Engaging with Omission: Promoting Concern for Gender and Sexuality Diverse People in SDG 5 and Beyond

Abstract

Since their adoption in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals including Goal 5 have been criticized for their failure to recognize diversity of experience and expression with respect to gender, sex, and sexuality. Whether or not this exclusion was the intention of those who framed the goals and their associated targets is a matter of debate, but the reality is that gender-diverse people, together with their sex and sexuality diverse counterparts, remain largely absent from the SDGs (including Goal 5). In moving forwards, this chapter advocates for the need to recognize and address the needs of all people as the bearers of rights, if the goals of the SDGs are to be met. We identify four barriers contributing to the exclusion of gender and sexuality diverse people from programs and policies: neglect of concern (both institutionally in other ways) for human rights as they apply to all individuals; problems of politics as they relate to gender, sex, and sexuality; the continued power of patriarchy over individual and community life; and the neo-liberal framing of gender and sexuality diverse people. We propose a paradigmatic shift to ensure that equity, inclusion, and respect can be enjoyed by all people—regardless of gender and sexuality—in the twenty-first century.