Workshop as queer feminist praxis: insights from Colombian queer and trans women organizing for peace

Queer and trans women continue to fall through the cracks in research about women and LGBTQ people’s, including in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Coalition building through workshops with feminists who have access to peace and security spaces can address this exclusion while centring queer and trans women’s experiences. A workshop applying a queer feminist methodology can include individuals often excluded from discussions about queer conflict research, even in WPS initiatives intended to prioritize the experiences of women. A Global South-led workshop led by queer and trans women foregrounds voices marginalized in peace and security space. In this chapter I first detail why it is necessary to include lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGTQ) women in peace and security practices as well as why the WPS agenda is a valuable entry point for this collaboration between feminist and LGBTQ communities. I then illustrate this queer feminist praxis through the example of a workshop in Bogotá, Colombia in 2022 facilitated by Colombia Diversa, and invited feminist peacebuilders and LBTQ women human rights defenders to discuss next steps in drafting Colombia’s first WPS National Action Plan.