Preliminary Programme

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals and communities have long been regarded as ‘sexual dissidents’, resulting in their marginalisation and exclusion. However, with the advent of equality legislation, large (often commericalised) gay villages and culturally 'accepted' gay figures, there is a need to explore the question of homonormativity and the margins of this 'acceptance'. Thus, alongside the affluent and seemingly ‘accepted’ Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals and communities have long been regarded as ‘sexual dissidents’, resulting in their marginalisation and exclusion. However, with the advent of equality legislation, large (often commericalised) gay villages and culturally 'accepted' gay figures, there is a need to explore the question of homonormativity and the margins of this 'acceptance’. Thus, alongside the affluent and seemingly ‘accepted’ LGBT populations within the city, there are those who are excluded potentially suffering multiple forms of marginalisation. This study will focus on the sexuality aspect of these exclusions, recognising the importance of the multiple discriminations that differentiate the LGBT ‘community’. In this way, the research will examine how sexuality is played out through multiple axis of difference, including race/ethnicity, gender, class and disability. The paper will argue that (re)constituting cities as ‘gay’ (re)creates specific identities and the commericalisation of ‘gay cities’ needs critical attention beyond hetero/homo dichotomies. (Show less)

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City has historically been a crucial site for reproducing narratives of Irishness annually through a very public performative ritual taking place on Fifth Avenue. In recent years however, controversy has surrounded this event, associated with the organizers’ decision to ban self-identifying Irish homosexuals, a decision supported by the U.S. Supreme Court. In response, a ‘counter parade’ now takes place in the neighboring borough of Queens, which is beginning to mount a serious challenge to the more established ritual. Billed as the first all-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the city’s history, it articulates a very different narrative of Irishness than that paraded on Fifth Avenue. In this paper we examine this alternative event and the contested identity politics associated with Irishness in New York City, focusing primarily on the axes of nationalism and sexuality, and the role played by public space. (Show less)

The construction of gay male identities in South Africa have been conditioned on the specific historical legacy of the country. Apartheid structured all aspects of individual’s lives be they ‘Black’, ‘White’ or ‘Coloured’. While so far little discussed, it also regulated the way different groups were able to construct discourses of homosexuality. Yet in little over 10 years, the country has managed to reposition itself internationally with some of the most progressive de jure rights for homosexuals in the world. Today, a city such as Cape Town is able to sell itself as one of the most ‘gay friendly’ cities for foreign tourists, competing with such destinations as Sydney and San Francisco. However, these alleged freedoms have been strongly biased towards Western interpretations of sexual identity and Western ideas of political change.

This paper will begin by briefly exploring the way different racially and spatially defined groups in Cape Town came to understand homosexuality, in environments many of which strongly prohibited any public proclamation. Specifically, issues of class, race and gender will be explored, to show how ideas of ‘the closet’ and sexual identity ‘honesty’ do not always apply to groups away from the Metropole. It will go on to argued that the vast majority of homosexual men in South Africa today, in part due to the legacy of Apartheid, continue to express their own identities in ways alien to Western gay activists’ conceptualisation of ‘interest groups’.

As an example, this paper will conclude with an examination of the way recent campaigns around gay marriage have failed to acknowledge this diversity. The failure of White gay activists to acknowledge this only goes to highlight an apparent disinterest in understanding the true diversity of homosexual expression in the country and the problems facing civil society. As such, it will be argued that flaws in the way ‘gay rights’ have been framed in South Africa have excluded many individuals from enjoying the freedoms associated with the ‘New South Africa’. (Show less)