ+ diplomats working in international diplomatic careers.
Jack is also a researcher at the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, chaired by the Hon. Julia Gillard AC, a multi-disciplinary research institute that brings together world-leading expertise across academic disciplines and fields in the areas of workplace gender equality and women's leadership. He is a United States – Australia Alliance Next Generation leader alumnus and a core member of the Australian Feminist Foreign Policy Network.
Abstract:
Though historically barred from diplomatic careers, recent years have seen a rise in the ‘out’ presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) diplomats, particularly as progressive legal protections open-up ‘closeting’ diplomatic institutions. Though ‘out’, LGBTQ+ diplomats are operating in an increasingly fraught international arena, with illiberal and populist governments weaponising LGBTQ+ identity in an attempt to undermine gender equality and reject queer rights. In existing empirical contributions to diplomacy and gender identity, much valuable work has been undertaken to map out the experiences of women diplomats, and there has emerged a framework of ‘popular’ diplomatic missions to which a Ministry of Foreign Affairs post women. Drawn by the call for further empirical investigations sparked by these projects, this paper pulls from novel survey and interview data from more than a hundred LGBTQ+ diplomats across a dozen countries to chart a course of popular mission and postings for LGBTQ+ diplomats, determining where LGBTQ+ choose to post and why, and in doing so explicate a clearer understanding of contemporary international diplomacy.