North America

The IRN-North America serves as a clearing house to access and share LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) information, research, and imaginative and practical resources and to connect academic, community-based, and independent researchers, activists, artists, policy makers, service providers, teachers, and others. Even as we identify the site in this way, we strive neither to foster nor critique identity. We challenge transphobia, are antihomophobic, feminist, and heterofriendly, and we are working toward a world of respect for, and acceptance of, diverse sexualities and genders.

We promote activism, creative work, mentoring relationships, engaged scholarship, information exchange, and policy analyses that illuminate, question, and transform the place of LGBTIQ people in social relations, economic life, cultural production, and politics. While these interests are primarily focused on North America, we are members of a global network of IRN regions and we recognize that decision making on nomenclature about sexuality and gender, as well as priorities for regions and for interaction with each other, is decentralized.

Our priorities include:

Linking university-based LGBTIQ, gender and sexuality programs and research centers with similar non-academic centers and related initiatives;
Enabling NGOs and CBOs to deliver resources and tools to communities and constituencies;
Creating partnerships between researchers, policy advocates, and funders;
Providing a site where members can self-archive and circulate their own work;
Building an activist/researcher bulletin board;
Encouraging comparative and interdisciplinary research, partnerships across cultures, and inclusivity in relation to resources for the production, transmission, comprehension, and utilization of knowledges pertaining to sexualities and genders.

To learn more about the IRN North America and its current Regional Board Members, please click here.

Noted Resources

Below is a list of resources affiliated to the IRN-NA project:

Queer Migration Resource Network http://queermigration.com/

Arc International http://arc-international.net/

Queers for Economic Justice www.q4ej.org

Please Note: (This is a developing list and more resources shall be posted in the near future. Thank you.)