SexPolitics - Reports from the Front Lines is the outcome of a project launched by Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) in 2004: a transnational, cross-cultural research initiative that we hoped would capture some dynamics of sexual politics in our time. Research was performed in eight countries - Brazil, Egypt, India, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, and Vietnam - and in relation to two global institution, the United Nations and the World Bank.

The case studies reflect great differences in theme and emphasis, some focusing more on HIV/AIDS, some on reproductive health, some on issues of gender and sexual identity. Yet common threads have clearly emerged from the research outcomes. Firstly, local and the global sexual politics dynamics are always intertwined. Secondly sexual politics are always on some level about power and, everywhere, attempts to destabilize traditional gender and sexual relations will threaten established political, religious and familial hierarchies. Last but not least the cases reveal that both research and political activism is needed to furthering an agenda of change that brings together social justice and erotic justice.