Hinckley Journal of Politics vol 5

Discipling Queerness_Page 60

DISCIPLDING QUEERNESS QUEER ARGUNENT ABOUT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE ereated within the gay ghettoes the world of the baths the clubs the consclousness ralsing groups has allowed sexual minorities to forge new types of bonds which endure and are much more unrestrained than hetero-cenric norms and conceptions of relationships Same-sex marriage threatensto stthis culture label it as deprived and regulate it to nonexistence Queer liberation needs to embraceculture and not suppresslike some sort of Mr Hyde lurking behind the respectable fagade of Dr Jeckyl While same-sex marriage remainsa relevant politcal fsue allowing political counterspaces and counter-discoursessexuality that question heterocentric norms remain as If not more important Without an overarching cultural crltique of heterosexual power siructures and cultural norms same-sex marriage as an avenue of political equality Is doomed to fail SAME SEX MARRIAGE AS AVENUE T0 EQUAL RiGHTS The discourse of ights and equality talk of course stipulates that those clamoring for such recognition speak In the language of those that can confer such rights which brings us to the third plank of same-sex marriage Justification the argument for rights and recognition Let us assume for the moment that taking onmore normative identity that isrecognizable to the hetero-centric Insttutions of state govern ment institutions is indeed desirable and that gaining the right to marry will confer formal equal rights on LGBT indiViduals The word formal emphasized because we need to make the distinction between forms of equality that are offcial and legal and those rights tht are actually recognized and considered legitimate in everyday life The disJjunctions between the two are wide and far ranging Some cogent examples of this disiunction are the Jim Crow laws passed ater the Civil War and the supposed equal righs poli cies brought about by the carly second wave feminist movement The procedural rights granted to African-Americans 10 vote were blocked by more procedural regulations that effectively rendered this formal equality uscless The cqual access that womyn struggled for and recelvedthe workplace did not mean tha they would be treated fairly once they got there or that they would be equally compensated and recognized for the work that they do Equality and recognition for sexual minoriies gained through the srategies of assmilating and nommalizing thels sexual practices to more closely approximate hetero-centric noms threatens to become the new Jim immy James perhaps Crow closeting us once again when we thought we were finaly free few examples would help clarify this point The inadlequacy of rights discourse can be clearly seen in its inabilit to tackle and properly mitigate the systematic forms of tnequality that are already reinforced and perpetuated in society Formal equality can only g0 50 far withoutsimultaneous analysis and criticism of prevalling ways of thinking and already assigned labels given to homosexuals Same-sex marriage may enable sexual minrities obiain marriage license and joint bank accounts but this new found 60 Patrick Lagua freedom to more fully Integrate within the system does not subvert nor question already enirenched bellefs and pre-con ceptions Jimmy and Luke can g0city hall and get marrid but it doesnt mean that poor Josh and James can go to the high school prom without being harassed and posibly violently assaulted Same-sex marriage does not alleviate the stigmatized status of homosexuals but rather further legitmizes such sigmatization by arguing that our recognition and respect need 10 be based upon standards of hetero-centric behavior Entrenching same-sex marriage as the key to equality once again reifes already existing hierarchies that exist among different types of sexual and relational practices The inherent social benefits conferred by marriage willgrant legit imacy and recognitiona homosexual only upon certain specified contexts contexts that are determined and dictated by the stae Basically what emengess asituation where one an be homosexual If you act ot your relationships heterosextally but not otherwise Sexually promiscuous heterosexwals do not need toalter their behavior in order for all eterosextuals to get married Promiscuous homosextuals should not have 10 either Same-sex marriage as it is being construed right now would only permithomosexual identity in certain contesxts normalized married heterosexual context and not withintruly queer context one in whichwider variety of relationships and sexal practices are all valued equal3 Much as the Jim Crow laws were passed to bar actual equality for African-Americans the same approach applics to same-sex marriage legisation Inded is happening now Vermont and Hawalfsame-sex mariage and civil union statutes should have settled the issue once and for all since the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution dictates that legal proceedings tht are valid in one state must be recognized by other states as well Obviously thatnot the case duesome legal technicaltes that suddenly cropped upto block full implementation of this lav Even though the constitutionality of same-sex marriage unions was afirmed by the Hawail Supreme Court in Bachr Lewin Congress immediately passed the Defense of Marrlage Act which efectively rendered same-sex marrage and civil union lawsHavall and Vermont null and void anywhere else in the United States Bachr Lewin 1993 530 The notion of same-sex martlage becomes even more problematic when we consider that consensual sodomystil considered illegalover sixteen states The contradictionglaring same-sex marriage would effectively allow same-sex couples to get marrid yet ot have sex in these sixtcen states This situation has been remedied with the recent Supreme Court case Lawrence Texas which ruled sodomy statuies as unconstitutional LawrenceTexas 2003 02-102 Whether this ruling will be recognized and enforced by all fifty states remains to be seen The dominant power of nomative cultural standards has ways in which they can render granted formal equality powerless and empty Equaliy of sexual minorites especially in