ABSTRACT Sexual minority movements worldwide have defined their collective identities in paradoxical ways, deploying more and less fixed conceptions of sexual identity, sometimes simultaneously, as they encounter Christian conservative attacks on their rights claims. Sexual minority groups alternately use fixed identities such as gay or lesbian, fluid identities such as queer, or reject any identity in favour of a claim for universal sexual autonomy. This article reviews how selected sexual minority movements, at the UN, in the Philippines, and in Argentina, have used paradoxical and contradictory identity-related strategies in their struggles for rights and recognition in the context of Christian conservative opposition.