ABSTRACT In this article, we trace the transnational cultural flows that shaped the recognition of sexual rights as human rights during the transition to democracy in South Africa. Through a close reading of Beverley Ditsie and Nicky Newman’s documentary film, Simon & I (2002), we investigate the contested history of postapartheid sexual rights in which local cultural politics overlap and intersect with transnational agents, ideologies, and affect. Ditsie and Newman’s documentary centres on the figure of Simon Nkoli, a prominent gay rights and anti-apartheid activist. The film traces the complexities, contradictions and transnational connections that produce an expanded understanding of rights as indivisible and universal. Focusing on the contesting local and transnational imaginaries in which the sexual rights regime was constituted, we resist discourses suggesting that the constitutional codification of sexual rights in South Africa was inevitable. Far from being inevitable, we argue, the recognition of gay and lesbian rights as human rights was located within the crosshairs of an uncertain and volatile historical moment.

中文翻译：

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跨国想象与南非转型期的性权利谈判

摘要 在本文中，我们追溯了在南非向民主过渡期间塑造了性权利为人权的承认的跨国文化流动。通过仔细阅读 Beverley Ditsie 和 Nicky Newman 的纪录片，Simon & I (2002)，我们调查了种族隔离后的性权利有争议的历史，其中地方文化政治与跨国代理人、意识形态和影响重叠和交叉。Ditsie 和 Newman 的纪录片以著名的同性恋权利和反种族隔离活动家西蒙·恩科利 (Simon Nkoli) 的形象为中心。这部电影追溯了复杂性、矛盾和跨国联系，这些联系产生了对不可分割和普遍的权利的扩展理解。专注于构成性权利制度的地方和跨国想象，我们抵制暗示南非性权利的宪法编纂是不可避免的话语。我们认为，承认男女同性恋权利为人权并非不可避免，而是处于不确定和动荡的历史时刻的十字准线内。