When thinking about the world outside of “the West,” scholarship can fall into generalizing frameworks in which comparison with the West predominates or in which the world is divided up into somewhat homogenized “areas.” How can we reckon with the effects and ongoing histories of imperialism and occupation, uneven transnational dynamics of exploitation and extraction, and racial capitalism while not understanding those subjected to oppression and domination as merely passive in the face of those processes? How do we engage with forms of difference while understanding them as multidimensional, permeable, as opposed to essentialized expressions of local/national/regional culture? How do we attend to forms of place-based specificity while engaging the heterogeneity and diversity of the area, country, and/or population under discussion and while also addressing dynamic relations with other peoples and places – both chosen and coerced? This chapter considers how queer and trans studies have taken up these challenges.