Universalism has become a central concept in global development and social policy – as expressed, for example, in the United Nations “Leaving No One Behind” promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the international consensus that states should provide comprehensive access to high quality social services and benefits for the entire population.

This project is divided into two parts. The first part looks at the politics of storytelling and self-making for LGBTQ+ refugees in Nairobi, with chapters examining these on and offline. The second part hopes to build a theory of queer identity making; challenging an emergent trend within Queer Theory and queer and trans forced migration studies to ‘reject’ identity as a 'liberal fetish' (Seitz, 2017).