In this conversation with our guesteditor Eszter Horvath, Phillip Ayoub discusses recentdevelopments in the LGBT movement, introduces the concept of locally rooted messaging, and his own trajectory from activism to academia.

Phillip Ayoub is a Professor in the Department ofPolitical Science and School of Public Policy at University College London. He also serves as Editor of the European Journal of Politics & Gender. Ayoub's research bridges international relations and comparative politics, engaging with literature on transnational politics, sexuality and gender, norm diffusion, and the study of social movements, with a strong interest in how the transnational mobilization of marginalized peoples and international channels of visibility influence socio-legal change across states. He is the author of When States Come Out: Europe’s Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights: How Transnational Conservative Networks Target Sexual and Gender Minorities (with Kristina Stoeckl, New YorkUniversity Press 2024). He has also contributed to a number of journals and edited volumes.