Description
This paper examines state-perpetuated violence and oppression against LGBTQI+ subjects within the Azerbaijani military, drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Baku. Through a transnational queer-feminist lens, it explores narratives of LGBTQI+ participants who have served, attempted to serve, or worked in the military, revealing how mandatory conscription functions as a mechanism of state control in an authoritarian context. In the context of global gender backlash and intensifying moral conservatism, the Azerbaijani case illustrates how militarized nationalism becomes an arena for disciplining non-normative bodies and identities. Queer recruits are frequently labelled as ‘mentally ill’ and discharged or excluded upon disclosure of their sexual identity, exposing how the military institutionalizes heteronormativity. The analysis highlights how class and rank intersect to intensify marginalization, with lower-ranking and working-class queers facing disproportionate violence and humiliation. Yet, within these structures of repression, the paper uncovers subtle forms of everyday resistance: queer soldiers form covert networks, solidarities, and affective alliances to endure and subvert military hierarchies. Situating these experiences within broader postSoviet authoritarian governance and current transnational anti-gender politics, the study contributes to debates in queer theory, militarism, and state power, showing what the Azerbaijani case reveals about global entanglements of security, masculinity, and sexual citizenship.
