The ECtHR’s LGBT* rights case law: policing, shifting, and subverting (?) ‘borders’

At a time when the trajectory of LGBT* rights recognition in international human rights law is widely celebrated, this paper examines the policing, shifting, and potential subversion of different boundaries in supranational LGBT* rights jurisprudence. Focusing especially on gender designation, LGBT* asylum claims, and the bounds of popular acceptability as they arise in the LGBT* rights jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), it probes how relevant lines have shifted in the evolution of the ECtHR’s jurisprudence and the role the supranational court plays in policing such (sometimes shifting but nonetheless rigid) lines. Ultimately, it reflects on what scope there is in the ECtHR’s progressive interpretation of LGBT* rights for subverting such ‘borders’, and for a more subversive reimagining of human rights more broadly.