This article explores the participation of the queer community in the youth-led December revolution in Sudan. However, since the revolution no public visible social or political movement has manifested. The revolution represents a window of opportunity to demand freedom, dignity, and rights, but the queer community did not publicly politicize its identity in what is conventionally recognized as a social movement. The article claims that we may view the current manifestation of queer activism in Sudan as a pre-movement for social and political change where the first and necessary step is to create circles of social acceptance and empowerment within the community itself, before it can engage in identity politics and mobilize as a collective group. The work of the pre-movement should not be misunderstood as apolitical or pre-political as it is an informed strategy that aims to empower LGBTQI+ persons to embrace their sexual and gender identity, disclose experiences of discrimination and queerphobia and ultimately empower them to speak out, come out, and demand respect and rights. The pre-movement work therefore signals an important arena of queer intentionality and of political projects of empowerment and identity, actively interrogating the visibility biases inherent in Western-centric social movement theory.
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