Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
INTERVIEW When queerness meets diplomacy: Canadian diplomat's path from Pride parades to UN
Douglas Janoff, Canadian diplomat and author of the book "Queer Diplomacy" speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's office in Seoul, Monday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Lee Hyo-jin
Douglas Janoff urges queer diplomacy to empower grassroots LGBT movements
On Sept. 30, 1984, 26-year-old Canadian Douglas Janoff marched down Sixth Avenue in New York City, joining hundreds of others protesting outside the United Nations headquarters.
It was the International March for Lesbian and Gay Freedom, a bold call for recognition of sexual minorities at a time when LGBTQ+ rights were largely invisible in North America, let alone on the global stage.
More than three decades later, in 2015, Janoff stepped inside those U.N. walls — not as a protester, but as a diplomat and scholar. While on academic leave from Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he interviewed diplomats, U.N. officials and human rights advocates for his doctoral research on how international institutions respond to LGBTQ+ issues.
A Korean version of "Queer Diplomacy" authored by Douglas Janoff / Courtesy of publisher Hantijae
Since joining the foreign ministry in 2009, Janoff has worked from within the system to advance LGBTQ+ rights. His journey, spanning from street protests to diplomatic missions, is chronicled in his book Queer Diplomacy, published in 2022 and released in Korean translation this June.
Meeting new readers in Korea, he says, is an "indescribable feeling."
"It's very delightful that it has happened, especially when it’s in a market where I'm not up on the latest developments of what is happening in terms of LGBT rights," Janoff said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Monday.
"For me, it’s like going back to graduate school and learning about the process of human rights acceptance in a different country."
The book draws on fieldwork that includes Janoff’s participation in U.N. meetings in Geneva and New York, along with 29 in-depth interviews with diplomats, human rights advocates, scholars and U.N. officials, highlighting both the progress and limitations in how multilateral institutions address LGBTQ+ issues.
Janoff, now a senior foreign service officer, has served at Canadian embassies in Washington, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he handled consular affairs, bilateral relations and human rights work.
His diplomatic experience gradually opened his eyes to how LGBTQ+ rights were becoming part of global foreign policy.
"When I began working in the foreign ministry, I started to learn that Canada and other Western countries were working to promote LGBT rights in the world as a form of a new kind of foreign policy," he said.
"I thought that was interesting, considering my background, because when I started as an activist in the 1980s, Canadian LGBT people suffered a lot of discrimination. They had no equal rights."
Queer diplomacy has evolved over the past two decades, Janoff says, with LGBTQ+ rights increasingly framed as part of the broader human rights agenda. But his research also highlights a persistent gap between diplomats and civil society groups — something he believes must be bridged to achieve more effective policy outcomes.
"Diplomats have to see that LGBT diplomacy is not just going to New York or Geneva to give a speech," Janoff said.
"It’s really about working at a grassroots level with LGBT organizations that are the leaders of this movement, not the governments. The governments are serving the needs of their civil societies, which is reflected in the foreign policies that they create."
At the same time, he cautions against simply viewing Western nations as champions of LGBTQ+ rights. In many parts of the world, homosexuality remains criminalized, and sexual minorities continue to face systemic discrimination.
"Multilateralism is a playing field where all kinds of activities are taking place, which makes human rights diplomacy complicated," he said.
Participants wave rainbow flags while marching through the city center during the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in Seoul, June 14. Newsis
Rather than focusing only on the most vocal allies or the most resistant societies, Janoff believes real progress lies in engaging with countries that fall somewhere in the middle.
"There is usually a middle group of states open to engaging to a certain extent on LGBT rights. These states may be uncomfortable taking a public stance that could generate criticism at home," he said. "We need to get creative and find ways to engage members of this middle group on certain aspects of LGBT rights in a lower-profile environment."
Janoff also shared his perspective on the current climate on queer rights in Canada.
"I would say, in general, in Canada, it's more and more acceptable to be openly LGBT in the workplace," he said.
But these advances did not come easily.
"The government did not give us those rights. It was not a benevolent, friendly government that said, ‘We want you to be equal now.' It was LGBT people saying, 'I demand to be a full citizen in this society'," Janoff said, stressing that progress came through visibility and activism, not silence.
"You could die in silence, or you could make a fuss and be loud," he said. "And it was those people who were loud, who protested, who made this change possible."