White as Milk: Proposition 8 and the Cultural Politics of Gay Rights

As part of the U.S. federal elections in Nov-ember 2008, voters in California narrowly passed Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that eliminated same-sex marriage rights in that state. Against this political-legal backdrop, the movie Milk, based on the life of gay activist Harvey Milk, was released to audiences across North America. Proposition 8 and its aftermath infused social and cultural meaning into the critical acclaim Milk publicly received, and the movie itself became a way to both galvanize and anchor support for gay (marriage) rights. I contend that there is a particular racialization of queer sexuality and proximity to whiteness that links this moment of law and culture together. The paper examines the “knitted-togetherness” of the film’s racially normative representations and the racializing of homophobia that occurred on both sides of the Proposition 8 debate, one that continues the protracted fractioning of race as separate from sexuality within mainstream lesbian/gay politics.Dans le cadre des élections fédérales américaines de novembre 2008, les électeurs en Californie ont réussi à faire passer de jus-tesse la Proposition 8, une initiative de scrutin qui a éliminé les droits des personnes ayant effectué un mariage de même sexe dans cet état. Le film Milk, réalisé contre cet environnement politiquement légal, et basé sur la vie du militant Harvey Milk, est sorti sur les grands écrans en Amérique du Nord. Suite à la sortie Proposition 8, ont infusé un sens social et culturel dans au succès publique de Milk. Le film est lui-même devenu un moyen de galvaniser et d’ancrer du support pour le droit du mariage gai. J’affirme qu’il y a une racialisation particulière de la sexualité gaie, et une proximité à la race blanche, qui lie ce moment légal et culturel ensemble. Cet article examine l’union des représentations norma-tives racialisées du film, et la racialisation de l’homophobie qui advient des deux côtés du débat sur Proposition 8, un débat qui continue le prolongement de la fraction de la race, comme une séparation de la sexualité au sein des politiques gaies et lesbiennes

Intervening in the context of white settler colonialism: West Coast LEAF, gender equality, and the Polygamy Reference

Open access, licensed under CC-BY-NC-NDIn November 2011, the British Columbia Supreme Court released its judgement in Reference re: s.293 of the Criminal Code of Canada, upholding the prohibition on polygamy as constitutional. The Polygamy Reference, as it is known, concluded that the pressing and substantial objective of s. 293 is the prevention of harm to women, to children, and to the institution of monogamous marriage. This paper analyzes the submissions made by the feminist legal education organization, West Coast LEAF, one of the few feminist 'voices' taken seriously by the court. The apprehension of polygamy's harms was central to the Reference case. West Coast LEAF offered one of the most nuanced interpretations of how the criminal prohibition on polygamy should be interpreted with respect to harm. Yet as this paper argues, its position conceals and is underpinned by racialized relations of power that, however unwittingly, give weight to and indeed require the racial logic of white settler state sovereignty articulated in the Polygamy References' overall narrative.Ye

White as milk: Proposition 8 and the cultural politics of gay rights

Open access. Article licensed under a CC-BY-NO-ND 3.0 Unported LIcenseAs part of the U.S. federal elections in November 2008, voters in California narrowly passed Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that eliminated same-sex marriage rights in that state. Against this political-legal backdrop, the movie Milk, based on the life of gay activist Harvey Milk, was released to audiences across North America. Proposition 8 and its aftermath infused social and cultural meaning into the critical acclaim Milk publicly received, and the movie itself became a way to both galvanize and anchor support for gay (marriage) rights. I contend that there is a particular racialization of queer sexuality and proximity to whiteness that links this moment of law and culture together. The paper examines the “knitted-togetherness” of the film’s racially normative representations and the racializing of homophobia that occurred on both sides of the Proposition 8 debate, one that continues the protracted fractioning of race as separate from sexuality within mainstream lesbian/gay politicsYe

What's so civil about marriage? The racial pedagogy of same-sex marriage in Canada

Open access, published under a Creative Commons licenseAbstract not availableYe

Intimacies/affect

Open access. Article licensed under a CC-BY-NO-ND 3.0 Unported LicenseAbstract not available.Ye

Radically rethinking marriage

Open access, licensed under CC-BY-NC-NDThis special issue of the Onati Socio-Legal Series offers inter-disciplinary, feminist perspectives that collectively ‘re-think’ the institution of marriage, not only in the field of legal discourse and institutions but also in the humanities and social sciences as well as through activisms. With a focus on jurisdictions in Europe, North America and Africa, the articles included in this issue challenge normative assumptions about marriage, reconsider forms of conjugality, re-write judicial interpretations and problematize legal and activist interventions and reasonings.Ye