tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/homosexuality-319/articlesHomosexuality – The Conversation2024-03-01T18:33:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248882024-03-01T18:33:43Z2024-03-01T18:33:43ZGhana’s new anti-homosexuality bill violates everyone’s rights, not just LGBTIQ+ people - expert<p>Ghana’s new <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/28/africa/ghana-passes-anti-homosexuality-bill-intl/index.html">anti-homosexuality bill</a> infringes several rights and freedoms, not only of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people but of heterosexuals too. The bill has been in the works since 2021 when it was tabled in parliament as a <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/private-member-s-bill-key-to-parliamentary-effectiveness.html">private member’s bill</a>.</p>
<p>The objective of the <a href="https://cdn.modernghana.com/files/722202192224-0h830n4ayt-lgbt-bill.pdf">Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill</a> is</p>
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<p>to provide for human sexual rights and family values and for related matters.</p>
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<p>At the heart of the contention about the proposed law is the question of discrimination, its purpose and its effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms.</p>
<p>The title of the bill, obviously, is ironic because the law rather sets out to deny the right to sexuality and related rights to LGBTIQ+ people and to criminalise their actions. The key action which is criminalised is consensual sexual relations between two homosexual adults.</p>
<p>The bill defines such practices, linking them to similar provisions in the <a href="https://ir.parliament.gh/bitstream/handle/123456789/2433/ACT%2030.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Criminal and Other Offences Act of Ghana</a>. Interestingly, it also criminalises and denies other acts, such as oral sex, which heterosexual couples also do to homosexuals and lesbians. The LGBTIQ+ community is also prohibited from marriage and from adopting or fostering.</p>
<p>If the president signs the legislation, Ghana will join <a href="http://www.globalequality.org/component/content/article/166">36 African countries</a> where homosexuality is illegal. It’s punishable by death in <a href="https://www.fairplanet.org/story/death-penalty-homosexualty-illegal/">some countries </a>, including Nigeria and Mauritania. So, Africa remains a tough place for LGBTIQ+ people. But there has been some progress in countries like South Africa and <a href="https://healthpolicy-watch.news/mauritius-supreme-court-throws-out-colonial-anti-gay-law/">Mauritius </a> where colonial era laws have been repealed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mauritius-is-the-latest-nation-to-decriminalise-same-sex-relations-in-a-divided-continent-215270">Mauritius is the latest nation to decriminalise same-sex relations in a divided continent</a>
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<p>As a scholar of international human rights law, I believe this bill will infringe the right to privacy, right to health, freedom of association and expression, and press freedom. It will also impinge on the rights of teachers, lecturers, civil society activists and citizens who share content on social media platforms that the bill deems illegal. </p>
<h2>Compromising key freedoms</h2>
<p>The bill’s criminalisation of consensual sexual relations between two homosexual adults and imposition of sentence of three years on violators of that provision of the law is prohibitive and disproportionate. The practice should not be criminalised, but if at all, violation should at best attract a non-custodial sentence, for example a fine or community work. The LGBTIQ+ community has the right to be treated with dignity. The fact that someone is gay should not lead to a loss of his/her humanity.</p>
<p>Moreover, since the only way the criminalisation of consensual sex can be enforced is by “peeking through the window”, this will infringe on the right to privacy.</p>
<p>There has been many instances where members of the LGBTIQ+ community, and even those who the society consider as such but are not, have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/13/arrested-abused-and-accused-wave-of-repression-targets-lgbt-ghanaians">arrested </a>and subjected to acts of molestation, abuse, torture and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/ghana-lgbt-activists-face-hardships-after-detention">other forms of violence</a> and <a href="https://www.losangelesblade.com/2024/02/05/man-in-ghana-assaulted-for-being-gay/">extrajudicial measures</a> which constitute a violation of their right to dignity. Some are even killed. The vigilante groups that effect these arrests also have the habit of extorting money from the alleged perpetrators of LGBTIQ+ practices. Where the “suspects” end up at the police station, the police have also resorted to extortion of large sums of money from the suspects before letting them go. </p>
<p>The law seeks to avert such occurrences by imposing a term of imprisonment of between six months to three years for anyone who harasses someone accused of being LGBTIQ+. However, this is a feeble attempt by the sponsors of the bill to appease or assure the LGBTIQ+ community. </p>
<p>The forced disbandment of LGBTIQ+ associations in Ghana, will constitute a violation of the right to freedom of association and freedom of expression, among others. It has been abused in a number of instances and is likely to be further abused even more. The provision that seeks to make owners of digital platforms or physical premises in which LGBTIQ+ groups organise guilty of promoting LGBTIQ+ activities violates the right to freedom of association and expression, among others. </p>
<p>Also, the provision on imposing harsh sentences on teachers and other educators who talk about LGBTIQ+ in the classroom is likely to infringe on the right to academic freedom and the right to education. Further, the imposition of six to 10 years of imprisonment for anyone who produces, procures, or distributes material deemed to be promoting LGBTIQ+ activities is likely to lead to the abuse of the right to freedom of expression, information and education and even press freedom. The same goes with the provision on criminalising the “public show of romantic relations” between people of the same sex, even including cross-dressing.</p>
<p>What is important to also note is that the law is not made to restrict or violate the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community only. Teachers, lecturers, media personnel and civil society activists, people who share content over social media platforms, or broadcast content on LGBTIQ+ are also going to be held criminally responsible.</p>
<h2>Presidential or constitutional challenge</h2>
<p>I propose that President Nana Akufo-Addo should not assent to the law as it is, relying on <a href="https://lawsghana.com/constitution/Republic/constitution_content/113">article 108</a> of the 1992 Constitution since, being a private members bill, it has likely financial implications for the state. Thus, relying on <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/ghana-lgbt-activists-face-hardships-after-detention">article 106</a>, he can refer the bill to his highest advisory body (<a href="https://cos.gov.gh/">Council of State</a>) for its advice. Otherwise, he has the power to state in a memo to the Speaker of Parliament any specific provisions of the bill which in his opinion should be reconsidered by Parliament. </p>
<p>If he does not, the matter can be taken to a Human Rights Court by a citizen, relying on <a href="https://lawsghana.com/constitution/Republic/constitution_content/38#:%7E:text=(5)%20The%20rights%2C%20duties,freedom%20and%20dignity%20of%20man.">article 33(5)</a>of the Constitution, which provides that “the rights, duties, declarations and guarantees relating to the fundamental human rights and freedoms specifically mentioned in this Chapter shall not be regarded as excluding others not specifically mentioned which are considered to be inherent in a democracy and intended to secure the freedom and dignity of man.” </p>
<p>The other option is to go straight to the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality of the bill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ghana’s anti-gay bill will affect heterosexual’s tooKwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, Associate Professor of Law, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167482023-11-17T01:23:24Z2023-11-17T01:23:24ZWhat does it mean to be asexual?<p>In recent years, we’ve seen a burgeoning social movement for the acceptance of asexuality. We’ve also seen more asexual characters popping up in shows such as <a href="https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/originals/heartstopper-season-2-isaac-asexual/">Heartstopper</a> and <a href="https://www.them.us/story/asexual-representation-sex-education-o-yasmin-benoit#:%7E:text=The%20Netflix%20series%20introduced%20a,the%20course%20of%20the%20series.">Sex Education</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this, asexuality remains widely misunderstood. So what does it mean?</p>
<p><a href="https://lgbtq.unc.edu/resources/exploring-identities/asexuality-attraction-and-romantic-orientation/">Asexuality</a> refers to low or no sexual attraction. However, this does not mean all people who identify as asexual, or the shorthand “<a href="https://www.allure.com/story/asexuality-spectrum-asexual-people-explain-what-it-means">ace</a>”, never experience sexual attraction or never have sex. </p>
<p>People who identify as asexual may feel intense <em>romantic</em> attraction to someone, but not sexual attraction. Others may find sex pleasurable but rarely feel attracted to another person. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-asexuals-navigate-romantic-relationships-192685">How asexuals navigate romantic relationships</a>
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<p>There are also variations of asexual identity that fit broadly within the <a href="https://acesandaros.org/learn/the-asexual-umbrella">ace umbrella</a>. People who identify as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211101-why-demisexuality-is-as-real-as-any-sexual-orientation">demisexual</a>, for example, experience sexual attraction only to people with whom they have a strong emotional bond. </p>
<p>Across the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23719054?seq=17">spectrum of ace identities</a>, many people have romantic or sexual relationships. For others, sex is not part of their lives. </p>
<p>Asexual identity also cuts across other sexual or gender identities. Some asexual people identify as queer, transgender or gender diverse. </p>
<h2>How many people identify as asexual?</h2>
<p>Asexuality, as a sexual identity or orientation, has only recently been included in large-scale surveys. So data is limited. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224490409552235">Analysis of data</a> from a <a href="https://www.natsal.ac.uk/">2004 British population-based survery</a> found 1% of respondents indicated, “I have never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”. This measure, however, may not be accurate given many asexual people wouldn’t agree they have “never” felt sexual attraction.</p>
<p>In 2019, a large Australian survey of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities, <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/arcshs/work/private-lives-3">showed</a> 3.2% of the sample identified as asexual. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.asexuality.org/">Asexual Visibility and Education Network</a>, an international online network, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/mar/21/i-dont-want-sex-with-anyone-the-growing-asexuality-movement">has more than 120,000</a> members. </p>
<h2>When did asexuality become a social movement?</h2>
<p>Asexuality has always been part of human sexual diversity. However, the <a href="https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/corvette/article/view/20810/9350#:%7E:text=asexuality%20%E2%80%94%20can%20be%20traced%20back,as%20far%20back%20as%201972.&text=324%20Kinsey%20%E2%80%9C%20Sexual%20Behavior%20in%20the%20Human%20Male%20%2C%E2%80%9D%205.">movement to establish asexuality</a> as a sexual identity, and build a community around this, has its roots in the early 2000s. </p>
<p>The rise of internet technologies created a platform for asexual people to connect and organise, following a similar path to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists. </p>
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<img alt="The rainbow LGBTQIA pride flag and the asexual pride flag together, lying in the grass intertwined." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559818/original/file-20231116-27-5yu1yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Asexual identity also cuts across other sexual or gender identities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rainbow-lgbtqia-pride-flag-asexual-together-2365113237">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Asexuality, as an identity, sits alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality as a description of self that is determined by the shape of one’s desire. </p>
<p>However, the significance of defining asexuality as an “identity” is often misunderstood or critiqued on the basis that many people experience low or no sex drive at some points in their life. </p>
<h2>What’s the difference between sexual identity and sex drive?</h2>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sexuality/Weeks/p/book/9781032105345">work</a> on the history of sexuality, sociologist Jeffrey Weeks points to the psychoanalytic interrogation of men attracted to men as a milestone in the contemporary Western understanding of sexuality. It was at this point, in the late 1800s, that “homosexuality” came to be seen as core to an individual’s psyche. </p>
<p>Before this, homosexual sex was often considered sinful or degenerate, but sex was seen as just a behaviour not an identity – something a person does, not who they “are”. There was no category of “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/1185/chapter/139930481">the homosexual</a>” and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170315-the-invention-of-heterosexuality">heterosexuality</a> was only determined in response to this categorisation of sexuality. </p>
<p>This history means that, today, sexual identity is considered an important part of what defines us as a person. For lesbian, gay or bisexual people, “coming out” is about building a sense of self and belonging in the face of institutional and cultural opposition to homosexuality. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-hidden-in-plain-sight-australian-queer-men-and-women-before-gay-liberation-155964">Friday essay: hidden in plain sight — Australian queer men and women before gay liberation</a>
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<p>Asexuality has not been subject to legal or moral sanction in the ways that homosexuality has. However, many asexual people similarly do not conform to conventional expectations regarding sex, relationships and marriage. Families and communities often don’t <a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/new-research-shining-light-%E2%80%98dehumanising%E2%80%99-discrimination-faced-ace-people">accept or understand</a> asexuality.</p>
<p>Sexual relationships are central to the expectations we place on ourselves and others for a “good” life. Sex and desire (or desirability), not to mention marriage and childbearing, are highly valued. People who are asexual, or who do not desire sex, are often given the message that they are “broken” or inadequate. </p>
<p>This can be reinforced through medical or psychological definitions of low sex drive as a problem that should be fixed. <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9765-8_8">Hypo-active sexual desire disorder</a> is a category within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the handbook mental health professionals use to diagnose mental disorders.</p>
<p>While diagnostic categories are important to support people who experience distress due to low sex drive, they can also mean <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19419899.2023.2193575#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20current%20DSM,not%20identify%20as%20lifelong%20asexuals.">asexuality is viewed in pathological terms</a>. </p>
<p>Building awareness of asexuality as a legitimate sexual identity is about resisting the view that asexuality is a deficit. </p>
<p>By challenging us to rethink everyday assumptions about human sexual experience, the asexuality movement is far from anti-sex. Rather, affirming and celebrating the legitimacy of asexual identity is very much a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23719054?seq=2">sex-positive</a> stance – one that asks us to expand our appreciation of sexual diversity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-asexuality-can-teach-us-about-sexual-relationships-and-boundaries-94846">What asexuality can teach us about sexual relationships and boundaries</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216748/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Power receives funding from the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Asexuality remains widely misunderstood. Here’s what it means and how this sexuality became a social movement.Jennifer Power, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152702023-10-12T13:31:06Z2023-10-12T13:31:06ZMauritius is the latest nation to decriminalise same-sex relations in a divided continent<p>The Mauritius Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">declared</a> unconstitutional a law that criminalises consensual same-sex acts between adult men. The decision boosts the trend in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region towards decriminalisation. Now, a slight majority – nine out of 16 member states – do not prohibit gay and lesbian sexual relations. </p>
<p>I have researched and taught human rights law in Africa, including the rights of sexual minorities, for over three decades, and closely follow the work of the <a href="https://achpr.au.int/">African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>. </p>
<p>The African Commission, as the continent’s human rights custodian, should lend its unequivocal support to the decriminalisation trend. This is particularly significant as attempts are made to further criminalise and stigmatise sexual minorities in parts of Africa.</p>
<p>The commission has not yet expressed its view on the decision. Its <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/events/2023-10-20/77os-public">77th ordinary session</a>, starting on 20 October 2023 in Arusha, Tanzania, is an opportunity to do so. It should build on its 2014 <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/275-resolution-protection-against-violence-and-other-human-rights-violations">guidance</a> to African states on eradicating violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. </p>
<h2>Mauritius court ruling</h2>
<p>The Mauritian Supreme Court <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">found</a> that section 250 of the <a href="https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/uploads/res/document/mus/criminal-code_html/Mauritius_Criminal_Code.pdf">1838 Mauritius Criminal Code</a>, which criminalises anal sex between two consenting adult men, violates the <a href="https://cdn.accf-francophonie.org/2019/03/maurice-constitution2016.pdf">1968 Mauritius constitution</a>. </p>
<p>The litigant, Ah Seek, a gay Mauritian man and board member of the Mauritian NGO <a href="https://www.actogether.mu/fr/trouver-une-ong/collectif-arc-en-ciel">Collectif-Arc-en-Ciel</a>, invoked a number of constitutional grounds. However, the court based its decision on the most directly relevant ground: the right not to be discriminated against.</p>
<p>In addressing two issues that could militate against a finding in Ah Seek’s favour, the court relied on the approach of other courts in the SADC region. The 2021 <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/2021.11.29-AG-Botswana-v-Motshidiemang.pdf">judgment</a> by Botswana’s Court of Appeal was particularly relevant. This judgment held that the constitutionally protected ground of “sex” in the Botswana constitution encompassed “sexual orientation”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-court-ruling-is-a-ray-of-hope-for-lgbt-people-across-africa-118713">Botswana court ruling is a ray of hope for LGBT people across Africa</a>
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<p>The first issue was the contention that Mauritius’ constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation”. The relevant provision (<a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mauritius_2016">section 16</a>) forbids discrimination on the basis of seven specified grounds, including sex. </p>
<p>The Mauritian court concluded that the word “sex” in section 16 of the constitution includes “sexual orientation”. </p>
<p>The court also emphasised the country’s international human rights commitments. It said that, as a state party to the <a href="https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-4&chapter=4&clang=_en">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, Mauritius was expected to interpret its constitution in line with this <a href="https://juris.ohchr.org/casedetails/702/en-US">treaty</a>. </p>
<p>The second issue was whether the rarity of prosecutions removed the need for the court to decide. Referring to a <a href="https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1998/15.html">judgment</a> by the South African Constitutional Court, the Mauritius court held that the mere threat of arrest, prosecution and conviction</p>
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<p>hangs like the sword of Damocles over the heads of homosexual men.</p>
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<p>The court therefore concluded that the constitution protected everyone from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, whatever it might be. </p>
<p>When it was given an opportunity to show any legitimate purpose for this form of discrimination, the state merely made reference to same-sex relations as a “highly sensitive issue” due to the “delicate socio-cultural and religious fabric of Mauritian society”. Rejecting these as justifications for discrimination, the court underlined that Mauritius was a secular state. </p>
<h2>Regional trend</h2>
<p>Greater societal acceptance of homosexuality can be both a catalyst for and a consequence of decriminalisation of same-sex relationships. </p>
<p>In a recent survey by the independent African surveys network <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AD639-Uganda-a-continental-extreme-in-rejection-of-people-in-same-sex-relationships-Afrobarometer-9may23-.pdf">Afrobarometer</a>, Mauritius featured prominently as a country in which tolerance (towards an LGBT person as neighbour) had increased from 2014 to 2022. </p>
<p>Nine of the 11 African countries with an above-average tolerance percentage towards LGBT persons were from the SADC. All of these 11 states, except Eswatini, have decriminalised “sodomy laws”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtiq-migrants-and-asylum-seekers-in-south-africa-major-new-study-identifies-a-diverse-wide-spread-community-199227">LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa: major new study identifies a diverse, wide-spread community</a>
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<p>The conditions for decriminalisation seem to be converging in Eswatini. Its population displays a relatively high level of acceptance (of 42%) in the survey. Also, its Supreme Court has <a href="https://eswatinilii.org/akn/sz/judgment/szsc/2023/23/eng@2023-06-16/source.pdf">signalled</a> some openness to uphold LGBT persons’ rights. </p>
<p>Besides Eswatini, other SADC member states that still retain “sodomy” laws are Comoros, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. With the exception of the Comoros, the laws of these states are relics from British colonial times, when “sodomy” laws were imposed as part of a colonial “civilising” mission. The Mauritius Supreme Court <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Judgment-AH-SEEK-.pdf">noted</a> that, as a colonial import, section 250 did not reflect Mauritian values and was not the “expression of domestic democratic will”. </p>
<p>Today, just over half of the SADC states do not criminalise same-sex relationships between consenting adults. The Democratic Republic of Congo never legislated on this matter. In <a href="https://media.lesotholii.org/files/legislation/akn-ls-act-2012-6-eng-2012-03-09.pdf">Lesotho</a> (2012), the <a href="http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/5198/Seychelles+parliament+passes+bill+to+decriminalize+sodomy">Seychelles</a> (2016), <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-29-mozambique-scraps-colonial-era-homosexuality-and-abortion-bans/">Mozambique</a> (2015) and <a href="https://africlaw.com/2021/03/05/decriminalisation-of-consensual-same-sex-acts-in-angola-and-the-progress-of-lgbti-human-rights-in-lusophone-africa/">Angola</a> (2019), the legislature in the last decade or so adopted a new version of the penal code. These offences, stemming from the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism">English common law</a> or the <a href="https://www.ahry.up.ac.za/garrido-r#pgfId-1119589">1886 Portuguese Penal Code</a>, were omitted. In Madagascar, the <a href="http://www.vertic.org/media/National%20Legislation/Madagascar/MG_Code_Penal.pdf">penal code</a> criminalises consensual same-sex acts only with a person under 21 years old. </p>
<p>Still, the situation remains in flux. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/14/religious-groups-march-in-malawi-before-court-case-on-lgbtq-rights">Malawi</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/03/13/namibian-supreme-court-hears-three-lgbtq-rights-cases/">Namibia</a>, litigation on related penal code provisions is pending. In Malawi, then President Joyce Banda in 2012 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/18/malawi-president-vows-legalise-homosexuality">committed to repealing these laws</a>. There was also a moratorium on arrests and prosecutions between 2012 and 2016, and a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/26/let-posterity-judge/violence-and-discrimination-against-lgbt-people-malawi">court-ordered review</a> of the constitutionality of “sodomy laws”. </p>
<p>In Namibia, the Supreme Court <a href="https://namiblii.org/akn/na/judgment/nasc/2023/14/eng@2023-05-16">decided in 2023</a> that Namibia must recognise same-sex marriages validly concluded outside the country.</p>
<h2>Diverging trend</h2>
<p>In the rest of Africa, the position of sexual minorities is much more precarious. Thirty-one (almost 58%) of countries still <a href="https://76crimes.com/76-countries-where-homosexuality-is-illegal/">criminalise consensual same-sex acts between adults</a>. The trend is towards more restrictive laws and harsher punishment.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni has <a href="https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/6737/president-assents-anti-homosexuality-act">signed into law</a> the <a href="https://www.parliament.go.ug/sites/default/files/The%20Anti-Homosexuality%20Act%2C%202023.pdf">Anti-Homosexuality Act</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>In Ghana, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill is <a href="https://www.parliament.gh/epanel/docs/bills/Promotion%20of%20Proper%20Human%20Sexual%20Rights%20and%20Ghanaian%20Family%20Values%20Bill,%202021.pdf#viewer.action=download">being considered</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>In Kenya, the anti-gay <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/09/20/kenyas-anti-gay-bill-proposes-50-year-jail-term//">Family Protection Bill</a> carries a 50-year jail term. But the Supreme Court decided in February 2023 to allow the NGO National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission <a href="https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SC-Application-No.-E011-of-2023-George-Kaluma-v.-NGO-Others.pdf?pdf=George-Kaluma">to be registered</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-queer-in-africa-the-state-of-lgbtiq-rights-across-the-continent-205306">Being queer in Africa: the state of LGBTIQ+ rights across the continent</a>
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<p>These laws were initiated as private members bills. They are driven by individuals rather than any political party’s agenda, and bolstered by an anti-LGBT solidarity <a href="https://glaad.org/rachel-maddow-traces-anti-lgbtq-legislation-uganda-activists-arizona/">conference</a> of African parliamentarians. </p>
<h2>African Commission’s role</h2>
<p>Against this background of opposing forces and divergent trends, the role of the African Commission is all the more important. The commission itself has sent mixed signals. It <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/resolution-promotion-and-protection-rights-intersex-persons">affirmed</a> the right to dignity and bodily integrity of sexual and gender minorities. But it also <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-rights-african-union-watchdog-goes-back-on-its-own-word-197555">refused</a> to grant observer status to NGOs working to promote these rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frans Viljoen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The trend towards decriminalising same sex relations in the SADC region contrasts with moves towards harsher punishment in other parts of Africa.Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2153312023-10-12T04:03:07Z2023-10-12T04:03:07ZHow – and why – did homosexual behaviour evolve in humans and other animals?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553188/original/file-20231011-24-3wjk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=930%2C90%2C5619%2C3030&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-fanny-large-male-chacma-baboon-2228724811">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since gay couples have fewer children, the high frequency of same-sex relationships in humans is puzzling from an evolutionary point of view. Perhaps there are social advantages such relationships confer on a group, or perhaps “gay genes” are selected for other reasons. </p>
<p>A group of Spanish researchers have studied same-sex sexual behaviour and social relationships in more than 250 species of mammals – and in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41290-x">a recent paper</a> in Nature Communications, they conclude it arose independently many times, and is related to other kinds of social behaviour.</p>
<h2>Darwin’s paradox</h2>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-004-1241-4">Research</a> has shown the basis of male homosexuality in humans is at least partially genetic. I know of no work on a genetic basis for female–female sexual behaviour.</p>
<p>Why then is male–male sexual behaviour so common? You’d think, because gay couples have fewer children, these gene variants would be passed on rarely, and their frequency would decline over time.</p>
<p>Geneticists, sociologists and psychologists have advanced many possible explanations for this conundrum.</p>
<p>One is that gay genes are really “<a href="http://theconversation.com/born-this-way-an-evolutionary-view-of-gay-genes-26051">male-loving genes</a>”. In this case, though gay males have fewer children, their female relatives who share these gene variants may be more inclined to mate earlier and have more children, making up the deficit. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/born-this-way-an-evolutionary-view-of-gay-genes-26051">Born this way? An evolutionary view of 'gay genes'</a>
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<p>Other hypotheses <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41290-x">referenced</a> in the new paper propose that same-sex behaviour has beneficial effects for human groups. One idea is that same-sex relationships are important for forming and maintaining bonds and alliances within the group. This predicts same-sex behaviour should be more frequent in social species than in non-social species. </p>
<p>Alternatively, same-sex behaviour may help to diminish conflict between members of the same sex, and contribute to establishing social hierarchies. If this is so, we would expect same-sex behaviour to be more common in species where aggression and killing among members is also common. </p>
<h2>The big picture of same-sex relationships</h2>
<p>Human aren’t the only mammals to show a high frequency of same-sex relationships. There are reports of same-sex behaviour (courtship, mounting, genital contact and copulation, pair bonding) in 261 (out of 5,747) mammal species. </p>
<p>Mostly this behaviour is frequent and overt, occurs in the wild, and in half the species is displayed by both sexes. It is very widespread. These species represent about half of all mammal families.</p>
<p>Primates are strongly represented. Fifty-one species, from lemurs to great apes, show same-sex sexual behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of a group of lemurs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553394/original/file-20231011-27-exhona.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Same-sex sexual behaviour has been observed in 51 primate species, including lemurs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-resting-lemurs-katta-1539527396">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The even bigger picture is given by studies on many other animals, which reveal same-sex behaviour in birds, reptiles, frogs and fish, as well as many invertebrates.</p>
<p>Most studies of same-sex relationships focus on a particular species, which makes it hard to test these competing hypotheses. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41290-x">new research</a> explores same-sex relationships across a wide range of mammals. It asks whether this behaviour was ancestral to all mammals, or whether it evolved independently in response to the establishment of different social systems.</p>
<h2>Same-sex sexual behaviour evolved many times and quite recently</h2>
<p>It has been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-1019-7">proposed</a> that the common ancestor of mammals indulged in indiscriminate sexual behaviour, which manifested as a mix of same-sex and heterosexual relationships. The new study contradicts this.</p>
<p>Using a tree of relationships of mammals to each other – confirmed with DNA sequence comparisons – the patterns of same-sex sexual behaviour were mapped onto the relationships between species. The distribution of same-sex behaviour over all mammals didn’t fit the pattern we would expect if it were present in the common ancestor of all mammals, and was retained in some lineages but not others.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homosexuality-may-have-evolved-for-social-not-sexual-reasons-128123">Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>A better explanation for the evidence is that same-sex sexual behaviour was rare in mammalian ancestors overall, but evolved independently many times in many different families. Species exhibiting same-sex sexual behaviour had shared ancestors much more recently than species not showing the behaviour. This suggests same-sex sexual behaviour has been gained and lost many times, and quite recently, during mammalian evolution.</p>
<p>Different lineages showed different times at which same-sex sexual behaviour evolved. It became more frequent in Old World monkeys (those found in Africa and Asia today) and increased again during the evolution of the great apes.</p>
<h2>Same-sex sexual behaviour and social organisation</h2>
<p>Next, the researchers examined the correlation of same-sex sexual behaviour to different measures of social organisation in different mammal species. They compiled information about sociality (how the animals live together) and aggression between members of the same species, and tested for correlations with male or female same-sex sexual behaviour.</p>
<p>The study found same-sex sexual behaviour, both male and female, was more common in more social species. This suggests same-sex sexual behaviour was selected for in social species.</p>
<p>The frequency of male, but not female, same-sex sexual behaviour was also correlated with the frequency with which animals of the same sex attacked and killed each other. This supports the hypothesis that homosexuality evolved to mitigate male–male aggression in mammals.</p>
<p>We conclude from this study that same-sex sexual behaviour in both males and females evolved as species shifted from solitary living to sociality. It helps to establish and maintain social relationships and alliances, resolve conflicts and avoid aggression.</p>
<p>The high frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour in ape and monkey species suggests it was present in a social great ape ancestor, and maintained in present day social species, including humans.</p>
<h2>Everybody might be right</h2>
<p>Establishing that homosexuality confers selective advantages in social species such as humans and other great apes does not rule out other explanations. </p>
<p>There may still be fertility advantages accruing to the other sex who inherit “male-loving” or “female-loving” gene variants, for example. These benefits are not necessarily the same in different mammal lineages, and may include others that have not yet been investigated. </p>
<p>In any case, the ubiquity and frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals means homosexuality cannot be considered aberrant or maladaptive in humans, or any other species. It was selected because it confers different and overlapping social and fertility benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Graves receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>A new cross-species study shows same-sex sexual behaviour has social benefits for groups, which explains its high frequency in humans and other mammals.Jenny Graves, Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149342023-10-10T21:30:23Z2023-10-10T21:30:23ZAnti-trans protests: The Conservative party could use ideological polarization to win voters<p>The polarizing debates in Canada over issues of gender and sexuality recently led to heated demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in cities across the country. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://millionmarch4children.squarespace.com/educational-material">One Million March 4 Children</a> coalition that was behind the protests has its sights aimed at a range of issues related to sexual education in schools, <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1137">including the teaching of gender theory</a>. The coalition <a href="https://millionmarch4children.squarespace.com/supporters">includes truckers’ organizations and members of the radical right as well as religious organizations</a>. </p>
<p>Since the demonstrations were mainly driven by different conservative movements, it was not surprising to note the presence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-america-to-ontario-the-political-impact-of-the-christian-right-107400">Christian groups</a> at the rallies. But the strong presence of immigrant communities, particularly Muslims, came as a surprise to many. During that week, both a Muslim association and a conservative nationalist Québec columnist, <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/03/nvld-s03.html">Mathieu Bock-Côté</a>, each from opposite ideological spectrums, denounced <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/with-omar-alghabras-departure-trudeaus-losing-his-point-man-in-the-muslim-community">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call for a tolerant attitude</a> in almost identical terms. </p>
<p>Libertarian fiscal policies and highly conservative social policies have wind in their sails at the moment, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t appeal to religious groups among different minority groups in Canada. </p>
<p>While Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada (PPC) has made gender issues its hobbyhorse, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has been more cautious about jumping into the fray and has asked his MPs to exercise restraint. Yet his party could benefit from the polarization that the gender question is creating. Three elements seem to point in this direction. </p>
<p>Firstly, the CPC largely holds the evangelical Christian vote on moral values and could bolster the mobilization of this part of its base. Secondly, unlike many European populist right-wing parties, when it comes to anti-immigration rhetoric the CPC doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre. A party that wants to win federal elections in Canada cannot alienate immigrant communities. And finally, the search for a fault line within immigrant communities along the conservative/liberal axis over the question of sexuality and gender may alter the balance of political forces in the long term. Gender issues could be that fault line.</p>
<p>Respectively a professor of sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a doctoral student in political science at Université de Montréal, our research focuses on nationalism, populism and political conflicts in Québec and Canada. </p>
<h2>The politicization of trans issues by the conservative right</h2>
<p>While there is nothing new about the religious right politicizing issues around sexuality, debates on gender and the inclusion of trans people have recently taken on greater importance. </p>
<p>The American right has been making these issues part of its general critique of liberalism for years. <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/07/17/how-the-political-right-are-contesting-pride-month-in-canada/392313/">The appropriation of these issues in Canada is more recent</a>. Bernier’s PPC has made opposing “gender ideology” an important part of its program. </p>
<p>More recently, bills proposed by the Conservative governments of New Brunswick and <a href="https://theconversation.com/saskatchewan-naming-and-pronoun-policy-the-best-interests-of-children-must-guide-provincial-parental-consent-rules-212431">Saskatchewan</a>, which would require school principals to notify parents of a child’s request to change their first name or pronouns, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-parents-should-be-defending-childrens-rights-rather-than-rushing-to/">have also sparked heated debates</a>. These debates pit “parental rights” against the rights of trans children to live in safety. In Québec, the use of gender-neutral first names and the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/blainville-rejects-gender-neutral-washrooms-in-schools">question of gender-neutral washrooms</a> have been added to the list of issues fuelling this polarization.</p>
<h2>The conservative values of cultural minorities: a road to victory?</h2>
<p>CPC results in the last three elections fell short of its expectations. However, slipping support for the Liberals, inflation, and the issue of home ownership being out of reach have all helped the CPC make inroads among young voters, particularly young men. </p>
<p>In the last election, the CPC’s challenge was to reconcile the social conservatism of its base with a platform that would be acceptable to centrist voters. Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole stumbled over this problem. </p>
<p>Stephen Harper’s Conservative majority in 2011 owed its success to wins in ridings with a high proportion of immigrants in the Toronto area, notably in Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Vaughan. While these ridings were not part of <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/the-winner/the-emerging-conservative-coalition/">Harper’s initial strategy</a>, the difficulty of rallying Québec nationalists forced him to change tack, so Harper turned his attention to the cultural minorities in Toronto’s suburbs. In addition to conservative values, these communities shared the Conservatives’ attachment to religion and to business friendly free-market policies. Harper also introduced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/income-splitting-what-it-is-and-who-benefits-1.2818396">tax measures that favoured a traditional model of the family, often a patriarchal family structure</a>, which values the work of a single parent and where one spouse has a much higher income than the other. </p>
<p>Currently ahead in the polls, the CPC could make gains at the expense of the Liberals in Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Whitby and Pickering-Uxbridge, in some Toronto ridings, in Oakville and as far as the Hamilton suburbs. The CPC could also regain ridings in Greater Vancouver that it lost to the Liberals in the last election. </p>
<h2>PCC’s likely strategy</h2>
<p>Poilievre probably sees the politicization of gender and sexuality issues as an opportunity to bolster support for the CPC in the run-up to the next election. To achieve this, it is unlikely that he will follow the example of the People’s Party, which promised to limit the rights of transgender children, and choose not to interfere in provincial jurisdictions. </p>
<p>The CPC will probably stick to using dog whistles to call out “wokeism” and to support provincial governments and religious communities that denounce sex education programs. </p>
<p>That is exactly what Poilievre did at a gathering of Toronto’s Pakistani community in August. In a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-lgbtq-pronouns-schools-1.6950029">speech delivered as part of Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations</a>, he defended religious freedom as well as the right of parents to “pass on their traditional teachings to their children,” and to “bring them up with their own values.” Earlier in the summer, he <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-new-brunswick-lgbtq-students-1.6889770">opposed federal government interference in New Brunswick’s policy requiring parental consent for LGBTQ students wishing to change their name or pronouns</a>. </p>
<p>The CPC could benefit from public <a href="https://angusreid.org/canada-culture-wars-gender-and-trans-issues/">support</a> on these issues. Although practices related to gender transitions <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/gender-affirming-care-canada-1.6967503">are rare in Canada</a>, they do spark the ire of conservative circles. </p>
<p>Other conservative positions, such as <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/local-news/poilievre-blames-wave-of-violence-in-alberta-on-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-and-ndp/wcm/d6805980-8a25-43ba-93be-fe44bd2d5b89">criticizing drug decriminalization in British Columbia and Liberal “wokeism” in response to crime</a>, could also strike a chord with religious voters. So a strategy based on fiscal conservatism, law and order, the traditional family and conservative sexual values could be very advantageous for the CPC in many ridings. </p>
<h2>What dilemmas for the opposition parties?</h2>
<p>The CCP’s strategy also calls into question those of the Liberal Party and the NDP. As defenders of ethnic communities and religious, sexual and gender minorities, but also as critics of Québec’s Bill 21 on secularism, these parties have been nurturing voters at opposite sides of this ideological polarization. </p>
<p>This development was predictable. The significant presence of certain cultural communities in anti-LGBTQ+ mobilizations shatters the simplistic idea promoted by the identitarian left that “diversity,” because it is often in a minority position, is necessarily liberal and progressive. </p>
<p>Immigrant communities are heterogeneous and their views on <a href="https://angusreid.org/canada-religion-interfaith-holy-week/">issues of freedom of conscience and expression</a> vary widely. But their community institutions, which are sometimes religious and patriarchal, don’t always fit with the Liberal and NDP orientation towards citizenship and sexual diversity.</p>
<p>Reactions from Québec’s nationalist milieu have been equivocal on these issues. On the one hand, the Bloc Québécois (BQ) says it <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-federal-election-lgbtq-1.5306119">supports LGBTQ rights</a> and will continue to do so, but on the other says it is <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/798447/opposants-defenseurs-droits-personnes-lgbtq-affrontent-rues-pays">incapable of taking a position at the moment and wants to listen to both sides of the divide</a>. The issue is also far from consensual among its provincial nationalist allies. Both the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/blainville-rejects-gender-neutral-washrooms-in-schools">raised concerns</a> around gender theory in schools. The PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, went as far as speaking of a risk of seeing the “radical left” impose gender ideology on children. By refusing to take a clear position, the Bloc Québécois missed an opportunity to take a stand in favour of the rights of sexual minorities over those of outraged parents. By defending the right of provinces to use the notwithstanding clause, it chose to defend provincial autonomy over a defence of Quebec’s National Assembly’s stances on academic freedom and secularism. From the point of view of its constitutional strategy the BQ’s strategy is coherent, but it opens the way to criticisms that its defence of LGBTQ rights and secularism is asymmetrical. </p>
<p>The CPC could, however, be faced with the possibility of a province using the notwithstanding clause to pass legislation protecting “parental rights,” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/moe-parental-rights-christian-pronoun-1.6961432">a use recently confirmed by Premier Scott Moe in Saskatchewan</a>. It would be tricky for Poilievre to, on one hand, defend conservative provinces using the notwithstanding clause, and on the other, oppose Québec using the clause to defend its laws on secularism and the French language. Both the BQ and the CPC could therefore face catch-22 decision-making situations. </p>
<p>So a window could be opening up for Poilievre and the CPC. Wear and tear on Liberal power along with repeated Liberal blunders and economic challenges are all contributing to this. That said, the growing support of young people from different social and political trajectories for conservatism is part of a series of broader social and demographic changes that could shake up the political landscape for years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214934/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party could make gains by rallying the libertarian right, evangelical Christians and immigrant communities, especially Muslims, on issues of sexuality.Frédérick Guillaume Dufour, Professeur en sociologie politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)François Tanguay, Doctorant en science politique, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112392023-09-07T20:01:32Z2023-09-07T20:01:32ZFriday essay: homosexuality was still illegal when Frank Moorhouse started writing – but it was there from his earliest fiction<p>Frank Moorhouse had been having sex with men since the age of 17 but did not openly identify as gay or bisexual.</p>
<p>David Marr, who edited Moorhouse’s work at The National Times in the early 1980s, told me in an interview about Moorhouse: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was seen as a straight writer, no doubt about that […] it was really only with the publication of <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-everlasting-secret-family-9781742746586">The Everlasting Secret Family</a> [in 1980] that I began to think, ‘Oh maybe Frank’s a poof, maybe he’s bi, whatever.’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Marr, there was often a lag between what men who had sex with men did in private and what they wrote about, prior to the era when “coming out” was acceptable.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Patrick White’s words, the lag is disgraceful, and Patrick, of course, tended to make homosexuals figures of ridicule in his works for a very long time. I said to him once: “Why didn’t you write [positively about homosexuality or being homosexual] earlier?” […] He said: ‘It’s been impossible, my publishers told me it would be completely impossible.’</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-literary-life-of-frank-moorhouse-a-giant-of-australian-letters-185862">The literary life of Frank Moorhouse, a giant of Australian letters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Queer literature in Australia</h2>
<p>The history of gay and what is now known as queer literature in Australia has been fraught with debates over how homosexual characters and their desires are represented. </p>
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<p>When Moorhouse was writing his first collection of short stories, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/futility-and-other-animals-9781740511384">Futility and Other Animals</a>, in the late 1960s, he was deeply immersed in his first serious homosexual relationship – and it was a time when homosexual acts were illegal and outing himself as bisexual would have put him at risk of becoming a social pariah.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, the nascent gay liberation movement largely focused on changing laws that criminalised homosexual acts between men, and on “normalising” the notion of gay and lesbian relationships. The notion of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-gay-nazis-to-were-here-were-queer-a-century-of-arguing-about-gay-pride-78888">gay pride</a>” came later; the positive use of the term “queer”, let alone “queer fiction”, was not in existence.</p>
<p>A number of scholarly literary critics writing in the 1980s took issue with the way Moorhouse represented homosexual characters and acts in his early work. </p>
<p>Chelva Kanaganayakam writes, for instance, that the narrative voice in Moorhouse’s work is “instrumental in transforming a celebration of homosexuality into a castigation of it”. Stephen Kirby <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C413555">argues</a> that “the question of self-censorship within apparently ‘liberated’ texts has considerable application to Frank Moorhouse’s work”.</p>
<p>With his characteristic clarity, Dennis Altman <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C252074">refutes</a> this kind of hunting down of an “appropriate” representation of homosexual desire and makes the following point about Moorhouse’s portrayal of homosexuality: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To speak of “lesbian/gay” writing is to raise problems of boundaries and definition: the boundaries of politics are not those of literature, which tends to be more concerned with the ambivalences and ambiguities of individual lives than with the sociological construction of individual identities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Altman is alluding to the way that the shifts in political and social frameworks for understanding and advocating on behalf of LGBTQI identities are historically nuanced. </p>
<p>Essentially he is arguing that it is a misreading to project contemporary
notions of queer identities back onto earlier literary texts. He also opens up the question of whether it is ever appropriate to critique a work of literature on the basis that it somehow fails an ideological test.</p>
<p>Gay liberation was a movement of personal as well as political interest to Moorhouse. For all their espousal of unfettered sexual relationships, the men of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Push">the Push</a>, a loose collection of libertarian thinkers who gathered to drink, eat and talk about politics in the 50s, 60s and early 70s in Sydney, had little interest in opposing the oppression of homosexuals. </p>
<p>The only openly gay man in the Push for many years was a man known as Della. Anne Coombs <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3202961-sex-and-anarchy">writes</a> in her history of the Push that: “The men of the Push delighted in his stories. He sometimes fucked straight Push men when they were drunk.” Sandra Grimes hung out with a group of younger gay men from Sydney’s Northern Beaches; Coombs reports that they found the Push too straight for them.</p>
<p>Moorhouse said he never talked about homosexuality with the Push men. But he was writing about it in his earliest fiction and had been having sexual and romantic relationships with men since he arrived in Sydney in the late 1950s. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-hidden-in-plain-sight-australian-queer-men-and-women-before-gay-liberation-155964">Friday essay: hidden in plain sight — Australian queer men and women before gay liberation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘The police persecuted gays’</h2>
<p>I have chosen not to name any of the men with whom Moorhouse had multiple casual and long-term sexual relationships throughout his life, although the chronology and character of some of these relationships can be pieced together from letters in his archive. And I have steered away from using that material, because to do so would be to “out” a number of men who have lived outwardly heterosexual lives. </p>
<p>More importantly, the quotidian details of Moorhouse’s sex life are beside the point here. The interesting thing is how he grappled with his own anxieties about his sexuality in print – an act of astonishing commitment to self-interrogation and
to writing.</p>
<p>Moorhouse recalled that he seduced an older man, a work colleague, when he first arrived in Sydney, and that their sexual as well as personal relationship continued for many decades, crisscrossing the relationships he had with other women and men.</p>
<p>For Moorhouse, the relationship was a hinge in his sexual life. His parallel homosexual life, which continued after he married, was something that he “compartmentalised”. But in relation to his early writing, he reflected: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The word “gay” came a lot later. When I was writing about – drawing on – my own homosexual experiences there was no support system, and it was illegal and it was persecuted. I mean, the police persecuted gays. So it was a very different milieu to the world of the gay movement, and so it was much more furtive and dangerous, and dangerous in terms of one’s occupation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moorhouse drew on his homosexual experiences in his work nonetheless, observing: “I think when I was writing fiction, I had numbed myself to the risks I was taking.”</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Graham-Willett-Living-out-Loud-9781864489491">history of gay and lesbian activism in Australia</a>, Graham Willett writes that the gay community in this era </p>
<blockquote>
<p>differed most strongly from the later gay community in its nocturnal nature. It was a scene of the night and was very largely invisible to the rest of society. It was also, and most obviously, a radically apolitical scene. Its members hoped for nothing more than to be left alone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an Australia where same-sex marriage is legal, as it is in most Western democracies, it is difficult to imagine the violent institutionalised prejudice that gay men and lesbians faced so recently. There was scant history of organised gay politics in Australia until the <a href="https://www.pridehistory.org.au/camp-ink">Campaign Against Moral Persecution</a> (CAMP) was established in 1970 by John Ware and Christabel Poll. </p>
<p>Robert Reynolds <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/318853">writes</a> about the shifts that were occurring in gay identity and politics at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From 1970 to 1973, the first generation of CAMP activists participated in a remaking of Australian homosexuality. More specifically, it is possible to mark off these three years as a crucial phase in the creation of a homosexual who was, in CAMP’s own words, “open” and “proud”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prior to this era, homosexual life was lived clandestinely and was, for some men and women, a source of shame and conflict. In a short story published in <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-americans-baby-9781740511377">The Americans, Baby</a>, Moorhouse writes about a series of sexual encounters between the narrator, Carl, and an American journalist named Paul. After they first have sex, Carl leaves the American’s flat abruptly in disgust. But he agrees to drink with him again and returns to the same apartment.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This time they went to Paul’s bed. Afterwards, he lay there bewildered, wanting to run from the flat. The distance between himself in the bed and the clothes crumpled on the floor beside the bed, was too great. He could not make the move.<br>
‘Christ,’ he said bitterly, ‘you said we wouldn’t.’<br>
‘We’re too attracted,’ said Paul hopelessly.<br>
‘I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to do it. I’m not like this.’<br>
‘I’m not homosexual either,’ said Paul defensively, ‘we have affinity – it happens to people sometimes.’<br></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Experimental times</h2>
<p>Moorhouse grew up in a world where “passing” as straight was a basic necessity if you wanted to keep the love and approval of your family and the ability to earn a living and basic social acceptance. </p>
<p>The fact that he openly wrote homosexual characters into his first book of short stories is a mark of his commitment to his life as a writer, in the face of the undeniable pull his middle-class and conformist upbringing exercised on him. </p>
<p>In one story in <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/futility-and-other-animals-9781740511384">Futility and Other Animals</a> he writes about a young man who develops a sexual crush on a visiting American: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There in the alcove of the pub our hands gripped. Mine partly the grip of a mate and partly the grip of a lover. Mark’s? How did Mark’s hands grip? And then a blush. And then a laugh.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite the growing visibility of the gay liberation movement in the Balmain milieu, straight men, even self-professed radicals, were not always comfortable with homosexuality, according to Moorhouse. He once told me that “there’s a difference between politics and what men in an intensely homosocial society
were prepared to acknowledge”. </p>
<p>Michael Wilding remarks on Moorhouse’s homosexuality in his memoir, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91335622-growing-wild">Growing Wild</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Frank’s homosexuality was something it took me a while to realise […] Gillian and his other ex-girlfriends joked about our friendship, but I thought that was merely a joke and didn’t detect the dark undercurrents. His proud announcement that he had opened the dancing at the Purple Onion [a gay club] meant nothing to me, night clubs were never part of my world. As far as I knew his late-night runs in Rushcutters Bay park were just part of his exercise routine.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After this slightly anxious reflection on Moorhouse’s homosexual side, Wilding recounts that, “drunk or stoned after the pub or a party”, he once gave into the “experimental times” and decided to “experiment” with his friend.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I climbed into his bed. He lay there inert. I reached out in the direction of his genitals but encountered nothing. Significant absence, as the literary theorists put it. Then one of us fell out of the bed. It was a narrow one. I don’t know whether it was then that peering over the side to see where he had fallen, or lying on the floor looking under the bed, I saw the rifle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s an interesting segue from the penis to the gun, and one guaranteed to waken the Freudian in Moorhouse. Wilding goes on to say that seeing the rifle caused him to harbour oddly unspecified “grim suspicions”. </p>
<p>Moorhouse was open about keeping a gun at the time of this incident. Indeed, as he recounts in the documentary A Writer’s Camp, made by director Judy Rymer in 1987, he bought a Winchester rifle with his first publisher’s advance, “to satisfy a boyish dream”. </p>
<p>In the film, which details the 19 years he spent at Ewenton Street in Balmain, where he had his writer’s studio, Moorhouse is interviewed by his desk and goes to the corner of his office to take the rifle out of its carrying case. He used the rifle for hunting with his friend and patron Murray Sime. </p>
<p>Moorhouse goes on to say that it played a number of parts in his life: “If it was under the bed, it scared away the phantoms of anxiety” and that “in very low periods it’s been the rifle I’ve considered using to end it all”.</p>
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<p>It seems unlikely that Wilding, who was a close friend of Moorhouse’s at the time, would have been unaware that his fellow author owned at least one gun. Wilding’s anecdote about the fumbled sexual encounter and the gun under the bed is, however, illuminating on another count. </p>
<p>Moorhouse always juggled an apparent but central contradiction in his personality and his interests. On one hand, he was a man with a strong sense of his feminine side. Moorhouse had a lifelong interest in cross-dressing in private, and he talked openly in interviews about it. On the other, he always enjoyed traditionally masculine pursuits such as going bush and hunting. </p>
<p>This apparent contradiction in his own personality and persona is connected to his lifelong fascination with crossing borders – including the borders of gender and sexuality. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Catharine-Lumby-Frank-Moorhouse-9781742372242/">Frank Moorhouse: A Life</a> by Catharine Lumby (Allen & Unwin).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Lumby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Frank Moorhouse had a lifelong fascination with crossing borders – including the borders of gender and sexuality. It was reflected in both his life and his writing.Catharine Lumby, Professor of Media, Department of Media, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115752023-08-15T15:56:34Z2023-08-15T15:56:34ZAdults: how a sex play about boomers v millennials brings both together<p>Kieran Hurley’s new play <a href="https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/adults-festival-23">Adults</a> brilliantly illuminates an intergenerational clash that should leave <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2008/06/25/baby-boomers-the-gloomiest-generation/">boomers</a> (born between 1945 and 1964) and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">millennials</a> (born between 1981 and 1996) in the audience with a little more empathy for each other.</p>
<p>It all starts entertainingly when a strawberry milkshake bursts open in the face of Iain (Conleth Hill) just as he arrives early at the flat of thirtysomething Zara (Dani Heron). Zara is a sex worker who runs her business from home “collectively and ethically”.</p>
<p>Iain, in his 60s, married with two grown-up daughters, is completely out of his comfort zone and there to have sex with a young man: Zara’s business partner, Jay (Anders Hayward), who is running late.</p>
<p>As Iain wipes the pink goo from his face, Zara recognises him as her former teacher Mr Urquhart. And so Hurley sets up his character triangle. For the next 80 minutes, the audience has the pleasure of watching Zara, Iain and Jay argue with, blackmail, and eventually simply hold each other across the generational divide.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/29/millennials-struggling-is-it-fault-of-baby-boomers-intergenerational-fairness">spat</a> between boomers and millennials has been rumbling on for the last few years, pitting the former against their children’s/grandchildren’s generation who are viewed as whiny, lazy snowflakes with an overinflated sense of entitlement.</p>
<p>Conversely, millennials view boomers as the generation that took everything, ruined everything, and have left very little for those who came after. As journalist David Barnett has succinctly <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/millenials-generation-x-baby-boomers-a7570326.html">pointed out</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Boomers live in the past and have ransomed the future. Millennials fear the future and are ignorant of the past.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Envy, resentment, misunderstanding</h2>
<p>Disappointed expectations and repressed resentment bubble up during Zara’s and Iain’s initial confrontation, which plays out in her small one-bedroom flat while she matter-of-factly turns her living space into a brothel, replete with dildo collection (set and costume design: Anna Orton).</p>
<p>Zara, a literature graduate now earning money through sex work, begrudges the older generation their safe careers and settled lifestyles, and resents her teacher for instilling in her the bogus belief she could do anything with her life. Iain, meanwhile, feels trapped and envies the younger generation their seeming freedom, abandon and sexual confidence.</p>
<p>Both are deliberately ignoring the fact that the object of their envy is a fantasy. Iain is oblivious to the fact that the carefreeness of the younger generation (the young men he watches in his videos) is largely performed for a capitalist market that values only these qualities.</p>
<p>Zara’s resentment, meanwhile, doesn’t take into account that the apparent safety of her teacher’s generation came at the expense of not pursuing other, maybe more exciting or fulfilling alternatives.</p>
<p>Their debate treads the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/29/millennials-struggling-is-it-fault-of-baby-boomers-intergenerational-fairness">familiar territory</a> of millennial precarity versus boomer affluence, but is nonetheless supremely entertaining. Spontaneous applause rewards Zara’s viciously eloquent takedown of Iain’s cherished memories of reading his kids Thomas the Tank Engine, which, according to Zara, is simply “pseudo-imperialist nostalgic colonial nonsense … some big nostalgic cry-wank for a lost idea of Britain”. </p>
<p>However, once Jay arrives, with his infant daughter screaming in the pram, the stakes are raised considerably. While Zara berates him for bringing his daughter to work, he insists that she owes him money, thus revealing her talk of an ethical and “non-hierarchical business practice” as hypocritical.</p>
<p>Jay needs money to secure shared custody of his daughter. And when the little one finally goes to sleep, he puts all his expertise into performing the willing, lascivious little “twink” to seduce the inhibited Iain and earn his money.</p>
<h2>Comedy and tragedy</h2>
<p>Hayward and Hill (who played Varys, Master of the Whisperers, in Game of Thrones) excel in this seduction scene that alternates beautifully between moments of physical comedy and verbal exchanges that reveal profound sadness. Hill’s Iain, a sexually inexperienced older man who has never explored his desires, gradually develops into a tentative, then enthusiastic punter who enjoys roleplay – only to revert to the condescending, middle-class teacher who judges Jay for how he earns his money and is scathing about his parenting.</p>
<p>Hayward’s Jay writhes seductively on the floor, performs the invested listener and works his literal butt off, but draws the line at being insulted. When he vindictively posts a compromising picture of Iain on Facebook, the secrets that Iain and Zara have kept from their families are revealed.</p>
<p>Roxana Silbert’s confident direction lets the play text breathe and leaves room for her actors to insert some well-timed physical comedy – Hill sliding/falling off various bits of furniture hits the spot every time. </p>
<p>In the end, Iain, shocked but also relieved that he has nothing more to lose, comes clean to his wife in the face of his very public outing. The humbled Zara acknowledges in yet another reference to children’s literature, this time <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lorax/dr-seuss/9780007455935">The Lorax by Dr Seuss</a>, that she just might be a “Once-ler” too – meaning to “accept that the world you’re passing on is in a worse state than when you inherited it”.</p>
<p>Before the lights go out, we see Jay, the overwhelmed millennial father, lying on the bed holding the sobbing Iain, while offstage the voice of his crying baby clamours for attention to the coming generation.</p>
<p>With Adults, Hurley, a millennial author himself, seems to appeal to his own generation to let go of their rage, be more understanding of their elders, and accept that, one day, they too will to be blamed for the future. Because as it turns out, confirms Iain: “Everyone always grows up thinking it’s the end of the world.”</p>
<p><em>Adults is showing until August 27 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann-Christine Simke is affiliated with the theatre company Stellar Quines. She is a member of the board for the company.</span></em></p>Kieran Hurley’s new play treads the familiar debate of millennial precarity versus boomer affluence with verve and insight.Ann-Christine Simke, Lecturer in Performance, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081382023-06-23T09:09:00Z2023-06-23T09:09:00ZExpanding gay sex pardons to women won’t help most prosecuted lesbians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533539/original/file-20230622-17-ulbw9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=122%2C213%2C5343%2C3434&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mature-female-couple-waving-pride-flag-1160297098">Stephm2506/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than a decade after launching a scheme to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disregarding-convictions-for-decriminalised-sexual-offences">disregard and pardon convictions</a> for historic “gay sex” offences, the government has now announced the scheme will <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65878427">apply to women</a>. But a look at the history of lesbians and bisexual women convicted for same-sex activity shows that this will do very little to right historic wrongs. </p>
<p>When the scheme was created in 2012, it was limited to cautions and convictions for buggery (anal intercourse) or gross indecency between men. Neither offence applied to sex between women. Anyone convicted of other offences on the basis of same-sex activity could not obtain a pardon or disregard. A disregard means that the offence is deleted from official records and is not disclosed during criminal record checks. Since 2017, a pardon has automatically been granted at the same time. </p>
<p>The new scheme includes any offence which has been abolished or repealed, where the “criminal” conduct was same-sex sexual activity. However, it does not do much to help women, because sex between women has never been a specific offence. (The exception is armed forces veterans <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/lgbt-veterans-independent-review/about#background-to-the-ban-and-legal-context">convicted under military laws</a>, which were interpreted as prohibiting homosexual acts.) </p>
<p>Instead, prosecutors were inventive in their use of non-sexual offences, many of which remain in force today. I’ve detailed many of these cases in <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-35300-1">my book</a> on lesbianism and criminal law.</p>
<p>Before same-sex marriage became legally recognised in 2013, some couples’ attempts to marry ended in court. They were charged with perjury, for making false statements to obtain a marriage certificate. <a href="https://transpont.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-lewisham-transgender-marriage-in-1954.html">A couple who attempted to marry in 1954</a> were convicted of this offence. The bridegroom was in fact a trans man, but the magistrates’ court considered the couple as lesbians and condemned their “unnatural passions”. Since perjury is still an offence today, they would not be entitled to a pardon. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pardons-for-historic-homosexual-offences-are-welcome-but-we-still-need-to-address-the-legacy-of-criminalisation-174371">Pardons for historic homosexual offences are welcome - but we still need to address the legacy of criminalisation</a>
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<p>Less serious offences were rarely reported in the press, so there have probably been many more cases than we are aware of. In particular, minor displays of public same-sex affection have come before the courts as breaches of public order. </p>
<p>Breach of the peace has been used for centuries and as recently as 1980, a lesbian couple who kissed goodbye at a railway station were detained by police. They were later released without charge, but if they had been prosecuted, they would not be entitled to a pardon. </p>
<p>Breach of the peace has not been abolished, and is technically not a conviction since a person is not punished, but is “<a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/binding-over-orders">bound over to be of good behaviour</a>” – meaning they agree to behave for a set period, and will be punished if they do not. </p>
<p>An alternative is conviction under public order offences, whose broad definitions have been used to criminalise same-sex affection. In 1986, two men were convicted of “nuisances in thoroughfares” under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/2-3/47/section/54">Metropolitan Police Act 1839</a> after kissing at a bus stop. This has been partially repealed, but similar offences under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64/section/5">Public Order Act 1986</a> are still in force so pardons would not be available.</p>
<p>One sexual offence which was used to convict women has been repealed: indecent assault. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 replaced it with sexual assault offences. However, a woman would only be convicted of “indecent assault of a female” if the other person was under 16 or did not consent. Rightly, such behaviour remains criminal today. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo of champagne flutes raised in a toast, while two brides embrace in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533546/original/file-20230622-23-xhm9jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before 2004, lesbians’ attempts to marry often ended in court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-flutes-champagne-held-by-company-2198228793">Pressmaster/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This exclusion of women is not just an unfortunate oversight. It is part of a <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/law/lesbianism-and-the-criminal-law-england-and-wales">long history of silencing</a> the possibility of sex between women as a way of repressing it. In other words, legislators did not just forget to make it a crime or decide to tolerate it. They were vehemently opposed to it, but feared that if women heard about it then their own wives and daughters might try it. </p>
<p>For example, in a <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/55535/">1921 debate</a> on criminalising “gross indecency between females”, Lieutenant Colonel Moore Brabazon MP insisted that rather than execute or imprison lesbians (both “very satisfactory”), it was better “to leave them entirely alone, not notice them, not advertise them. That is the method that has been adopted in England for many hundred years.” Parliament has arguably continued “not noticing” women in the newly expanded disregard and pardon scheme. </p>
<h2>A flawed scheme</h2>
<p>The lack of consideration of women’s legal position is not the only problem with this scheme. Despite thousands of eligible convictions, there have been only <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statistics-on-the-disregard-and-pardon-for-historical-gay-sexual-convictions/statistics-on-disregards-and-pardons-for-historical-gay-sexual-convictions">208 successful applications</a> by men. </p>
<p>The strict eligibility criteria poses many barriers for applicants, and as a result, two out of three applications have been rejected. To benefit from the scheme, applicants must provide documents and share details of often traumatic events. A caseworker then considers the case records and makes a decision. </p>
<p>But establishing the circumstances of a conviction can be difficult decades after the original events. Records may be missing or incomplete. They might omit details confirming that the activity would not be criminal today (for example, whether the other party was over 16 and consented). As the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1162391/013574_Disregards_Caseworker_Guidance_12.06.23.pdf">guidance to caseworkers</a> makes clear, applications can be rejected because of that missing information. </p>
<p>Access to a disregard and pardon is important in practice since criminal convictions can blight people’s lives. It is important in principle because it acknowledges the injustice of convictions based upon legal discrimination. </p>
<p>However, the scheme does not adequately meet these needs – and for women in particular, the recent reforms will not change that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Derry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sex between women has never been specifically outlawed.Caroline Derry, Senior Lecturer in Law, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048862023-05-31T12:39:02Z2023-05-31T12:39:02ZSummer reading: 5 books that explore LGBTQ teen and young adult life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528449/original/file-20230526-19-zowllg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C5137%2C3350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming of age brings new challenges for central characters who are discovering their own sexuality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/reading-at-the-beach-royalty-free-image/102491237?phrase=summer+reading&adppopup=true">Chris Hackett via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In recognition of LGBT Pride Month, The Conversation reached out to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uBrR7S0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Jonathan Alexander</a> – an English professor with a scholarly interest in the interplay between sexuality and literature – for recommendations of young adult fiction books that feature LGBTQ characters. What follows is a list that Alexander, who has just stepped down as the children’s and young adult fiction section editor for the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/">Los Angeles Review of Books</a>, considers as “must-reads” for this summer.</em></p>
<h2>1. Darius the Great Is Not Okay</h2>
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<img alt="Two boys sitting and looking at an urban landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Darius the Great Is Not Okay’ by Adib Khorram.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
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<p>Written by Adib Khorram, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Darius the Great Is Not Okay</a>” is told from the perspective of a Persian American teen battling an anxiety disorder while navigating the complexities of growing up in a culturally mixed household. Darius’ parents – an Iranian immigrant mother and a white father – are kind and sympathetic, even as they are dealing with their own issues, including the dad’s struggle with mental health issues and the mother’s attempt to maintain family relations with relatives in a country that is not only halfway around the world but whose government is viewed with suspicion by many Americans. Still, Darius’ family pulls together, even making a trip to Iran to visit relatives. While there, Darius learns about his cultural background as Persian, makes a lifelong friend in an Iranian cousin, and considers his own sexuality. He might be gay. How will that complicate his life? </p>
<p>Khorram beautifully handles the challenges – and pleasures – of growing up in a culturally mixed but rich and loving household while also dealing with mental health challenges and identity exploration. And there are a lot of sweet touches throughout, including a love of tea and “Star Trek.” Highly recommended for its sensitivity and authenticity. </p>
<h2>2. Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Two teenagers holding hands and smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution’ by Kacen Callender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/lark-kasim-start-a-revolution_9781419756870/">Abrams Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Kacen Callender, whose groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/felix-ever-after-kacen-callender?variant=32280909578274">Felix Ever After</a>” delighted readers with its tale of a Black trans boy learning how to navigate being in and out of love, returns with a new book just as compellingly real. Lark and Kasim are old friends whose relationship has seen better days. Lark is working hard at being a writer while also trying to help Kasim figure out how to handle the complexities of living at least part of their young lives in the shadows of social media. Ultimately, the book is as much about forging friendships – and learning how to handle their evolution – as about crushes and teen love. </p>
<p>With richly drawn nonbinary and queer characters, “Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution” joins Callender’s previous award-winning books in contributing beautifully written and deeply imagined Black, queer and trans characters that readers of all kinds will come to love. </p>
<h2>3. Last Night at the Telegraph Club</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An empty city street with two people holding hands under a lamppost." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Malinda Lo’s<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/"> National Book Award-winning novel</a> is set in mid-20th-century San Francisco, in a Chinese American immigrant community in which Lily Hu has to learn to deal with racism, the “Red Scare” and the possibility that she might be a lesbian. A masterwork of historical young adult literature, “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” introduces readers to how lesbian communities formed – and thrived – even during some of the most repressive and homophobic moments in U.S. history. </p>
<p>Lo’s novel joins her previous works, such as the groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.malindalo.com/ash">Ash</a>,” a retelling of Cinderella from a lesbian perspective, in creating exciting and affirming work for young queer readers, as well as for anyone who cares for those questioning their sexuality and sense of belonging in the world. </p>
<h2>4. Café Con Lychee</h2>
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<img alt="Two boys making eye contact in front of sugary snacks and drinks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Café Con Lychee’ by Emery Lee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/cafe-con-lychee-emery-lee?variant=40682132668450">Harper Collins Publishers</a></span>
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<p>Emery Lee’s delicious novel centers on the rivalry between an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery in a small Vermont town – with both eateries facing competition from a new fusion restaurant that has just opened. The families that own the cafés each have a young son working in them – Theo and Gabi, respectively – who have to learn to overcome their own rivalry and help their families survive the precarities of operating a business in a world of cutthroat capitalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780063210271/cafe-con-lychee/">Café Con Lychee</a>” shows how love survives economic challenges and family foibles as the two young men move from rivalry to romance. A sweet and nourishing tale, the book offers readers a relatable glimpse into making it – and making out – during a time of economic upheaval.</p>
<h2>5. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A red truck parked on grass at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’ by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Aristotle-and-Dante-Discover-the-Secrets-of-the-Universe/Benjamin-Alire-Saenz/Aristotle-and-Dante/9781665925419">Simon & Schuster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I want to conclude this year’s summer reading list with an older work – Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s still beautiful, still vital and still very necessary paean to young gay love. Ari and Dante, from two different walks of life, learn to find love and self-acceptance in this beautifully written book. At the start of the book, Ari is dealing with family trouble, including a brother in prison, and Dante is perhaps a bit too smart for his own good. The two meet at a swimming pool one summer, setting the stage for a steamy exploration of friendship that might turn into something more. If you haven’t read “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” catch up this summer with this classic of contemporary LGBTQ young adult fiction, and then check out its recently published sequel, “Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World.” Happy reading!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of young adult fiction presents a fresh list of LGBTQ ‘must-reads’ for the summer of 2023.Jonathan Alexander, Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045752023-05-02T09:28:01Z2023-05-02T09:28:01ZQueerphobia in Kenya: a supreme court ruling on gay rights triggers a new wave of anger against the LGBTIQ+ community<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523226/original/file-20230427-16-icyfbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstrator at Queer Republic protests in Nairobi, Kenya. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Ochieng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Kenyan supreme court recently struck down a government decision to ban the registration of an LGBTIQ+ community rights organisation, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/15/how-an-lgbtq-court-ruling-sent-kenya-into-a-moral-panic">sparking new homophobic rhetoric</a> in the country. Kenya is one of <a href="https://database.ilga.org/criminalisation-consensual-same-sex-sexual-acts">32 African countries</a> that criminalises homosexuality. Those who identify as part of the LGBTIQ+ community are often discriminated against, harassed and assaulted. Lise Woensdregt and Naomi van Stapele, who have researched queer experiences in Kenya for nine years, explain the impact of this ruling.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>What is the significance of the recent Kenyan supreme court ruling on a gay rights organisation?</h2>
<p>The Kenyan supreme court ruled on 24 February 2023 that <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10OYaKTuvDvkpBUB5GFLXcf8fmrGFr645/view">the government was wrong</a> to ban the LGBTIQ+ community from registering the <a href="https://nglhrc.com/">National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission</a>. The commission provides legal aid, and works to change the law and policy around LGBTIQ+ persons in Kenya. The commission <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64491276">celebrated this court ruling</a> as a small but significant affirmation of its place in Kenyan society.</p>
<p>The ruling, however, didn’t alter the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/24/kenya-court-upholds-archaic-anti-homosexuality-laws">Kenyan penal code</a>, which criminalises sexual acts “<a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/28595/115477/F-857725769/KEN28595.pdf#page=62">against the order of nature</a>”. This, in effect, criminalises same-sex sexual acts. Those found guilty <a href="https://icj-kenya.org/?smd_process_download=1&download_id=5018">face</a> up to 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>The law has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/15/how-an-lgbtq-court-ruling-sent-kenya-into-a-moral-panic">fuelled stigma and discrimination</a> against queer individuals, making them more vulnerable to violence. </p>
<p>We have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2020.1842499">studying</a> queer experiences <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0337-x">in Nairobi</a>, working closely with LGBTIQ+ self-led organisations. Those involved in <a href="https://northumbriajournals.co.uk/index.php/IJGSL/article/view/1264">our research</a> have been experiencing mounting violence in recent years. The ruling <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-03-16-gay-people-fear-for-their-lives-escape-mombasa-over-planned-demos/">triggered fears</a> among members of the LGBTIQ+ community across Kenya of increased violence.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1636702221743079425"}"></div></p>
<h2>What have the political responses been?</h2>
<p>A backlash against progress in gender and sexual rights is not uncommon. Pushing for progress in these areas can <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-27-the-pink-line-the-worlds-queer-frontiers-the-new-book-from-mark-gevisser/#gsc.tab=0">evoke hate and counter-offensives</a>. </p>
<p>The Kenyan government has joined churches and mosques in their vitriol condemning not only the supreme court judges, but also LGBTIQ+ activists, organisations and citizens. For example, a member of parliament declared that being LGBTIQ+ is <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-03-01-lgbtq-is-worse-than-murder-for-us-farah-maalim/">worse than murder</a>. He described homosexuality as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a foreign practice from the West that’s not aligned with African cultures and as such, severe punishment should be meted out on offenders. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kenya’s deputy president Rigathi Gachagua added that the government wouldn’t “<a href="https://twitter.com/rigathi/status/1631244014744739841?s=20">condone</a>” same-sex relations, a sentiment shared by president William Ruto. The president <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/03/02/we-shall-not-condone-any-attempts-to-legitimise-lgbtq-kenya-deputy-president-warns//">has previously said</a> that unemployment and hunger are the “real” issues, not LGBTIQ+ concerns, and that tradition must be respected. </p>
<p>Kenya’s first lady, <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-03-06-first-lady-to-lead-prayers-against-lgbtq-onslaught-on-family/">Rachel Ruto</a>, has also claimed that LGBTIQ+ people are a threat to the institution of the family. Another member of parliament, Peter Kaluma, recently submitted a <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-04-08-details-of-kalumas-bill-on-criminalising-lgbtq/">family protection bill</a> that includes provisions to criminalise LGBTIQ+ organising, funding and, what is ominously termed, “behaviours”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kenya-should-decriminalise-homosexuality-4-compelling-reasons-why-203767">Kenya should decriminalise homosexuality: 4 compelling reasons why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Amid all this, LGBTIQ+ self-led organisations <a href="https://www.galck.org/">have struggled</a> to offer a safe space for individuals to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2022.2146526?src=">find belonging, acceptance and recognition</a>, and to work towards social, political and economic justice collectively. Some, including those that <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenya-should-decriminalise-homosexuality-4-compelling-reasons-why-203767">provide HIV services</a>, have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O89qRCvXDVU&t=4s">had to close</a> for fear of attacks. </p>
<h2>Based on your research, what have you learnt about what it’s like for LGBTIQ+ people in Kenya?</h2>
<p>Over our nine years of research into queer experiences, we’ve worked closely with grassroots LGBTIQ+ organisations and activists. We are continuously in touch with queer activists, who we speak with as part of our ongoing engagement with and support for queer self-led organisations in Kenya. They have told us that the recent supreme court decision was a step towards decriminalising same-sex sexual acts and was cause for celebration. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the ruling <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/15/how-an-lgbtq-court-ruling-sent-kenya-into-a-moral-panic">unleashed vicious anti-LGBTIQ+ attacks</a> targeting organisations, activists and citizens. One young queer activist* told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is more dangerous now. Our friends are evicted (from their houses). Some have been beaten in the streets. In WhatsApp groups with family or work, people write anti-queer things, and you need to stay silent not to out yourself. You can lose everything if you are found out. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another queer activist* told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the WhatsApp group with parents from school, parents write how to warn our children (against) recruitment by LGBTIQ+ people, and I am in that app. I can’t say anything because it will harm my son. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>*Those we interviewed are anonymous for safety reasons</em></p>
<h2>What can be done to empower queer individuals and groups in Kenya?</h2>
<p>Many Kenyan LGBTIQ+ self-led organisations collaborate with government agencies – such as the <a href="https://nsdcc.go.ke/about-us/">National Syndemic Diseases Control Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.nascop.or.ke/about-us/">National AIDS and STIs Control Programme</a>. They also <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0337-x">work with</a> several national and international civil society organisations on health, women rights, sexual and reproductive rights, and social justice. The silence of LGBTIQ+ partners is deafening. As one queer activist told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They eat with us, but when things get tough, we stand alone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eating together here refers to the funds many such organisations receive from donors to work with LGBTIQ+ self-led organisations. </p>
<p>The silence of civil society, including those who collaborate with LGBTIQ+ groups in Kenya and receive funding for this, and the international media is concerning. This silence sends a dangerous message to the government and religious organisations: they can freely target queer individuals and groups without facing resistance or solidarity from the broader community.</p>
<p>The fight for equality and safety for the LGBTIQ+ community requires sustained effort from national and international organisations and governments. On an individual level, financial support is needed as it can empower individuals who identify as LGBTIQ+, providing them with resources, such as the ability to relocate to safer locations. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2020.1842499">research</a>, several members told us of the risks they face in Nairobi’s low-income settlements where they live. In these settings, traditional patriarchal masculinity practices – breadwinner-ship, heterosexuality and dominance over women – are celebrated. Not being able to pass as heterosexual is perceived as risky.</p>
<p>Promoting safe spaces and access to stable incomes on a collective level can create a foundation that empowers queer individuals and groups to fight for dignity and respect. </p>
<p>The voices of those affected by anti-LGBTIQ+ violence must be heard and amplified by those who seek a more just and equal world. Only through collective action and solidarity can the LGBTIQ+ community be protected, valued and celebrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi van Stapele is affiliated with Minority Womxn in Action — MWA, a queer activist organisation in Kenya. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lise Woensdregt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A backlash against progress in gender and sexual rights is common.Lise Woensdregt, PhD Candidate in Sociology, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNaomi van Stapele, Professor in Inclusive Education, Hague University of Applied SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2044312023-04-29T13:49:20Z2023-04-29T13:49:20ZUganda’s anti-homosexuality bill wants to ‘rehabilitate’ LGBTIQ+ people – African psychologists warn of its dangers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523006/original/file-20230426-24-gec1ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sukhomoy Sen/Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.psyssa.com/psyssa-sgd-hosts-meeting-of-african-mental-health-professionals/">Mental health professionals</a> from across Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa, have signed <a href="https://www.change.org/LGBTQ_Declaration2023">a declaration</a> against conversion practices that are used to forcibly change the sexual orientation, gender identity or expression of LGBTIQ+ people.</p>
<p>The declaration unambiguously rejects any attempts by mental health professionals to use conversion. The declaration has already been officially endorsed by expert organisations, such as the <a href="https://pathsa.org.za/">Professional Association for Transgender Health</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the practices described in the declaration are included in the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/20/ugandas-president-museveni-refuses-to-sign-lgbtq-bill?traffic_source=KeepReading">proposed by Uganda’s parliament</a>. Ugandan lawmakers have proposed to “rehabilitate” people who are sexually or gender diverse. PsySSA president, professor Floretta Boonzaier, has described the bill to me as “an attack on human dignity, well-being, autonomy and self-determination”.</p>
<p>Conversion practices – or so-called reparative therapies – are <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/nothing-to-cure-putting-an-end-to-so-called-conversion-therapies-for-lgbti-people">unscientific</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/IESOGI/CSOsAJ/IFEG_Statement_on_C.T._for_publication.pdf">do not work</a>.</p>
<p>Yet they are widely used across the continent. <a href="https://outrightinternational.org/insights/fight-end-conversion-practices-africa">Research</a> conducted in three African countries in 2019 found that half of the respondents suffered some form of conversion. These included talk therapy, exorcism, drinking herbs, healing prayers, beatings or sexual assault.</p>
<p>South African psychologists with <a href="https://www.psyssa.com/practice-guidelines-for-psychology-professionals-working-with-sexually-and-gender-diverse-people/">expertise</a> in sexuality and gender have condemned the bill. It goes against <a href="https://work.chron.com/ethical-principals-psychologists-code-conduct-8203.html">a core ethical duty</a> to promote well-being and to minimise harm. </p>
<p>Two examples illustrate this. Firstly, psychologists will be expected to breach confidentiality if a client discloses that they are (or may be) LGBTIQ+. Professionals who don’t report these clients to the police risk six months imprisonment. Secondly, psychologists, and presumably other health workers, will be expected to “rehabilitate” LGBTIQ+ people.</p>
<p>Pierre Brouard, the acting director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender at the University of Pretoria, said in an email conversation that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>this climate of fear would be a betrayal of everything our profession stands for. It is unthinkable that any mental health professional could work in this climate, and we call on all in our profession to condemn this attack on us, and the clients we serve. Reporting clients to the authorities <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00814-0/fulltext">would be harmful</a>, would inhibit wellness, would invalidate trust, would lack integrity, would be inherently unjust and would damage any relationship of confidentiality.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No scientific grounding</h2>
<p>Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has requested a science-informed response to the bill. But he has ignored evidence-based critiques that have been presented to him over the years, dating back to <a href="https://www.psyssa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/PsySSA-Press-release-statement-combined_25022010.pdf">2010</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/uganda-letter">2014</a>. Brouard has said the bill </p>
<blockquote>
<p>is anti-science and represents a backward step in contemporary understanding of human nature.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-a-more-meaningful-understanding-of-sexual-orientation-42641">The science behind a more meaningful understanding of sexual orientation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, in 2015, The Academy of Science in South Africa, in collaboration with the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, concluded in a <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/8-June-Diversity-in-human-sexuality1.pdf">comprehensive review of the evidence</a>, that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>contemporary science increasingly recognises the wide range of natural variation in human sexuality, sexual orientations and gender identities</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>there is no justification for attempts to eliminate people who are not heterosexual from society.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Perpetuating harm</h2>
<p>The bill is an assault on already vulnerable sexual and gender minorities. </p>
<p>Professor Kopano Ratele, an acclaimed <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/liberating-masculinities">African psychology</a> scholar, said via email that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the bill is, at its core, inhuman. Contrary to the sentiment of homosexuality as unAfrican, the bill expresses an unAfrican spirit. It seems that the bill is essentially about some people desiring to control the bodies, relationships, and the inner lives of others. What is so frightening about people loving others?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>LGBTIQ+ people are consistently <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.4102/hsag.v26i0.1487">at a higher risk</a> of developing mental health disorders. This is due to homophobia, transphobia and prejudice against their very identities. </p>
<p>The bill goes beyond criminalising sexual behaviour between consenting adults. Dr Jarred Martin, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, said (via email):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It criminalises identity by prescribing prosecution for how people think, feel, identify, and, ultimately, who and how they love. This attempt to criminalise love is something that South Africans are all too familiar with, having lived under colonial and apartheid era laws which cast love in legal terms as moral or immoral.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similar anti-LGBTIQ+ efforts are underway in other African countries. <a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/04/kenya-safe-havens-at-risk-with-draconian-anti-gay-bill/">Kenya</a> is currently targeting people under a Family Protection Bill. And in <a href="https://www.mambaonline.com/2023/04/13/tanzania-mps-seek-to-tighten-anti-lgbt-laws/">Tanzania</a>, castration is being touted as a punishment for gay men.</p>
<p>Christian evangelical churches from the US have been <a href="https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31262664/2011_conference_HIV_prevention_sexual_minorities-libre.pdf?1392249132=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DHow_and_why_HIV_prevention_efforts_have.pdf&Expires=1682289428&Signature=HPkAAoCXK9uLKDHcT9jG3iaZ8H7m0CywRbiMSmwAdpiWpAeisMHZ%7EV8G3A3qp3ZbMCFF9uf9TimJ-q2m-TgD5nWV2-phfbndU%7EDl9ypRlrrz9qGn-CP5FvSUD0iw6wx1LgOWnie4LR2BSNMmj1I9qaay26xRPgqqyz3IUBdI4-ruxdwBmRNoc2JY3TWXlL7vb5Dx0KS%7EbcCQY2qrT69npfJWOVc8PP5%7EIAUCtPa2orpdhnoyXOP%7Em8CxADy26Cczp1dRV5NJyW1Uzge9umESc4rPivg0hCcfZPme-SJTxWtZ4zniDsYun8Vtk1oj7RGVVAkr0zT7enf-Mw3sIkiQdQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA">directly linked</a> to current anti-LGBTIQ+ ideologies in African countries. </p>
<h2>The next steps</h2>
<p>The message is clear: all psychologists, but especially those of us based on the African continent, should stand together in condemning Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. </p>
<p>We call on mental health professionals from across Africa to <a href="https://chng.it/dFggtTSZkW">sign</a> and endorse the declaration and to join the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/19/africa/uganda-anti-lgbtq-bill-scientists-open-letter-intl/index.html">growing chorus of experts</a> who have condemned Uganda’s dangerous bill. </p>
<p>The PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division, for example, has been at the forefront of leading a science-informed critique of the Ugandan bill. In 2017, PsySSA published a pioneering set of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0081246319853423?journalCode=sapc">practice guidelines</a> for psychology professionals working with LGBTIQ+ people. This was a first in Africa and has been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214109X22000018">translated and used</a> in other African countries as a global mental health resource. Psychologists, therefore, can and should show leadership in promoting human rights and LGBTIQ+ wellbeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suntosh R Pillay is affiliated with the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) as an executive member of its Sexuality and Gender Division.</span></em></p>The proposed law reinforces unscientific conversion practices – or so-called reparative therapies – that don’t work.Suntosh R Pillay, Clinical Psychologist, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2037672023-04-18T12:19:39Z2023-04-18T12:19:39ZKenya should decriminalise homosexuality: 4 compelling reasons why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520830/original/file-20230413-14-r1pv5c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists agitate for equal rights for all in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya has recently seen the <a href="https://kohljournal.press/health-and-freedom">increasing visibility</a> of sexual and gender minorities. However, this has been met with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/15/how-an-lgbtq-court-ruling-sent-kenya-into-a-moral-panic">a growing backlash</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4uGzjZIzM8">Religious</a> and <a href="https://ntvkenya.co.ke/news/gachagua-on-lgbtq-those-are-satanic-beliefs/">political leaders</a> have been spreading homophobic and transphobic rhetoric. This has happened with the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/28/issue-violence/attacks-lgbt-people-kenyas-coast">tacit approval</a> of a law enforcement apparatus that’s supposed to guarantee the right to equal protection. </p>
<p>The continued criminalisation of same-sex sexual relations among consenting adults in Kenya worsens social disparities and inequalities. It fuels socioeconomic and health vulnerabilities. </p>
<p>It <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308163037_Freedom_Corner_Redefining_HIV_and_AIDS_care_and_support_among_men_who_have_sex_with_men_in_Nairobi_Kenya">deprives members of these minority groups</a> access to education, a livelihood, and basic services like housing and healthcare. Criminalisation pushes <a href="https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/18012125/Thesis.pdf">sexual and gender minorities to the margins of society</a>. Research has shown that sexual and gender minorities are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308163037_Freedom_Corner_Redefining_HIV_and_AIDS_care_and_support_among_men_who_have_sex_with_men_in_Nairobi_Kenya">consistently targeted</a> for unfair dismissal from jobs or business opportunities. </p>
<p>The decriminalisation of same-sex relations among adults would lead to four positive outcomes: inclusive development for economic growth, improved health outcomes, the safety and security of sexual minorities, and an acceptance of diversity and equality. This view is based on our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emmy-Kageha">research on social exclusion</a>, with a focus on <a href="https://kohljournal.press/health-and-freedom">sexual and gender minorities</a>.</p>
<h2>Inclusive development for economic growth</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/brief/social-inclusion-in-africa">Social inclusion</a> is the process of improving the conditions for individuals and groups to participate in society. Social exclusion based on sexual orientation leads to lower societal standing. </p>
<p>This often leads to poorer outcomes in terms of income, human capital endowments and access to employment. People who are discriminated against tend to lack a voice in national and local decision making. </p>
<p>Decriminalisation of same-sex sexual relations would help address institutionalised stigma and discrimination. It would enhance access to equal opportunities by eliminating barriers to employment and other livelihood opportunities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbti-refugees-seeking-protection-in-kenya-struggle-to-survive-in-a-hostile-environment-182810">LGBTI refugees seeking protection in Kenya struggle to survive in a hostile environment</a>
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<p><a href="https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/18012125/Thesis.pdf">Research</a> shows that sexual and gender minorities with access to income opportunities support their families financially. This is true even in cases where families aren’t accepting. People who are educated can also compete effectively in the job market. The exclusion of minorities, therefore, means <a href="https://open-for-business.org/kenya-economic-case">the loss of a workforce and their contribution to economic development</a>. </p>
<h2>Better health outcomes</h2>
<p>Social exclusion contributes to poor health among sexual and gender minorities. In 2020, <a href="https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2021-global-aids-update_en.pdf#page=6">1.5 million people</a> were newly infected with HIV. Those <a href="https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2021-global-aids-update_en.pdf#page=23">most vulnerable</a> to infection include people who inject drugs, transgender women, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and their sexual partners. </p>
<p>These key populations accounted for <a href="https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2021-global-aids-update_en.pdf#page=23">65% of HIV infections</a> globally. In sub-Saharan Africa, they accounted for <a href="https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2021-global-aids-update_en.pdf#page=24">39% of new infections</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://open-for-business.org/about">Open for Business</a> is a global research coalition that seeks to address the backlash against the LGBTIQ+ community. In a <a href="https://open-for-business.org/kenya-economic-case">2020 report</a>, the group estimated that discrimination against sexual minorities costs Kenya up to Sh105 billion (US$782 million) annually in poor health outcomes. </p>
<p>Decriminalisation enhances access to healthcare. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2018.1462841">Our</a> <a href="https://kohljournal.press/health-and-freedom">research</a> shows, for example, better health such as decreased new HIV infections in societies that adopt laws that advance non-discrimination and decriminalise same-sex relationships. </p>
<h2>Enhancing safety and security</h2>
<p>In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/275-resolution-protection-against-violence-and-other-human-rights-violations">Resolution 275</a>. The resolution expresses grave concerns about increasing violence and other human rights violations – including murder, rape and assault – of individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity. </p>
<p>Safety and security are some of the <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/kenya-murder-lgbtq-activist-urgent-reform/">biggest challenges</a> facing sexual and gender minorities in Kenya. The country has seen an escalation of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/15/how-an-lgbtq-court-ruling-sent-kenya-into-a-moral-panic">negative rhetoric and violence</a> targeting sexual and gender minorities, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64491276">related organisations</a>. Hate speech, verbal and physical abuse, sexual violence and police harassment <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uganda-lgbt-hatecrime-idUSL4N3584J1">have increased</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/justiceforsheila-highlights-the-precarious-lives-of-queer-people-in-kenya-183102">#JusticeForSheila highlights the precarious lives of queer people in Kenya</a>
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<p>In Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, for instance, sexual minorities <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2023-03-16-gay-people-fear-for-their-lives-escape-mombasa-over-planned-demos/">fled</a> recent <a href="https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1636702221743079425?s=20">homophobic street protests</a>. A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334681176_Are_we_doing_alright_Realities_of_violence_mental_health_and_access_to_healthcare_related_to_sexual_orientation_and_gender_identity_and_expression_in_East_and_Southern_Africa_Research_report_based_on_">2019 report</a> on the experiences of the <a href="https://ccprcentre.org/files/documents/INT_CCPR_CSS_KEN_44420_E.pdf#page=6">LGBTIQ+ community in Kenya</a> found that 53% have been physically assaulted and 44% sexually assaulted. </p>
<p>The criminalisation of same-sex sexual relations among adults contributes to a climate of violence and discrimination. Moreover, criminalisation supports the perpetrators of violence who take the law into their own hands. </p>
<h2>Acceptance of diversity</h2>
<p>Sexual and gender minorities are socially excluded because of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/homosexuality-remains-illegal-in-kenya-as-court-rejects-lgbt-petition-112149">criminal label</a> the law imposes on them. This affects their self-acceptance and mental health. </p>
<p>Homophobic acts are widespread even in countries where <a href="https://theconversation.com/sam-smith-how-queerphobia-and-fatphobia-intersect-in-the-backlash-to-the-im-not-here-to-make-friends-video-199437">same-sex relations are legal</a>. However, decriminalisation helps facilitate some level of acceptance among minority groups and within wider society. </p>
<p><a href="https://ualr.edu/socialchange/2013/01/13/impact-of-the-decriminalization-of-homosexuality-in-delhi-an-empirical-study">Studies</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9293432/">have found</a> that decriminalisation reduces societal violence. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Same-sex relations, or sexual and gender minorities, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43904926">aren’t new</a> <a href="https://www.arcados.ch/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/MURRAY-ROSCOE-BOY-WIVES-FEMALE-HUSBANDS-98.pdf">in Africa</a>. They aren’t a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332192031_An_Exploratory_Journey_of_Cultural_Visual_Literacy_of_Non-Conforming_Gender_Representations_from_Pre-Colonial_Sub-_Saharan_Africa">foreign ideology</a>. </p>
<p>Social exclusion constitutes perhaps the most serious challenge towards attaining sustainable and inclusive development. The criminalisation of same-sex relations among consenting adults in Kenya’s penal code exposes the weaknesses of the constitution in ensuring inclusivity. The law must, therefore, be changed. </p>
<p>Repealing criminalisation clauses is an important step toward reducing stigma, violence and discrimination. It would certainly open a new chapter in the lives of sexual and gender minorities.</p>
<p>There’s also an urgent need to make sexual and gender minorities visible. Awareness campaigns can help debunk perceptions that they are “anti-religious” or “un-African”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality-for-starters-jesus-wasnt-a-homophobe-199424">What does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn't a homophobe</a>
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<p>There’s an equally urgent need to identify all forms of discrimination against sexual and gender minorities under domestic and international laws. This will help address the root causes of inequalities.</p>
<p>Decriminalisation of same-sex relations is imperative. It will help address widening disparities, inequalities in society and the gaps in social integration.</p>
<p><em>Nicholas Etyang, a senior policy advocacy officer at the African Population and Health Research Center, is a co-author of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Wanjiku Mung’ala is affiliated with Hivos, where she works as the strategy and impact lead - gender equality, diversity and inclusion. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmy Kageha Igonya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The criminalisation of same-sex sexual relations among consenting adults in Kenya worsens social disparities and inequalities.Emmy Kageha Igonya, Associate research scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLucy Wanjiku Mung’ala, PhD Researcher, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033292023-04-11T06:25:27Z2023-04-11T06:25:27ZThere’s a growing gap between countries advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and those going backwards<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined 50,000 people to march in support of queer rights across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for World Pride in early March. A week earlier, Albanese became the first sitting prime minister to march in Sydney’s Mardi Gras, something he’s done over several decades.</p>
<p>And yet at the same time, in another part of the world, Uganda’s parliament passed <a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-new-anti-lgbtq-law-could-lead-to-death-penalty-for-same-sex-offences-202376">a string of draconian measures</a> against homosexuality, including possible death sentences for “aggravated homosexuality”. Any “promotion” of homosexuality is also outlawed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-new-anti-lgbtq-law-could-lead-to-death-penalty-for-same-sex-offences-202376">Uganda's new anti-LGBTQ+ law could lead to death penalty for same-sex 'offences'</a>
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<p>Seven years ago, I co-wrote a book with Jonathan Symons called Queer Wars. Back then, we suggested there was <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/queer-wars-the-new-global-polarization-over-gay-rights">a growing gap</a> between countries in which sexual and gender diversity was becoming more acceptable, and those where repression was increasing. </p>
<p>Sadly, that analysis seems even more relevant today.</p>
<h2>A growing gap</h2>
<p>Some countries have been unwinding criminal sanctions around homosexuality, which are often the legacy of colonialism. This includes, in recent years, former British colonies <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/22/singapore-decriminalize-gay-sex">Singapore</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/indian-supreme-court-decriminalises-homosexuality">India</a>.</p>
<p>But others have been imposing new and more vicious penalties for any deviation from stereotypical assumptions of heterosexual masculine superiority (what Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243205278639">terms</a> “hegemonic masculinity”).</p>
<p>Anti-gay legislation is currently pending in Ghana, which led US Vice President Kamala Harris to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43822234">express concerns</a> on a recent visit.</p>
<p>These moves echo the deep homophobia of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has <a href="https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/putins-anti-gay-war-on-ukraine/">bizarrely linked</a> intervention in Ukraine to protecting traditional values against LGBTQ+ infiltration.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, reports from Afghanistan suggest that anyone identified as “LGBT” is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/26/afghanistan-taliban-target-lgbt-afghans">in danger of being killed</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesia recently passed legislation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/06/indonesia-passes-legislation-banning-sex-outside-marriage">penalising all sex outside marriage</a>. This follows <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639811.2022.2038871">years of anti-queer rhetoric</a> from Indonesian leaders and crackdowns in regional areas.</p>
<p>And while the Biden administration is supportive of queer rights globally, the extraordinary hysteria <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/07/cpac-anti-trans-rhetoric">around trans issues in the Republican Party</a> reminds us the West has no inherent claim to moral superiority.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-going-on-with-the-wave-of-gop-bills-about-trans-teens-utah-provides-clues-199851">What's going on with the wave of GOP bills about trans teens? Utah provides clues</a>
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<h2>Where to next?</h2>
<p>Speaking at the World Pride Human Rights Conference, both Wong and Attorney General Mark Dreyfus made it clear Australia would press for recognition of sexuality and gender identity as deserving protection, as part of <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/sydney-worldpride-human-rights-conference-opening-statement">our commitment to human rights</a>.</p>
<p>Wong also announced a <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/213443-wong-announces-international-fund-for-lgbt-rights/">new Inclusion and Equality Fund</a> to support queer community organisations within our region.</p>
<p>Australian governments have usually been wary of loud assertions of support for queer rights. This is partly due to a reasonable fear this merely reinforces the perception that such language reflects <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/locating-neocolonialism-tradition-and-human-rights-in-ugandas-gay-death-penalty/33A06F4F33CF586E20E208BE790E71E0">a sense of Western superiority</a>, unwilling to acknowledge other societies may have very different attitudes towards gender and sexuality.</p>
<p>Australia is part of the Equal Rights Coalition, an intergovernmental body of 42 countries dedicated to the protection of the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and has supported sexual and gender rights in the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/australias-second-universal-periodic-review-human-rights">country reviews</a> undertaken by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.</p>
<p>Australia has a minimal presence in Uganda, and direct representations are unlikely to have much effect. Uganda is a member of the Commonwealth, as are Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, where official homophobia appears to be increasing. But there’s little evidence the Australian government sees this as a significant foreign policy forum, or is prepared to push for sexual rights through its institutions.</p>
<p>As persecution on the basis of sexuality and gender identity increases, more people will seek to flee their countries. Queer refugees face double jeopardy: they’re not safe at home, but they’re often equally unsafe in their diasporic communities, which have inherited the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/lgbt-refugees-untold-story/">deep prejudices of their homelands</a>.</p>
<p>The UN’s refugee agency <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/lgbtiq-persons.html">reports</a> that most people seeking asylum because of their sexuality are unwilling to disclose this, because of discrimination within their own ethnic communities. This makes it impossible to have accurate numbers. But a clear signal from Australia would be a powerful statement of support – that it understands the situation and welcomes people who need flee because of their sexuality or gender expression.</p>
<p>An official Canadian government document <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/canada-role/2slgbtqi-plus.html">states</a>: </p>
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<p>Canada has a proud history of providing protection to and helping to resettle the world’s most vulnerable groups. That includes those in the Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse community.</p>
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<p>Theirs is a model worth following.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman is Patron of the Pride Foundation, which supports queer refugees and asylum seekers.</span></em></p>In March, Albanese joined 50,000 people to march in support of queer rights. At the same time, in another part of the world, Uganda passed a string of draconian anti-gay laws.Dennis Altman, VC Fellow LaTrobe University, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2029102023-03-30T12:04:31Z2023-03-30T12:04:31ZLily Savage: how Paul O'Grady helped embed drag in the British mainstream<p>Many among the British public will mourn Paul O’Grady, the beloved television host, philanthropist and drag queen, who has died at the age of 67.</p>
<p>He brightened up the stage and screen over the years with hilarious one-liners, quick wit and loveable charm, and heightened LGBTQ+ awareness through appearances as his catty but captivating alter ego, Lily Savage.</p>
<p>Numerous celebrities and public figures have paid tribute to O’Grady, including <a href="https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1640997462176419840?cxt=HHwWgMC-peuf_8UtAAAA">Camilla the Queen Consort</a>, who stated that O'Grady’s “warm heart and infectious humour lit up the lives of so many”. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65062542">Others</a> remembered his “fearlessness”, evident in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnMUA1mCMYo">public criticisms</a> of Conservative MPs and government legislation.</p>
<p>O’Grady was also greatly remembered by an array of prominent LGBTQ+ figures and British drag talent. LGBTQ+ rights campaigner <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterTatchell/status/1640992687254806530?cxt=HHwWhICxrfOJ_cUtAAAA">Peter Tatchell</a> recognised O’Grady’s “admirable” campaigns for equality, while RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/rupauls-drag-race-star-chokes-29575858">Danny Beard</a> said:</p>
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<p>It goes unsaid the work that Paul’s done for the queer community, for me personally, and for many other little gay boys who want to put a dress on.</p>
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<h2>Loud, proud and brave</h2>
<p>O’Grady began his career at London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern as <a href="https://www.oocities.org/lilysavage_uk/biography.html">Lily Savage</a> in the early 1980s, where he became popular with queer locals. Lily demonstrated drag’s entertainment factor at times of uncertainty and <a href="https://theconversation.com/aids-homophobic-and-moralistic-images-of-1980s-still-haunt-our-view-of-hiv-that-must-change-106580">rampant homophobia</a>, and fans have spoken of a <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/paul-ogrady-little-known-facts-from-a-rubber-gloves-raid-to-trying-his-hand-as-a-mortician-12844667">memorable instance</a> when the tavern was raided during the Aids crisis.</p>
<p>Police entered with gloves, to which Lily hilariously responded: “Look, they’ve come to help with the washing up!” Lily would soon be making appearances at other club and theatre venues, such as the Bloomsbury Theatre and gay nightclub Heaven. However, she would gain major recognition through her regular appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe and on TV.</p>
<p>In 1997 she was given her own talk show on the BBC – The Lily Savage Show – with its popularity leading to arguably her biggest career break hosting the popular longstanding game show Blankety Blank (1997-2002). After this successful run, O’Grady began to step back from Lily and appear more as himself, with a number of popular programmes such as The Paul O’Grady Show and For the Love of Dogs.</p>
<h2>A brief history of British drag</h2>
<p>Lily Savage was often hailed as an inspirational artist within drag’s rich and cultural history in the UK. In his book <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520393325/drag">Drag: A British History</a>, Jacob Bloomfield notes its impact, and how drag artists have consistently asserted themselves as some of the most “renowned and significant entertainers of their day”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbkmkmn#:%7E:text=Shakespeare's%20As%20You%20Like%20It,would%20drag%20along%20the%20floor.">term “drag” dates back to Shakespeare</a> with men playing women’s roles. From the 18th to the 20th centuries, drag was primarily confined to underground bars and vaudeville houses due to the criminalisation of homosexuality, with performers such as <a href="https://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/seraphin.htm">Princess Seraphina</a> and <a href="https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/julian-eltinge">Julian Eltinge</a> demonstrating drag’s entertainment value.</p>
<p>In later years, drag would become more popular due to comedic queens such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jun/01/danny-la-rue-obituary">Danny La Rue</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/dameednaeverage?lang=en-GB">Dame Edna Everage</a> and Lily Savage, who would often be seen on mainstream television programmes. Today, prominent drag figures such as RuPaul, creator of the TV show <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a43145366/rupauls-drag-race-legacy/">RuPaul’s Drag Race</a> and its numerous global spin-offs, demonstrate drag’s mainstream appeal. However, it is important to acknowledge the cultural history of drag and those artists, such as O’Grady, who paved the way for a wider social acceptance.</p>
<h2>Drag under attack</h2>
<p>It is also important to recognise O’Grady’s legacy at a time when drag is being attacked by far-right critics. They argue that the “sexualisation and inappropriateness” of drag represent a threat to children.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/11/im-just-trying-to-make-the-world-a-little-brighter-how-the-culture-wars-hijacked-drag-queen-story-hour">Numerous protests</a> have occurred recently at <a href="https://www.dragqueenstoryhour.co.uk/">Drag Queen Story Hour</a> events at libraries across the UK. This led to users on internet forum Mumsnet, <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/society/953619/what-are-gender-critical-beliefs">gender-critical feminists</a> (women who believe that sex is biological and immutable and cannot be conflated with gender identity) and anti-drag critics <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/06/23/drag-queen-story-hour-uk-aida-h-dee-sab-samuel-leeds-city-council-sarah-field-mumsnet/?fbclid=IwAR1kts2g7Z30tlIC1waptxwEX0C0bD5_ccjDTXeUvLkRiL6fJmW5z0ipen8">calling for them to be cancelled</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a series of UK drag shows organised by cabaret company <a href="https://vaultfestival.com/caba-baba-rave/">Cababarave</a>, aimed at mothers with young babies was cancelled after being targeted for its “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/graphic-drag-show-babies-featuring-nearly-naked-men-bondage-outrages-twitter-absolutely-abhorrent">abhorrence</a>”. In the US, criticism of drag has escalated even further, with a <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/tennessee-becomes-first-us-state-to-ban-public-drag-performances-12824159">recent law</a> passed in Tennessee that bans drag and female impersonation in public.</p>
<p>These shifts represent the threats currently posed to drag performers, so it’s worth remembering drag’s origins through performers such as Lily Savage. Drag is not only a unique display of artistry and a political standpoint; one of its primary functions has always been that of entertainment. Lily represented this profoundly, and it is important that the wider British public acknowledge drag performance’s popular past, particularly in uncertain times of shifting cultural attitudes towards drag artists and LGBTQ+ communities.</p>
<p>O’Grady’s dedication to media and charity work, as well as his contribution to the mainstream representation of LGBTQ+ people and drag artists will undoubtedly affect both heterosexual audiences and those who attended his shows, sharing a drink with Lily at a gay bar. Crucially he will be remembered by those who saw themselves represented on mainstream television at a time when queerness was still demonised.</p>
<p>My own memory of O’Grady is when he starred in Snow White at the Bristol Hippodrome in 2003. I was only eight years old, mostly unaware of my own queerness at the time. I was asked to go on stage for an interactive segment of the show, and Lily was just as charismatic and captivating in person as she was from the back of the theatre. This moment will always hold a special place in my memory.</p>
<p>The LGBTQ+ community have lost a powerful force and groundbreaking icon, one that has undoubtedly changed the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in the UK. RIP “Lily of the Scally”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Weaver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>O'Grady’s camp creation built on the legacy of drag artists that came before him and helped change the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in the UK.Matt Weaver, PhD Candidate in Film, Media & Communication, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997562023-03-21T12:43:31Z2023-03-21T12:43:31ZIn a Roman villa at the center of a nasty inheritance dispute, a Caravaggio masterpiece is hidden from the public<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515929/original/file-20230316-466-6e6j4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C61%2C4475%2C3044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Villa Aurora in Rome, which houses works by Caravaggio and Guercino, is up for sale. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-the-casino-news-photo/1237878844?phrase=villa aurora rome&adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://umass.academia.edu/MonikaSchmitter">I teach Italian Renaissance and Baroque art</a>, so when I was visiting Rome in January 2023, how could I not try to see a notorious villa that was up for sale and involved in a nasty inheritance dispute? </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.minorsights.com/2016/08/italy-villa-aurora-ludovisi.html">Villa Aurora</a>, named for the masterful fresco by <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1364.html">the 17th-century artist Guercino</a> that adorns the ground-floor salon, also happens to house a rare ceiling painting by <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio">Caravaggio</a>, the 17th-century “rebel artist,” whose name makes the art market salivate. </p>
<p>I wanted to see the Caravaggio, and not just because its <a href="https://www.aboutartonline.com/la-vendita-di-villa-ludovisi-dubbi-sulla-metodologia-applicata-per-la-stima-i-precedenti-e-il-caso-degli-affreschi-di-tiepolo-a-palazzo-barbarigo/">assessed value of US$331 million</a> drove up the estimated price for the villa, apparently scaring off buyers. </p>
<p>Perhaps because of the difficulty in reproducing the work or even viewing it, the Caravaggio has received remarkably little attention from art historians. The villa, which has gone through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/us-born-princess-vows-to-stay-in-rome-villa-despite-eviction-order-caravaggio-ceiling-fresco">five failed auctions</a> – the first one asking a cool $502 million – needs maintenance, and Italian law dictates that the Caravaggio and other art cannot be removed.</p>
<p>It is not easy to see privately held art, and given the ongoing controversy, I figured my chances were especially slim. But I duly wrote to the email address I found online. </p>
<p>A week later I got a response, and after some back and forth, on the day before I was to leave Rome, I was invited to come to the villa at 6 p.m. sharp. </p>
<p>A woman named Olga met me at the door: “The principessa will be with you in a moment,” she said.</p>
<h2>More than one masterpiece</h2>
<p>The current inhabitant of the villa is an American-born princess named <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/28/the-renovation-rita-jenrette-princess-italy">Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi</a>. </p>
<p>A former Texas GOP opposition researcher, she was once married to a congressman caught in <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/abscam">the Abscam scandal</a> and posed for Playboy twice in the 1980s. Her second husband, <a href="https://villaludovisi.org/2018/03/25/in-memoriam-hsh-prince-nicolo-boncompagni-ludovisi-rome-21-january-1941-rome-8-march-2018/">Nicolò Boncampagni</a> Ludovisi, was Prince of Piombino. He owned the villa and promised her <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/usufruct">usufructuary rights</a>, meaning she should be allowed to occupy the villa until her death. </p>
<p>But the prince’s three sons from his first marriage are forcing the sale because, <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/01/18/when-is-a-caravaggio-worth-zero-when-its-on-a-ceiling-and-you-may-not-remove-it-for-sale">according to Italian law</a>, inheritances must be divided between the surviving spouse and any descendants.</p>
<p>It’s a media story to die for: old-world aristocrats face off against a supposed bimbo and gold digger from Texas – with a Caravaggio thrown in for good measure. </p>
<p>The villa was historically known as the Casino Ludovisi, but it became famous among art historians for its ceiling painting by <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1364.html">Guercino</a>.</p>
<p>In a tour de force of illusion, the ceiling is painted to look as through the architecture opens up to the sky with the goddess <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eos-Greek-and-Roman-mythology">Aurora</a>, or Dawn, driving her chariot across the space above.</p>
<p>The Caravaggio, by contrast, barely registers in the voluminous scholarship on the artist. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Image of a ceiling fresco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516078/original/file-20230317-2393-ue4l9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guercino’s ‘Aurora on Her Triumphal Chariot’ at Villa Aurora.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-the-ceiling-news-photo/1237880015?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Meeting the principessa</h2>
<p>I looked down in dismay at my sneakers, my corduroy pants, and my purple Eddie Bauer jacket that has seen better days: I hadn’t anticipated meeting the principessa herself. </p>
<p>Olga guided me into a second room and introduced me to the principessa. She is most definitely American – tall, blond and looking much younger than her age of 73. </p>
<p>After talking extensively about the villa and its works of art, Rita, as she calls herself, introduced me to a dapper Italian man from the Ministry of Culture, whom, she explained, could hopefully stop <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/01/14/princess-rita-jenrette-faces-eviction-from-rome-villa/">her imminent eviction</a> from her home. She then showed me the magnificent painting by Guercino.</p>
<p>Then a journalist from the Italian newspaper La Stampa appeared, and the principessa was whisked away for an interview. She told me, in parting, “Olga will show you the Caravaggio.”</p>
<h2>Encountering the Caravaggio</h2>
<p>Olga led me up a spiral stairway to the second floor: “Here is the other Guercino,” she said. I looked up to see <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guercino_-_Ceiling_painting,_Casino_dell%27Aurora,_11aurora.jpg">a second illusionistic fresco</a>, the same size as the one on the ground floor, this one depicting the figure of Fame flying through the sky.</p>
<p>I hadn’t known this one even existed.</p>
<p>Then Olga turned on the lights in what looked like a small hallway, its walls painted a bright, hospital white. I looked up to see Caravaggio’s painting, which depicts muscular nude men surrounding a translucent white globe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ceiling painting of muscular men and mythological creatures surrounding an orb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515928/original/file-20230316-1658-fy5fg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Since it’s located in a private residence, Caravaggio’s painting at the Villa Aurora has been difficult for the public to view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-jupiter-neptune-news-photo/1237878868?phrase=villa%20aurora%20rome&adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The detail is intense, the colors bright and sharp in a way that is exceptional for a ceiling painting. </p>
<p>Caravaggio managed to make the three-headed dog <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cerberus">Cerberus</a> look as though it really existed – bringing to life the creature’s soft black and white fur, the red of its eyes, the pink ribbing of one upper mouth and the white glint of its teeth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting detail of a three-headed dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515916/original/file-20230316-19-qc1ez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from Caravaggio’s ceiling painting depicts Cerberus, a mythical three-headed dog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-lazio-rome-villa-boncompagni-ludovisi-detail-three-news-photo/132705020?phrase=caravaggio%20villa%20ludovisi&adppopup=true">Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I later learned that the picture had not been painted <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fresco-painting">in the traditional fresco technique</a>, on wet plaster, but with the unusual application of oil on dry plaster, allowing Caravaggio to execute the precision, color, detail and texture.</p>
<p>Although some art historians have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HXc2MNp7ffIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false">questioned the attribution</a>, there is no doubt in my mind that this is Caravaggio. Only he would – even could – paint such a seemingly plausible Cerberus. </p>
<p>The composition works only in its original location, since the scale, height and curvature of the ceiling transform the work. The painting purports to show a rectangular opening in the ceiling through which viewers can see the sky and clouds. In the center, within a white globe depicting the universe, one sees the Sun, Moon and signs of the horoscope. </p>
<p>On each side of the globe are the nude, burly, he-men: on one side, Jupiter, awkwardly flying through the sky on an eagle, pushes the sphere; on the other, Jupiter’s brothers, Pluto and Neptune, stand as if at the edge of the opening in the ceiling, looking down.</p>
<h2>Suffused with impish subtext</h2>
<p>Given its lack of scholarly attention, the Caravaggio is much more compelling than I expected. </p>
<p>One 17th-century biographer, <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095457632;jsessionid=F7F4BCEDD2540BB7CF63AFD4296936AA">Pietro Bellori</a>, claimed that Caravaggio <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Giovan_Pietro_Bellori_The_Lives_of_the_M/Lm9gs8mXwOUC?hl=en">painted the work to silence critics</a> who alleged that he lacked the technical skill to pull off the tricks in perspective required for ceiling art.</p>
<p>But I think Caravaggio was up to something more complicated. His aim was not so much to prove he could paint with foreshortened figures and receding architecture, but rather to make fun of the fad for illusionistic ceiling paintings that render scenes “as if seen from below” – “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sotto-in-su">di sotto in su</a>,” as it is termed in art history.</p>
<p>Running with the concept of “di sotto in su,” Caravaggio cheekily gives onlookers a graphic view from below Pluto’s penis and testicles, not to mention a novel perspective on his buttocks. </p>
<p>Caravaggio didn’t stop there. </p>
<p>Jupiter’s pose is almost incomprehensible, his face concealed, his limbs flailing in different directions – very undignified, particularly for an oversize Olympian god. It’s an NFL linebacker riding an overmatched eagle.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Muscular man riding an eagle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515918/original/file-20230316-386-o65sgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jupiter riding an eagle in a detail of Caravaggio’s painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/italy-lazio-rome-villa-boncompagni-ludovisi-whole-artwork-news-photo/132705019?phrase=caravaggio%20villa%20ludovisi&adppopup=true">Mondadori Portfolio/Hudson Fine Art Collection via Getty Images.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From between Jupiter’s legs emerges the very phallic long neck and beak of the eagle with his bright, dark eye glaring down at the mortals below. (In Italian, “bird” <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/italian-english/uccello">is slang for penis</a>.) </p>
<p>Pluto and Neptune also have their pets, which are themselves rivals: Pluto’s snarling dog frightens Neptune’s seahorse. Neptune, who is Caravaggio’s self-portrait, in turn looks threateningly at Pluto. And then there is the juxtaposition of Cerberus’ bared teeth and Pluto’s very exposed “equipment.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two muscular nude men, a horse and a three-headed dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516080/original/file-20230317-20-skboj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail of Pluto and Neptune in Caravaggio’s painting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photograph-taken-on-january-21-shows-jupiter-neptune-news-photo/1237879028?adppopup=true">Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I consider the patronage of the painting, it all makes sense. </p>
<p>Caravaggio painted the ceiling in 1599 or 1600 when the villa was owned by his first important patron, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caravaggio/The-patronage-of-Cardinal-del-Monte">Cardinal Francesco del Monte</a>.</p>
<p>Caravaggio lived in del Monte’s palace in town, and there is evidence to suggest that <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/bersani-caravaggio.html">they both enjoyed the company of young men</a>, and they <a href="http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/caravaggio_A.pdf">may even have been lovers</a>.</p>
<p>While it is difficult to confirm the men’s sexual preferences, there is no question that the ceiling is a product of their shared sensibility: locker room art for sophisticated, 17th-century cultural “jocks.”</p>
<p>The room was Del Monte’s “<a href="http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-4/essays/a-room-of-ones-own-the-studiolo/">studiolo</a>,” a type of small room usually used by members of the wealthy elite to get away from it all and “study” (whatever that might entail). </p>
<p>The ceiling was to be shared by a bon vivant, learned cardinal with a select audience of like-minded men. Caravaggio never painted another ceiling because tricks of perspective were fundamentally incompatible with <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02717-7.html">his realist inclinations</a>, but perhaps he did this one for his friend and patron as a kind of joke.</p>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>I left the Villa Aurora that night with a new perspective on 17th-century art and full of thoughts about the role these works of art, created for members of an extraordinarily privileged elite of the past, play in our modern democratic society. </p>
<p>The same day as my visit, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/14/us-born-princess-vows-to-stay-in-rome-villa-despite-eviction-order-caravaggio-ceiling-fresco">the judge in the inheritance dispute ruled</a> that the principessa would be evicted from the villa to facilitate its sale. I suspect this is devastating for her, given how much effort she has put into <a href="https://villaludovisi.org/">preserving her husband’s legacy</a>.</p>
<p>But I also wonder what will happen to this villa and its unique collection of 16th- and 17th-century ceiling paintings. </p>
<p>I think it would be a travesty for them to remain in private hands, because everyone, including my students, should be able to see these works. Art historians know about the tensions between private property and cultural heritage, but this is a real opportunity for the new Italian Minister of Culture, <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gennaro-sangiuliano-italy-culture-minister-2200501">Gennaro Sangiuliano</a>, to set an example, as his predecessors have done with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/arts/venice-grimani-collection-sculpture.html">Palazzo Grimani at Santa Formosa in Venice</a>.</p>
<p>Once the residence of a wealthy and powerful noble family, Palazzo Grimani fell into disrepair until it was purchased in 1981 by the state. After many years of renovation, it opened as a public museum in 2008. </p>
<p>The frescoes in the Palazzo Grimani are not nearly as artistically significant as those in the Villa Aurora, but the museum today is one of the most interesting monuments in Venice.</p>
<p>I believe the Villa Aurora, restored and open to everyone as a museum of Renaissance and Baroque ceiling painting, could do the same for Rome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monika Schmitter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What will happen to this villa and its unique collection of 16th- and 17th-century ceiling paintings?Monika Schmitter, Professor and Chair of History of Art and Architecture, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975552023-03-20T13:18:59Z2023-03-20T13:18:59ZLGBTQ+ rights: African Union watchdog goes back on its own word<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504208/original/file-20230112-40319-n0c4ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Denial of observer status robs the three NGOs of a voice. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The primary human rights watchdog in Africa recently made a decision that departed from its existing practice. The <a href="https://achpr.org/home">African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>, an independent expert body within the African Union (AU) framework, used sexual or gender identity as the reason it rejected applications for observer status from three non-governmental organisations (NGOs).</p>
<p>The commission said that “sexual orientation” was not an “expressly recognised right” in the <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36390-treaty-0011_-_african_charter_on_human_and_peoples_rights_e.pdf">African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>. It also said that protecting and promoting sexual and gender minority rights was “contrary to the virtues of African values”.</p>
<p>The decision casts a shadow over the commission’s commitment to advancing the rights of all Africans. It also <a href="https://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/researchunits/sogie/documents/English_-_JOINT_STATEMENT_ON_DECISION_OF_ACHPR_AT_THE_73RD_SESSION_OF_ACHPR.pdf">seriously erodes its independence from AU states</a>. </p>
<p>One of the commission’s competences is to grant observer status to <a href="https://achpr.au.int/ngos">NGOs</a>. This entitles an NGO to participate in the commission’s public sessions, and make statements drawing attention to the violation of the rights of the most vulnerable, including sexual and gender minorities. </p>
<p>So far, the commission has <a href="https://achpr.au.int/index.php/en/news/final-communiques/2022-11-18/final-communique-73rd-ordinary-session-african-commission-human">granted observer status to 544 NGOs</a>. The three it recently refused observer status to are <a href="https://www.alternative-ci.org/#:%7E:text=Alternative%20C%C3%B4te%20d%E2%80%99Ivoire%20%28ACI%29%20est%20une%20ONG%20cr%C3%A9%C3%A9e,personnes%20LGBTQPour%20la%20promotion%20de%20l%E2%80%99%C3%A9galit%C3%A9%20du%20genre">Alternative Côte d'Ivoire</a>, <a href="http://rightsrwanda.com/">Human Rights First Rwanda</a> and <a href="https://synergiaihr.org/">Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/successes-of-african-human-rights-court-undermined-by-resistance-from-states-166454">Successes of African Human Rights Court undermined by resistance from states</a>
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<p>The denial of observer status means that the NGOs will not have a voice before the African commission. They will not be able to draw its attention to the human rights violations of LGBTQ+ people in Africa. The move further politicises sexual and gender minority issues in Africa, further restricts civil society functioning, and further marginalises communities and people who have already been stigmatised and excluded. </p>
<h2>Not the first time</h2>
<p>The commission’s decision has a history. In 2015, it granted observer status to a South African-based NGO, the Coalition of African Lesbians. The AU executive council <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/31762-ex_cl_dec_873_-_898_xxvii_e.pdf">directed the commission</a> to withdraw this, on the basis that the NGO attempts to impose values contrary to African values. The executive council is made up of ministers of foreign affairs. Its mandate is to “consider” the commission’s activity reports.</p>
<p>After getting <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/34655-ex_cl_dec_1008_-1030_xxxiii_e.pdf">an ultimatum</a> from the executive council, the commission complied in 2018. </p>
<p>The reversal attracted the <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/faculty-of-law/news/post_2674950-centre-for-human-rights-calls-for-autonomy-and-independence-of-the-african-commission-to-be-reaffirmed-and-for-action-on-cameroon-and-eritrea">legitimate criticism</a> that the commission was <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-rise-and-rise-of-political-backlash-african-union-executive-councils-decision-to-review-the-mandate-and-working-methods-of-the-african-commission/#more-16384">not acting independently</a> in supervising state compliance with human rights in Africa.</p>
<p>Its latest decision rests on three pillars. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>It assumes that all three NGOs advocate for the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) persons, without explaining how they do this.</p></li>
<li><p>It argues that because sexual orientation is not a right expressly provided for in the African human rights charter, these NGOs lack a basis to exist.</p></li>
<li><p>The commission holds the view that the NGOs’ work of advancing equal rights and dignity for all, irrespective of sexual orientation, is against African values. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Strong arguments can be mounted against all three. </p>
<h2>The LGBTQ+ question</h2>
<p>In my view the commission is on shaky ground in asserting that the three NGOs pursue a particular LGBTQ+ agenda. A look at the publicly accessible websites of all three casts doubt on this assertion.</p>
<p>In addition, if all NGOs working to advance equality based on sexual orientation were disqualified from observer status, many more would be affected. NGOs may have a particular focus, such as women’s rights, but they increasingly work within the reality of intersectionality. People’s rights are interrelated and indivisible. Thus, women’s rights organisations would inevitably be concerned about the rights of lesbians. </p>
<p>To deny such a body observer status is to negate the interrelatedness of rights.</p>
<h2>Sexual orientation and nondiscrimination</h2>
<p>The commission is also on shaky ground when it comes to the debate about rights. </p>
<p>It is well accepted that there is no distinct “right to sexual orientation”, as such, under human rights law. <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation/sexual-orientation">Sexual orientation</a> is innate to every human being. We all have one, whatever it may be. </p>
<p>The charter to which the commission refers to justify its rejection contains a provision (article 2) setting out an open-ended list of <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36390-treaty-0011_-_african_charter_on_human_and_peoples_rights_e.pdf">non-discrimination grounds</a>. Nothing prevents “sexual orientation” from being read into this list.</p>
<p>The commission’s own practice also contradicts its argument. There are numerous grounds for non-discrimination that the commission has recognised. Take disability. It is not included in article 2. Yet the commission has tacitly accepted that “disability” is a ground <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36440-treaty-protocol_to_the_achpr_on_the_rights_of_persons_with_disabilities_in_africa_e.pdf">on which discrimination is not allowed</a>. The same applies to “age”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-court-ruling-is-a-ray-of-hope-for-lgbt-people-across-africa-118713">Botswana court ruling is a ray of hope for LGBT people across Africa</a>
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<p>The commission itself has adopted the position that sexual orientation (and gender identity) are grounds on which discrimination under the African Charter cannot be tolerated. <a href="https://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/researchunits/sogie/documents/resolution_275/Resolution_275_booklet_ENGLISH_02_WEB.pdf">Resolution 275</a>, adopted at the African Commission’s 55th Ordinary Session, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/SP/55thOrdinarySession_en.pdf">in 2014</a>, specifically condemns “systematic attacks by state and non-state actors” against persons because of their imputed or real sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>
<h2>African values</h2>
<p>Finally, the commission’s approach implies a simplistic view that there is a single set of values that define what “African” is. In a continent of great diversity and dynamism, such a monolithic approach beggars belief.</p>
<p>Through its restrictive interpretation of “African values”, the commission has taken an approach that inhibits human rights. It negates charter values such as tolerance, and the foundational charter premise of equal dignity of all, which is a restatement of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">ubuntu (humanness) principle</a> in <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/policy/african%20charter/1981_AFRICAN%20CHARTER%20ON%20HUMAN%20AND%20PEOPLES%20RIGHTS.pdf">article 29 of the charter</a>.</p>
<p>Discrimination against anyone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is not an African value. Discrimination breeds violence, and violence is inimical to respect for human rights. </p>
<p>While 32 African states (60% of them) still criminalise <a href="https://76crimes.com/76-countries-where-homosexuality-is-illegal/">consensual sex between adults</a>, 22 states (40%) have either never <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolition-of-angolas-anti-gay-laws-may-pave-the-way-for-regional-reform-111432">criminalised consensual same-sex acts between adults</a> or no longer do.</p>
<p>The commission’s reasoning on “African values” is an affront to these African states. It is equally an affront to the many non-heterosexual Africans
whose existence is an undeniable matter of human biology.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-rights-commission-can-and-should-do-more-for-sexual-minorities-116601">Africa's rights commission can -- and should -- do more for sexual minorities</a>
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<p>Two of the NGOs – Alternative Côte d'Ivoire and Human Rights First Rwanda Association – operate legally in countries that do not criminalise same-sex consensual conduct. (Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights operates from the United States.) The commission implies that Côte d’Ivoire and Rwanda are “un-African” because they allow the registration of these NGOs. </p>
<h2>Beyond the setback</h2>
<p>The commission’s decision is clearly a setback. However, those committed to human rights in Africa need to continue supporting the commission, based on its established jurisprudence, including Resolution 275, to ensure that the African Charter protects rights on the continent.</p>
<p>The commission took a step in this direction in January, when it condemned the <a href="https://achpr.au.int/en/news/press-releases/2023-01-07/press-statement-tragic-murder-edwin-chiloba-kenya">homophobic killing of Kenyan gay activist Edwin Choliba</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frans Viljoen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Discrimination against anyone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is not an African value.Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2015092023-03-10T16:08:28Z2023-03-10T16:08:28ZThe UK now ranks as one of the most socially liberal countries in Europe – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514505/original/file-20230309-24-nvd0pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rochester-uk-may-16-2015-high-329211002">IR Stone/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s easy to lose sight of just how accepting the UK now is as a nation. What were once pressing moral concerns have become simple facts of life for much of the public. The UK, in fact, now ranks as one of the most accepting countries internationally, as shown by new data from the <a href="https://www.uk-values.org/news-comment/uk-now-among-most-socially-liberal-of-countries-1018742/pub01-116">World Values Survey</a>.</p>
<p>This is one of the largest and most widely used social surveys in the world. It has run since 1981, capturing the views of almost 400,000 respondents in over 110 countries.</p>
<p>Major surveys on social trends help us to look back and remind us how far we’ve come in our attitudes across so many spheres of life – from homosexuality to casual sex and divorce. </p>
<p><strong>The British public have become much more socially liberal over the last 41 years</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514717/original/file-20230310-22-jz2vc5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Base: minimum of 1,000 people aged 18+ surveyed in the UK per year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Policy Institute, King's College London, World Values Survey.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Attitudes towards sex</h2>
<p>It’s incredible to think that in 1981 just 12% of the British public thought that homosexuality was “justifiable”. It is perhaps even more shocking that it had only risen to 33% in 2009. But by 2022 that level of acceptance had doubled again, to 66%. </p>
<p>Of around 20 nations included in <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/social-attitudes-in-the-uk-and-beyond-pub01-116.pdf">a report</a> by the Policy Institute at King’s College London that analyses the data, only three –- Sweden, Norway and Germany –- are more accepting of homosexuality than the UK. </p>
<p>In terms of sex more broadly, in 1999, just one in 10 Britons thought having <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-women-at-a-us-university-approached-hook-up-culture-new-research-111288">casual sex</a> was justifiable – but more than four times as many held this view in 2022, with a considerable rise from as recently as 2018. This shift means the UK is now the fourth most accepting of casual sex, ahead of countries including France and Norway, and not far off Australia, which is the most accepting. </p>
<p>And between 1981 and 2022, the proportion of Britons who said divorce is justifiable rose from just 18% to 64%. Only Sweden and Norway are more accepting of people dissolving their marriages, while the UK is far above some other Western nations such as the US (just 38%) and Italy (40%). </p>
<p><strong>The UK is also among the most accepting of divorce, abortion, euthanasia and casual sex</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514718/original/file-20230310-104-48vocx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UK base: 3,056 people in the UK aged 18+, surveyed 1 Mar–9 Sept 2022. Other countries all surveyed in wave 7 of WVS at various points between 2017 and 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Policy Institute, King's College London, World Values Survey.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This social transformation isn’t just a result of younger generations replacing older cohorts. <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-older-doesnt-make-you-more-conservative-21729">All generations</a> have changed their views significantly, although the oldest pre-1945 cohort now often stand out as quite different –- and on some issues, like casual sex, there is a clearer generational hierarchy. Two-thirds of those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s think casual sex is acceptable, but only one third of baby boomers (born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s) agree. </p>
<h2>Attitudes towards death</h2>
<p>The one key issue for which we rank as comparatively less liberal than other countries is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-penalty-is-capital-punishment-morally-justified-42970">death penalty</a>. One in five in the UK think capital punishment is justifiable and a further 35% think it is potentially justifiable. Taken together, this means a majority think it may be acceptable in certain circumstances, which is much higher than Italy, Germany, Sweden and Norway, for example, but lower than Australia, France and the US. </p>
<p><strong>The UK is much more mid-table in our attitudes to the death penalty</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514719/original/file-20230310-17-t7m84x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UK base: 3,056 people in the UK aged 18+, surveyed 1 Mar–9 Sept 2022. Other countries all surveyed in wave 7 of WVS at various points between 2017 and 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Policy Institute, King's College London, World Values Survey.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Support for the death penalty also relates much more to political identities than other issues, with Conservative voters much more likely to be in favour of capital punishment than Labour voters. This helps explain why it continues to be brought up in political discussions. </p>
<p>Other trends in attitudes also highlight likely future directions on some key topics that remain sensitive. For example, support for euthanasia has increased significantly, from 20% in 1981 to 47% now, no doubt partly due to greater awareness of the issue. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-laws-are-progressing-in-some-places-the-uk-isnt-one-of-them-73181">Assisted dying</a> is, of course, still illegal in the UK. It is, however, now seen as much more acceptable by the UK public than other illegal behaviours asked about in the study, such as dodging taxes. </p>
<p>One other trend raises some thorny questions. Suicide is still seen as justifiable by a relatively small minority of the population. But that minority has grown substantially, from 6% to 19% between 1981 and 2022. The UK now ranks among the most likely to say suicide is justifiable, along with France, Germany and Spain. </p>
<p>This increase is to a large degree driven by much higher proportions of gen Z saying suicide is justifiable, at 30%. The prevalence of suicide among young people can be overblown – for example, gen Z is often <a href="https://unherd.com/2019/02/do-we-really-have-a-suicidal-generation/">wrongly characterised</a> as a “suicidal generation”. Suicide is one of the top killers among the young, but the this is mostly because young people don’t die very often.</p>
<p><strong>Gen Z also stand out as being particularly likely to think suicide is justifiable</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two graphics." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514720/original/file-20230310-26-qnwvv4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bases: minimum of 130 people surveyed per generation per year (left); 3,056 people in the UK aged 18+, surveyed 1 Mar–9 Sept 2022 (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Policy Institute, King's College London, World Values Survey.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There has, however, been a slight increase in <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmhealth/17/report.html#heading-7">suicide rates</a> among <a href="https://theconversation.com/suicides-at-record-level-among-uk-students-95341">young people</a>, particularly young girls, in recent years, as well as increases in suicide attempts and self-harming behaviours. The greater acceptability of suicide among young people today could simply be a sign of a cohort of young that better understands and engages on mental health issues. </p>
<p>Thankfully, we’re in a much better place in terms of people feeling more able to talk about suicidal thoughts. Any sense we may be “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36330742/">normalising</a>” suicide is clearly something to understand and consider carefully. But it’s also important not to overplay this as yet and to remember that the overall long-term trend is towards <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2021registrations#:%7E:text=From%201981%2C%20there%20has%20been,6.7%20deaths%20per%20100%2C000%20females">signficantly lower rates of suicide</a>.</p>
<p>Surveys of this kind, on social attitudinal shifts, aren’t just about reflecting on the past. They are vital in looking forward. For every social issue that is largely settled, there will always be new, emergent challenges, and these trends provide signals of what could come next.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bobby Duffy receives funding from the ESRC, Cabinet Office, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Unbound Philanthropy, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.</span></em></p>This major survey on social trends shows how far the UK has come in terms of attitudes towards homosexuality, casual sex and divorce. Views on the death penalty remain conservative, however.Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994242023-02-09T09:05:11Z2023-02-09T09:05:11ZWhat does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508641/original/file-20230207-21-ed2xy3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/">reportedly replied</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive leader</a> when it comes to, among other things, gay Catholics. </p>
<p>It’s a stance that has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">drawn the ire</a> of some high-ranking bishops and ordinary Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it? </p>
<p>Scripture is particularly important for Christians. When church leaders refer to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually mean “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. The Bible is always interpreted by our churches through their particular theological lenses. </p>
<p>As a biblical scholar, I would suggest that church leaders who use their cultures and theology to exclude homosexuals don’t read Scripture carefully. Instead, they allow their patriarchal fears to distort it, seeking to find in the Bible proof-texts that will support attitudes of exclusion. </p>
<p>There are several instances in the Bible that underscore my point.</p>
<h2>Love of God and neighbour</h2>
<p>Mark’s Gospel, found in the New Testament, records that Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple on three occasions. First, he visited briefly, and “looked around at everything” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.11">11:11</a>). </p>
<p>On the second visit he acted, driving “out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.15">11:15</a>). Jesus specifically targeted those who exploited the poorest of the people coming to the temple. </p>
<p>On his third visit, Jesus spent considerable time in the temple itself (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.11.NIV">11:27-13:2</a>). He met the full array of temple leadership, including chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Each of these leadership sectors used their interpretation of Scripture to exclude rather than to include. </p>
<p>The “ordinary people” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.32">11:32</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.12.12">12:12</a>) recognised that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of inclusion. They eagerly embraced him as he walked through the temple. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/100/MRK.12.24.NASB1995">Mark 12:24</a>, Jesus addresses the Sadducees, who were the traditional high priests of ancient Israel and played an important role in the temple. Among those who confronted Jesus, they represented the group that held to a conservative theological position and used their interpretation of the Scripture to exclude. Jesus said to them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus recognised that they chose to interpret Scripture in a way that prevented it from being understood in non-traditional ways. Thus they limited God’s power to be different from traditional understandings of him. Jesus was saying God refused to be the exclusive property of the Sadducees. The ordinary people who followed Jesus understood that he represented a different understanding of God.</p>
<p>This message of inclusion becomes even clearer when Jesus is later confronted by a single scribe (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/100/mrk.12.28">12:28</a>). In answer to the scribe’s question on the most important laws, Jesus summarised the theological ethic of his gospel: love of God and love of neighbour (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.12.NIV">12:29-31</a>).</p>
<h2>Inclusion, not exclusion</h2>
<p>Those who would exclude homosexuals from God’s kingdom choose to ignore Jesus, turning instead to the Old Testament – most particularly to <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV">Genesis 19</a>, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their interpretation of the story is that it is about homosexuality. It isn’t. It relates to hospitality.</p>
<p>The story begins in <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.18.NIV">Genesis 18</a> when three visitors (God and two angels, appearing as “men”) came before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham">Abraham</a>, a Hebrew patriarch. What did Abraham and his wife Sarah do? They offered hospitality. </p>
<p>The two angels then left Abraham and the Lord and travelled into <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">Sodom (19:1)</a> where they met Lot, Abraham’s nephew. What did Lot do? He offered hospitality. The two incidents of hospitality are explained in exactly the same language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">“men of Sodom” (19:4)</a>, as the Bible describes them, didn’t offer the same hospitality to these angels in disguise. Instead they sought to humiliate them (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">and Lot (19:9)</a>) by threatening to rape them. We know they were heterosexual because Lot, in attempting to protect himself and his guests, offered his virgin daughters to them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">(19:8)</a>. </p>
<p>Heterosexual rape of men by men is a common act of humiliation. This is an extreme form of inhospitality. The story contrasts extreme hospitality (Abraham and Lot) with the extreme inhospitality of the men of Sodom. It is a story of inclusion, not exclusion. Abraham and Lot included the strangers; the men of Sodom excluded them.</p>
<h2>Clothed in Christ</h2>
<p>When confronted by the inclusive gospel of Jesus and a careful reading of the story of Sodom as one about hospitality, those who disavow Pope Francis’s approach will likely jump to other Scriptures. Why? Because they have a patriarchal agenda and are looking for any Scripture that might support their position.</p>
<p>But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.18.22">Leviticus 18:22</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.20.13">20:13</a>, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex. These texts are about relationships that cross boundaries of purity (between clean and unclean) and ethnicity (Israelite and Canaanite). </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NRSVUE">Galatians 3:28</a> in the New Testament, Paul the apostle yearns for a Christian community where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul built his theological argument on the Jew-Greek distinction, but then extended it to the slave-free distinction and the male-female distinction. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Paul and extend it to the heterosexual-homosexual distinction. </p>
<p>We are all “clothed in Christ” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/gal.3.27">3:27</a>): God only sees Christ, not our different sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald West does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those who exclude any groups of people from God’s kingdom choose to ignore the teaching of Jesus.Gerald West, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1989432023-02-03T14:47:22Z2023-02-03T14:47:22ZThe Whale: Brendan Fraser’s comeback offers rare representation of the fat queer male body on screen<p>The Whale debuted at the 2022 Venice Film Festival to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN3VEbUUGwM">six-minute standing ovation</a> for its <a href="https://variety.com/2023/scene/events/brendan-fraser-the-whale-oscar-nomination-reaction-carvel-1235505718/">Academy Award-nominated lead</a>, Brendan Fraser, who has returned to the big screen after a <a href="https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3191969/what-happened-brendan-fraser-after-years-hardship-and">considerable hiatus</a>.</p>
<p>Fraser’s fame was amplified in the 2000s by his starring role in The Mummy saga. He was consistently cast as the six-packed hunk, in such films as George of the Jungle (1997) and Gods and Monsters (1998).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Brendan Fraser is topless with a six pack, sat down with a toucan on his arm, talking to Leslie Mann." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507399/original/file-20230131-4565-yu8i99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A younger Brendan Fraser costars with Leslie Mann in George of the Jungle (1997).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-actor-brendan-fraser-as-george-king-of-the-jungle-with-leslie-mann-90096993.html?imageid=CBB1BB04-5F9E-4433-82D4-2C7745A6EDD6&p=372758&pn=1&searchId=a00ec0c78fb86777545eddb8395a5894&searchtype=0&login=1">Entertainment Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A lot has changed since then. In 2018, Fraser <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/what-ever-happened-to-brendan-fraser">spoke up about an alleged sexual assault</a>, saying he was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/brendan-fraser-sexual-assault-whale-b2239649.html">inspired to do so</a> by the Me Too movement.</p>
<p>Fraser claimed that speaking up about the alleged incident saw him blacklisted in Hollywood, put him off acting and nearly ended his career. In doing so, he joined a growing list of actors who have made similar allegations.</p>
<p>These are not unimportant details in the controversy surrounding The Whale, which stems from Fraser’s embodiment of 600lb, partly closeted English teacher, Charlie, and the prosthetics he wore to do so. In the film Charlie leaves his wife and daughter after falling in love with one of his male students. </p>
<p>As an expert in men and masculinity on film, I find the contrast between Charlie’s fat body and the memory of Fraser’s old muscular self interesting in what it reveals about ageing, body size and the objectification of male bodies on the screen more generally.</p>
<h2>Shame, size and sexuality</h2>
<p>The Whale introduces the issue of shame from the opening sequence. Filmed from behind in almost complete darkness, and partly obscured behind several half empty bottles of soda, Charlie is shown vigorously masturbating to gay pornography.</p>
<p>He nearly has a heart attack as he climaxes but is interrupted by a handsome young missionary (Ty Simpkins) who claims to be part of the Christian group New Life. He happens to knock on the door just in time to save Charlie’s life – and perhaps his soul.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nWiQodhMvz4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for The Whale.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The complex mix of health, religion and sexuality in the first sequence of the film prepares viewers for its controversy-inciting ideological tensions.</p>
<p>Critics and audiences alike have objected to the use of makeup and prosthetics to add 300 pounds to 54-year-old Fraser’s now heavier frame, described in some reviews as a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/the-whale-and-the-fat-suit-brendan-fraser-darren-aronofsky">“fat suit”.</a> Many see the prosthetic as problematic, especially as the film does not shy away from presenting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/opinion/the-whale-film.html">Charlie’s semi-nude body as a spectacle</a>.</p>
<h2>Blinds, black screens and binging</h2>
<p>Reviews have largely focused on the now unavoidable issue of <a href="https://screenrant.com/whale-movie-fatphobia-controversy-brendan-fraser/">authentic casting</a>. Can a straight man – who has a heavy frame, but is still half Charlie’s weight – play a queer fat person? </p>
<p>The controversy has led Fraser to try to justify his casting with reference to his own traumatic experiences with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/dec/09/brendan-fraser-darren-aronofsky-the-whale-samuel-d-hunter-interview">injuries and surgeries</a> and being <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/brendan-fraser-my-son-helped-me-connect-to-the-whale/">the father of an autistic son</a> who has a difficult relationship with food.</p>
<p>Speaking to the Los Angeles Times podcast, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-12-13/darren-aronofsky-the-whale-brendan-fraser-obesity-fatphobia">The Envelope</a>, director Darren Aronofsky explained that the original play drew from the real experiences of playwright Samuel D. Hunter. In a separate interview for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/the-whale-and-the-fat-suit-brendan-fraser-darren-aronofsky">The New Yorker</a>, Hunter explained that the story had been inspired by his struggle with sexuality and religion, leading to eating disorders during his university years.</p>
<p>The Whale is unambiguous in condemning the role of organised religion at the centre of Charlie’s trauma, a critique explicitly voiced by Liz (Hong Chau), nurse and sister of Charlie’s tragically deceased partner. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hong Chau wears a blue jacket and sits on a balcony." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507396/original/file-20230131-7778-8nj0xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hong Chau as Liz in The Whale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://press.a24films.com/films/whale">Courtesy of A24</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>This is one of the film’s redeeming aspects, alongside Charlie’s genuine love for his estranged family and much-missed lover and his short-lived flirtation with his pizza delivery man – another stranger who shows genuine concern for his customer, who is always hiding behind closed doors and blinds.</p>
<p>The black screen in Charlie’s zoom call with students (he pretends that his laptop camera is broken) further The Whale’s exploration of shame. This is emphasised in other scenes where Charlie binges, stuffing his face with greasy slices of pizza or chocolate bars. </p>
<p>For me, the ominous soundtrack to these scenes reflects his sense of guilt and abandonment, as opposed to the judgement of fat people lacking self control that <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/14/the-whale-backlash-critic-warns-fat-and-skinny-people/">some reviewers have inferred</a>.</p>
<p>The predominance of closeup shots that in part objectify Charlie’s body also augment the sense of claustrophobia that dominates his secluded life, confined to his apartment. Charlie’s enclosure and hiding contrasts sharply with the all-access voyeuristic gaze that the film allows us, the spectators. </p>
<h2>Fat men in film</h2>
<p>In his pioneering book on fat masculinity, <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803271234/">Fat Boys</a>, historian Sander L. Gilman claims that the cultural association of fatness and women has eclipsed the rich history of fatness and masculinity from ancient Greece.</p>
<p>His examples reveal a recent tendency to characterise fictional fat bodies as somehow defective. Fat male bodies are frequently positioned either as the butt of the joke, or something tragic.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uNJQYgAaxug?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A clip from The Whale featuring Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Film scholar Niall Richardson’s fascinating book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Transgressive-Bodies-Representations-in-Film-and-Popular-Culture/Richardson/p/book/9781138245679">Transgressive Bodies</a> – which focuses on film and popular culture – and cultural historian Christopher Forth’s study of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X13502653?journalCode=jmma">fat men in film noir</a> observe similar patterns.</p>
<p>While it would be difficult to argue that The Whale diverges much from this negative perception of fat male bodies, the film dares to confront its viewers with an invasive camera that over-invests on a type of male body rarely seen on the screen and that appears in almost every scene.</p>
<p>The memory of Fraser’s past typecasting as a hunk – and the personal and professional struggles that followed – add considerable complexity and richness to The Whale and to the representation of fat queer masculinity on the screen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In the current academic year Santiago Fouz Hernández is Walter Mangold Fellow at the University of Melbourne and has received funding from The CASS Foundation to start a new collaborative project on men, masculinities and male bodies on film. </span></em></p>The queer fat man’s body at the heart of The Whale is an image sorely lacking from the screen – as an expert in men and masculinity on film explains.Santiago Fouz Hernández, Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1960872022-12-12T13:33:29Z2022-12-12T13:33:29ZGhana had a bad time in 2022 – 4 reads to catch up on what happened<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499330/original/file-20221206-8116-til3es.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All of Ghana's main sources of drinking water have been contaminated by illegal mining activities</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ghana, a country with a good reputation for democracy, human rights, governance and economic growth in Africa, endured a difficult 2022.</p>
<p>The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict inflicted economic pain, leaving the country at the doors of the International Monetary Fund. The year also saw protests over a mobile money transaction levy and a hardline anti-LGBTQI bill. Illegal mining also increased as the government admitted it had lost control of the situation.</p>
<p>The Conversation Africa’s academic authors captured all these issues in four insightful articles.</p>
<h2>A draconian law in the offing</h2>
<p>On 29 June 2021, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 was introduced in parliament. Its aim was to “proscribe the promotion of and advocacy for LGBTQ+ practice”.</p>
<p>The bill became the subject of global criticism on human rights grounds. Its supporters have argued that it is essential to preserve Ghanaian society. Martin Odei Agei provides a philosophical perspective on why many Africans oppose homosexuality and argues that being gay and being culturally African need not be seen as a contradiction.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homosexuality-and-africa-a-philosophers-perspective-185536">Homosexuality and Africa: a philosopher's perspective</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>An economy on its knees</h2>
<p>Ghana has announced what it is calling a debt exchange programme as it seeks balance of payment support from the International Monetary Fund. </p>
<p>Economist Theo Acheampong explains that while debt restructuring is necessary, the government must admit its own failings in managing the economy and the funds that are available to it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghana-and-the-imf-debt-restructuring-must-go-hand-in-hand-with-managing-finances-better-191877">Ghana and the IMF: debt restructuring must go hand-in-hand with managing finances better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>The introduction of an electronic transaction levy by the government in May in a bid to raise domestic revenue was met with political and civil resistance. The levy focused on mobile money transactions. Mike Rogan, Nana Akua Anyidoho, Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard estimate the levy’s likely impact on poor people.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-data-on-the-e-levy-in-ghana-unpopular-tax-on-mobile-money-transfers-is-hitting-the-poor-hardest-189671">New data on the e-levy in Ghana: unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>The search for gold ravages the environment</h2>
<p>Ghana’s position as one of the world’s top producers of gold has come at a price: the wanton destruction of land and vegetation and the chemical contamination of water. Government measures have not slowed down the degradation and pollution. </p>
<p>This has been blamed largely on the artisanal and small scale mining sector. Richard Kumah’s analysis explains the disconnect between the realities of these miners and the rules that govern them.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-illegal-mining-continues-because-the-rules-and-reality-are-disconnected-193342">Ghana's illegal mining continues because the rules and reality are disconnected</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Through articles written by academic experts in the course of the year, The Conversation Africa takes a look back at Ghana in 2022.Godfred Boafo, Commissioning Editor: GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1871002022-08-21T20:02:23Z2022-08-21T20:02:23ZJay Carmichael’s gay love story set in conservative 1950s Australia intrigues, but fails to convince<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479336/original/file-20220816-26-4evxl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Streetscenes, Melbourne, 1950.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Strizic/State Library of Victoria</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/marlo-9781925713695">Marlo</a>, a gay love story set in 1950s conservative Australia, draws on library and archival research. We know this because at the end of his book, author Jay Carmichael – a gay man himself – cites the work of Denis Altman and myself (in my role as a gay historian), among others. The novel is illustrated with photographs from collections in the State Library of Victoria and the Australian Queer Archives.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Marlo – Jay Carmichael (Scribe)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Marlo concerns central character Christopher’s sexual coming-of-age, after moving to Melbourne as a young adult from the small country town of Marlo in East Gippsland. The novel explores how same-sex-attracted men lived their lives during the repressive period following the end of the second world war.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="two men in a boat on a beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479244/original/file-20220816-20306-mu81pz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Christopher moves to 1950s Melbourne, where he finds a job as a mechanic and shares a house with a friend from Marlo, Kings, and his girlfriend. During a picnic in the Botanic Gardens, Christopher bumps into another suit-wearing young man, Morgan, who later in the novel we discover is an Aboriginal Australian, living in white society with a Certificate of Exemption from the Board for the Protection of Aborigines (New South Wales). </p>
<p>Christopher and Morgan struggle with what appears to be Christopher’s self-loathing and yearning for acceptance.</p>
<h2>Camp men in 1950s Melbourne</h2>
<p>Same-sex-attracted men were known as “camp” before gay liberation popularised the term “gay” for homosexual men. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3614333.html">Their lives</a> were made more difficult by the association between sexual nonconformity and the political threat from Communism.</p>
<p>Marlo is at its most convincing when dealing with the social life that was available to camp men in 1950s Melbourne, and the discretion men like Christopher needed in order to pass, until they felt secure about who they were talking to and socialising with.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Women in tailored suits. A singer onstage […] Men in ball gowns. Each different. In this café, together, they made a whole. Distinct and complete. They were the same in that they were outcast, outlawed, underground.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Christopher’s relationships with his sister Iris and his boyfriend Morgan, and the tensions they created for him, are intriguing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As we danced, I could have told Iris that the connection I felt with Morgan was similar to the connection I felt with her […] But it was her wedding night; all this could wait for a better time. Then again, I couldn’t be sure there ever would be a better time".</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before Christopher met Morgan, Iris had been his emotional anchor, but she wasn’t privy to knowledge of his sexuality. Despite Morgan’s reservations, Christopher insists that he join him at Iris’s wedding.</p>
<p>Morgan goes for a jog when they arrive at Christopher’s family home, is shunned by Iris, and wisely refuses to attend the wedding celebrations. The novel sets up but does not fully deal with Christopher replacing his dependence on Iris with his love for Morgan.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="image of a small-town landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479302/original/file-20220816-14-2wgmlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The novel’s protagonist, Christopher, moves to Melbourne from small-town Marlo, Victoria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Victoria/Rose Stereograph Co</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Repressive society, repressed self</h2>
<p>In places, Jay Carmichael’s prose is inspired and elegiac: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And in the morning, before the world was clear-eyed, we would go, quiet, to our days.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On one occasion, as the physical relationship develops between Christopher and Morgan, he investigates Morgan’s body for any evidence of self harm: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the shower, I checked his arms for self-inflicted scars or marks […] He did not have a blemish, but I determined he carried them within. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But he shows less interest in Morgan’s arms, thighs, genitals – or anything approaching the erotic.</p>
<p>It seems somewhat odd also that as a man in his 20s, ruminating over his budding physical relationship with Morgan, Christopher continued to use the term “things” to describe his genitals. (Which readers were first introduced to when as a child, his friend, Kings, showed Christopher his “things”.)</p>
<p>The connection the author might have intended here – between a repressive external society and an internalised, repressed view of the self – was not something <a href="https://federationpress.com.au/product/homophobia-an-australian-history/">my research</a> revealed in men who were born in the 1920s and ‘30s and were sexually active in 1950s Australia. Many admitted to cautiously conducting their social/sexual relationships to avoid attracting the attention of <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-in-10-lgbtq-students-say-they-hear-homophobic-language-at-school-and-1-in-3-hear-it-almost-every-day-160356">homophobes</a>, others to positively welcoming the police raiding their parties – for the “mystique” it brought them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/faggots-punks-and-prostitutes-the-evolving-language-of-gay-men-73136">Faggots, punks, and prostitutes: the evolving language of gay men</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Occasional jarring notes occurred when other present-day features intruded in this novel set in the 1950s – when, for example, picnickers in the Botanic Gardens had “bubbly” with lunch. (I am not a cultural historian but suspect that, if drunk in Melbourne in the 1950s, champagne was the preserve of a small elite.) The scene seems more like a present-day invention than a reflection of the past. </p>
<p>And, when Christopher had a “duvet” over his legs and later opened a bottle of “merlot” after finishing work in a mechanics’ garage, my credulity as a reader was tested.</p>
<p>While these factual anomalies might seem slight, they may cause readers to wonder about the author’s other historical representations.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two policemen in uniform" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479306/original/file-20220816-26-mkvd3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Homosexuality was illegal in Australia in the period when Marlo is set.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library New South Wales collection: 'Home and Away'</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my view, a weakness of the novel is its focus on what I suspect are the author and his peers’ current concerns (such as self-harm). Forcing these and other improbable material features on the past suggests an insufficiently strong understanding of history.</p>
<p>There is an important difference between using our current interests to investigate the past, which Carmichael suggests he is doing, but did not do well in my view (the author’s note explaining his sources runs to eight pages) and imposing our present-day concerns on the past. I suspect he has done the latter.</p>
<p>Some writers of historical novels are known to spend months verifying everyday facts from the past: dress, modes of social interaction, food, drink and diet (for instance).</p>
<p>Examples of those who have excelled in this field include Mary Renault (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67700.The_Persian_Boy">The Persian Boy</a> and other books in her Alexander the Great trilogy), Marguerite Yourcenar, first woman elected to the French Academy (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12172.Memoirs_of_Hadrian">Memoirs of Hadrian</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/103197.Coup_de_Gr_ce">Coup de Grâce</a>), and more recently, Hilary Mantel (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/75450-thomas-cromwell">Wolf Hall</a>).</p>
<p>When done well, the historical novel shows how good writing and a strong grasp of history can enhance a richer understanding of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jay Carmichael’s novel explores how Australian same-sex attracted men lived during the repressive period after the end of the second world war. But does it impose present concerns on the past?Peter Robinson, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837792022-05-25T15:49:31Z2022-05-25T15:49:31ZDerry Girls: the riotous show that shifted the experiences of teenage girls in Northern Ireland to centre stage<p>It’s a summer evening in Derry in 1997, the night before four teenage girls and a wee English fella get their GCSE results. In between newsflashes and 90s dance hits, 16-year old Clare nervously explains just what is at stake and why these results are so vitally important: “We’re girls, we’re poor, we’re from Northern Ireland and we’re Catholic!”</p>
<p>Lisa McGee’s riotous <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/in-derry-girls-and-milkman-teenage-girls-dance-through-the-troubles">Derry Girls</a>, back for its final season, distilled the power of this hilarious drama in just 10 seconds of dialogue. The fears of the four girls – mouthy Michelle, stressed-out Erin, eccentric Orla and anxiety-ridden Clare – were played for humour, but the challenges facing them were real and serious. </p>
<p>Narratives about Northern Ireland, and especially the conflict euphemistically known as “<a href="https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/">the Troubles</a>”, focus overwhelmingly on men. Derry Girls showed us what life was like for one of society’s most marginalised groups in a time and place some academics have described as an “<a href="https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/women-in-northern-irelands-politics-feminising-an-armed-patriarch">an armed patriarchy</a>”.</p>
<p>We don’t often hear about daily life for girls and women during this period. The writer Eli Davies makes it clear how such stories are “<a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1118/1092627-how-the-long-note-tells-the-histories-of-the-women-of-derry/">often flattened out</a> by mainstream conflict narratives”. These tend to centre narratives about paramilitaries, politicians and the British military – all predominantly men. </p>
<p>Derry Girls gloriously upended these conventions by putting Northern Irish girls firmly centre stage. </p>
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<h2>Real life in Northern Ireland</h2>
<p>Horny Michelle gets some of the best lines in the show: “We’re doing it for peace. A piece of that fine, Protestant ass.” Her irreverence is refreshing in a culture that still finds the sexuality of teenage girls <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/28/-sp-let-teenage-girls-enjoy-sexuality-caitlin-moran-lena-dunham">subversive</a>. </p>
<p>But audiences might not find it so amusing to learn that if Michelle had got pregnant, she wouldn’t have been able to access vital <a href="https://theconversation.com/northern-ireland-has-been-forced-to-change-its-abortion-law-heres-how-it-happened-125256">reproductive</a> care in 1997. She would still struggle now, <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-families-abortion-is-now-legal-in-northern-ireland-but-more-needs-to-be-done-so-every-woman-has-adequate-access-161046">in 2022</a>. </p>
<p>Although Clare is accepted by her friends when she reveals she is gay in the first season, there are still pockets of Northern Irish society that are deeply <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-politics-idUSKCN1R80UO">homophobic</a>. Clare wouldn’t have been able to marry a girlfriend until 2019, when same-sex marriage was finally legalised. This was a <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/13/northern-ireland-same-sex-marriage-equality-legal-weddings-uk/">fraught</a> process, as was the decriminalisation of abortion. </p>
<p>Teenage girls are often the centre of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-moral-panic-over-instagram-and-girls">moral panics</a>. Historically, society has been unsure what to do with girls and women who aren’t (yet) wives and mothers. This is especially true in an extremely conservative society like Northern Ireland. </p>
<p>How joyful to get to see teenage girls challenging taboos just by being themselves and living their lives. Derry Girls showed us a vision of teenage life that we just hadn’t seen before. I was born outside Belfast and didn’t, in fact, grow up in the North – but others can testify to the enormous pleasure of seeing themselves represented on screen for the first time. Academic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/18/derry-girls-troubles-northern-ireland-literature%255D">Caroline Magennis</a> and blogger-activist <a href="https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/derry-girls-taught-me-the-joy-of-feeling-seen/">Seaneen Molloy</a> have written powerfully about this.</p>
<p>Yet audiences who didn’t live through the conflict, or even <a href="https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/05/18/farewell-to-derry-girls-a-masterful-comedy-about-the-troubles">know</a> much about it, have responded with overwhelming enthusiasm to McGee’s much-loved comedy. Seeing a show about four teenage girls (and token boy James) is still groundbreaking TV.</p>
<h2>Girls don’t want to be sidelined</h2>
<p>If there is a cultural problem with sidelining women, then attitudes towards girls are even worse. Girls still make society anxious and it fails to take them seriously.</p>
<p>The treatment of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is a case in point. The then US president, Donald Trump, famously <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/05/greta-thunberg-donald-trump-twitter-chill">tweeted</a> that Thunberg being named Time magazine’s person of the year 2019 was “so ridiculous”, labelling her resolute commitment to her cause “an anger management programme”. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-49922779">Other</a> national leaders were equally <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/greta-thunberg-called-a-brat-by-brazils-president-jair-bolsonaro-11883240">disrespectful</a>. </p>
<p>We find some men clamouring to devalue the culture associated with girls, assuming that girls have poor taste or what they think is unimportant. In an interview with <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/one-direction-gq-covers-interview">One Direction in GQ</a>, journalist Jonathan Heaf confidently declares girls don’t understand music and “don’t care about history”. This is clearly not true: female history students outnumber male at <a href="https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2021/09/which-a-level-subjects-have-the-best-and-worst-gender-balance/">A-Level</a> and <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/16-01-2020/sb255-higher-education-student-statistics/qualifications">degree</a> level. I’d like to see Clare, the straight A student, challenge Heaf to a history test. Or watch Heaf try to take tickets for a gig out of Orla’s hands. </p>
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<h2>Changing the script</h2>
<p>The cultural script still largely views the sexuality of teenage girls as horrifying. Even romance stories privilege female virginity. If we think about recent and phenomenally successful programmes such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/20/bridgerton-and-normal-people-expose-romances-colonial-hangover">Normal People</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-whole-new-set-of-horny-lords-and-ladies-how-bridgerton-brought-romance-book-serialisation-to-television-180303">Bridgerton</a> – also starring Nicola Coughlan, who plays Clare in Derry Girls – the male romantic lead is permitted a sexual past whereas the teenage female lead is not. This is one of the key conventions of the romance genre: a chaste heroine saves a bad boy from himself. </p>
<p>Contemporary Irish fiction is crackling with the voices of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fiction-by-northern-irish-women-is-booming-leading-the-way-against-misogyny-72443">girls and women</a> but men are still more likely to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/09/why-do-so-few-men-read-books-by-women">read books by men</a>. </p>
<p>In film, male actors get <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/9/11393674/gender-in-film-dialogue-survey">more than twice as much dialogue</a> as their female counterparts. Researchers are still working through what these stats look like for trans, gender fluid and non-binary folk, but it’s clear there would be no comparison.</p>
<p>Lisa McGee’s girls might have graced our screens for the final time but they are joined by an ever-expanding group of brilliant Northern Irish girls filling the pages of new books by the likes of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/08/the-raptures-by-jan-carson-review-visions-in-a-northern-irish-village">Jan Carson</a>, <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/truth-be-told/sue-divin/2928377080594">Sue Divin</a>, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/dance-move-wendy-erskine-review-penetrating-pitch-perfect-collection-1549838">Wendy Erskine</a> and <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781529386264">Michelle Gallen</a>.</p>
<p>If Derry Girls has been your entry point to Northern Ireland, you’ll find a whole world of new stories that will challenge all you thought you knew about life here. And though the uproarious series has ended, it has shifted the everyday lives and experiences of teenage girls centre stage, resonating with young female audiences well beyond the Irish Sea.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Garden receives funding from UK Research and Innovation. </span></em></p>Society still tends to sideline girls, so a comedy concentrating on the lives of four young women during the Troubles remains groundbreaking TV.Alison Garden, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1829492022-05-16T14:55:26Z2022-05-16T14:55:26ZRwanda: LGBT rights are protected on paper, but discrimination and homophobia persist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462777/original/file-20220512-17-veiydd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A church-goer attends an inclusive church for the LGBTI community in Rwanda. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“From today, I no longer want to be called your mother, if you don’t want to change you can leave my house and come back when you are a transformed person, when you are a man.” Chris (not his real name) a queer transgender person from Rwanda recalls the words of their angry mother. That was the last time Chris interacted with their mother. She chased Chris away and, from then on, they had to fend for themself.</p>
<p>Not only was Chris rejected by family but also by religious leaders in different churches. Chris, a talented musician, sought refuge in the church where they were given a chance to train in worship but as soon as they realised Chris’ gender identity, they were excommunicated by the church. </p>
<p>“I faced discrimination when accessing medical care and I no longer enjoyed the family medical scheme benefits that I had access to before my mother withdrew them. Each time I went to the hospital and explained to the doctors the pain I was in since I had contracted an anal rectal sexually transmitted infection, they were judgemental. This was very stressful, I went into depression and contemplated suicide. To add to this, I started abusing drugs,” Chris told me.</p>
<p>This is a common story across many African countries – same-sex relations are <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/HRF-HRC-Africa-Report.pdf">criminalised</a> in 37 countries. But <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10314-w">even where</a> the law is grey or it is legal, sexual and gender minorities are plagued by social exclusion, stigma, discrimination and human rights abuses.</p>
<p>I’m part of a team at the African Population and Health Research Center that seeks to generate evidence to deepen the understanding of the life experiences of sexual and gender minorities. The idea is that this will then inform policies on social inclusion and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. We have, so far, completed four studies in Kenya and Rwanda.</p>
<p>We recently conducted <a href="https://aphrc.org/publication/examination-of-lgbt-peoples-lived-experiences-and-public-perceptions-of-sexual-and-gender-minorities-in-rwanda-3/">a study</a> in Rwanda on the lived experiences of LGBT people and public perception. We found that discrimination is rife, but steps can be taken to address it.</p>
<h2>Rwanda and the LGBT community</h2>
<p>Rwanda is one of the few African countries that has assented to international conventions and continental frameworks that protect the human rights of all citizens, including the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/resolutions-sexual-orientation-gender-identity-and-sex-characteristics">UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity</a> and the UN Report on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity LGBT Populations. The country is also a signatory to the <a href="https://cdn.sida.se/app/uploads/2021/05/07084831/rights-of-lgbt-persons-rwanda.pdf">2011</a> United Nations statement condemning violence against LGBT people and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Discrimination/Endingviolence_ACHPR_IACHR_UN_SOGI_dialogue_EN.pdf">has joined</a> nine other African countries to support LGBT rights.</p>
<p>Within Rwanda, however, domestic policy on LGBT rights is a grey area. <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Rwanda_2010.pdf">Article 26</a> on marriage recognises marriage between biological male and female. This law amplifies ambiguity on Rwanda’s stance on the legality of LGBT people, resulting in a fragile social environment. </p>
<p>Our study, in partnership with the <a href="https://hdirwanda.org/">Health Development Initiative</a> covered six districts within the capital Kigali and the southern province of Rwanda. </p>
<p>We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with LGBT individuals and leaders, and a survey with the general public to get a deeper understanding of LGBT people’s lived experiences. We also spoke with members of the public, specifically members of civil society organisations, teachers, healthcare providers, security operatives, and local authorities. </p>
<p>We found that, even though Rwanda is considered to be progressive on LGBT issues, negative attitudes undermine the lives of sexual and gender minorities.</p>
<p>About three in four (74%) members of the public indicated that the sexual acts or gender expressions of LGBT people are ungodly while 49% felt that LGBT individuals were unnatural. Half (50%) believed that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism resulted from too much freedom and liberty. </p>
<p>A significant number of LGBT people reported experiencing hostility from families and the larger community, such as in cultural places, in their work, places of residence and when trying to access health services. High stigma and discrimination is commonplace among the larger community towards the LGBT community. </p>
<p>LGBT people are subjected to conversion therapy – where they’re taken for prayers in the hope that they’ll be exorcised from their homosexual tendencies. They’re also rejected and subjected to the use of negative rhetoric and language. </p>
<p>In 2016, Rwandan president Paul Kagame said that living in Rwanda as an LGBTI person <a href="https://youtu.be/j8WgV6lAGAk?t=28">“has not been our problem, and we do not intend to make it a problem”.</a>. Despite this, the government lacks legal mechanisms to protect LGBTI people as social injustice against them prevails. As a result, there are many forms of inequalities which have consequences on the social exclusion of LGBT people. </p>
<h2>Steps to take</h2>
<p>There are various steps that the government and civil society organisations can take to rectify this. </p>
<p>There should also be programmes that raise community awareness about LGBT people. </p>
<p>Awareness campaigns must be conducted amongst LGBT people. They must be made aware of their human rights and the legal protections available to them. This would foster acceptance of gender and sexual diversity. This can be done directly at the community level or with the help of trained community leaders, such as religious leaders.</p>
<p>Training on human rights is also key. This should be provided to healthcare workers, law enforcement officers, members of the media and education sectors, judges and lawyers. Such training must include the rights of LGBTI people to access services.</p>
<p>Finally, civil society organisations should advocate for comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and policies and the government must enact and implement resolutions to which they’re signatory. This includes the <a href="https://www.achpr.org/sessions/resolutions?id=322">African Commission on Human and People’s Rights 275 resolution</a> that address all forms of discrimination, including sexual orientation and gender discrimination. For proper follow through, law enforcement officials must know these laws and what must be done to enforce them. </p>
<p><em>Issabelah Nthambi Mutuku, a communications officer with the African Population and Health Research Center, contributed to the writing of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmy Kageha Igonya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A significant number of Rwanda’s LGBT community experience hostility. This includes at work and when trying to access health services.Emmy Kageha Igonya, Associate research scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1828102022-05-16T14:55:08Z2022-05-16T14:55:08ZLGBTI refugees seeking protection in Kenya struggle to survive in a hostile environment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462977/original/file-20220513-24-yh8b8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An activist leaves Kenya's high court after a 2019 ruling refused to scrap laws criminalising homosexuality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya is now the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ke/who-we-help/refugees">second biggest</a> refugee hosting country in Africa. Of its over half a million refugees, <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ke/19859-unhcr-statement-on-the-situation-of-lgbtiq-refugees-in-kakuma-camp.html">over a thousand</a> from neighbouring African states have sought asylum on the basis of persecution over their sexual orientation or gender identity. </p>
<p>For instance, approximately 400 asylum claims by Ugandans were registered with the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) Kenya between 2014 and 2015. This surge followed <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/14/uganda-anti-homosexuality-acts-heavy-toll">state-condoned violence</a> against gays and lesbians in Uganda during the 2014 debate of an ‘anti-homosexuality bill’ which initially included the death penalty for ‘practicing homosexuals’.</p>
<p>Uganda is one of <a href="https://ilga.org/ilga-world-releases-state-sponsored-homophobia-December-2020-update">32 countries</a> in Africa that criminalises homosexuality. In eastern Africa, Somalia – <a href="https://ilga.org/ilga-world-releases-state-sponsored-homophobia-December-2020-update">where large numbers</a> of refugees in Kenya originate – punishes homosexual acts by death.</p>
<p>However, expecting a safer, friendlier environment in Kenya, asylum seekers are quickly disillusioned. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights are still a point of tense political negotiation. </p>
<p>In 2019, the Kenyan High Court <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/24/kenya-court-upholds-archaic-anti-homosexuality-laws">voted</a> to uphold a colonial era law banning consensual homosexual activity, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/kenyan-lgbt-students-protest-suggestion-they-be-banned-from-boarding-schools/6395390.html">despite</a> a long history of <a href="https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2019/05/14/lgbtiq-rights-in-kenya/">queer activism</a> and protest in the country. LGBTI refugees find themselves confronting a similarly hostile and homophobic environment to that which they had fled – on top of marginalisation related to their refugee status.</p>
<p>The UNHCR is responsible for the protection of refugees but, as I <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/disa.12447">argue</a> in a recent paper, when operating in contexts where LGBTI refugees’ rights are not recognised by hosting states, UNHCR’s position as a protection actor is clearly compromised.</p>
<p>More sustainable and long-term solutions are needed to provide LGBTI refugees with safety and assistance. LGBTI refugees are trying desperately to survive not only in the face of violent homophobia, but broader poverty and marginalisation. UNHCR must try a different approach and place the agency and rights of refugees at the centre of its work – as it claims to do. Its current mode of crisis management and political negotiations within a hostile environment renders protection an impossible task. </p>
<h2>Life in Kakuma</h2>
<p>My research with LGBTI refugees took place in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya and in the capital Nairobi. In 2018 and 2019, I interviewed LGBTI refugees in the camp and LGBTI refugee activists. I also gathered information from Kenyan international nongovernmental organisations, UNHCR partners, and advocates in other countries.</p>
<p>After taking the often treacherous journey to reach Kakuma, LGBTI refugees were faced with violence and discrimination in trying to access services, opportunities and resources in the camp. This was particularly the case for those coming from Uganda. “If you come to Kenya as a refugee and you’re from Uganda, people automatically know it’s because you are gay,” one refugee pointed out. </p>
<p>To handle this, many Ugandan refugees were sequestered by UNHCR in a ‘protection zone’ in Kakuma, under the care of one of the implementing partners of UNHCR, to keep them safe. </p>
<p>The protection zone comprised a small field filled with plastic tents. There were basic toilet facilities, but no kitchens. Refugees were provided with the same combination of corn and beans at every mealtime. There was medical care in the camp, but most refugees felt it was inadequate to meet the needs of the growing LGBTI population. Transgender refugees reported being mocked and denied treatment.</p>
<h2>Stuck in limbo</h2>
<p>By 2019, with the LGBTI population in Kakuma growing, the situation for LGBTI refugees <a href="https://af02ef9f-eaff-4f16-a35c-9a7ea58a6250.filesusr.com/ugd/65cf98_db18b86c46744fb98648ccff1640e165.pdf">began to deteriorate</a>. Refugees engaged in protests to demand safer accommodation and resettlement opportunities outside UNHCR offices in the camp. These were perceived as antagonistic by both its staff and other refugees. The protection zone was the subject of a number of attacks. </p>
<p>Many of these refugees were subsequently transferred to a safe house in Nairobi, about 700km away. But antagonistic dynamics between LGBTI refugees, UNHCR and its implementing agencies, and the Government of Kenya continued. After several months, the LGBTI refugees were evicted from the arranged accommodation.</p>
<p>At the heart of these dynamics was an irreconcilable difference in the perception of the situation. </p>
<p>On the one hand, LGBTI refugees felt that UNHCR fell short in delivering the promise of upholding their human rights to dignity and freedom from persecution.</p>
<p>On the other, UNHCR claimed they were doing all that they could to protect LGBTI refugees in the context of Kenyan law. They argued that the source of problems in Kakuma were a small group of refugees, intent of causing trouble. And that they were not representative of the broader LGBTI population. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kenyan-film-director-taking-on-the-world-with-positive-stories-of-black-life-149689">The Kenyan film director taking on the world -- with positive stories of black life</a>
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<p>After the evictions, many returned to Kakuma Camp, although some remained in the capital where reports emerged of brutality. This included imprisonment, rape and other forms of violence by Kenyan police and other urban refugees. </p>
<p>LGBTI refugees that remained in Nairobi <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20190611194911-473ds">to this day</a> continue to be in urgent need of healthcare and employment assistance, not just protection, for survival. Many lack the support networks necessary to find informal work and obtain secure housing. </p>
<p>As of 2020, resettlement opportunities for LGBTI asylum seekers were also at the point of stopping. This was in large part due the COVID pandemic and drastic cuts to quotas by destination states. This has left sexual minority asylum-seekers in a dangerous limbo – they increasingly lack ‘protection’ in the camp or the city. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Despite UNHCR’s best intentions – which include the establishment of guidelines and policies to promote best practice – the UNHCR operates in Kenya under a government that is not only openly repressive of LGBTI individuals, but also assumes a hostile stance towards all refugees.</p>
<p>It is urgent that UNHCR moves beyond its mandate of simply protecting LGBTI refugees from violence. It must recognise its role in addressing the broader challenges that structure their experiences both now and in the future. Without opportunities to rebuild their lives, LGBTI refugees will remain dependent on its basic assistance. This is clearly at odds with the emphasis of various global agreements on supporting refugee ‘self-reliance’ and participation in development progress.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-kenyan-christian-queer-is-a-powerful-departure-from-despair-130901">Book review: Kenyan Christian Queer is a powerful departure from despair</a>
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<p>While recommendations often focus on programming to help encamped LGBTI refugees develop skills, these fail to reflect local realities. Kakuma is built in a remote, arid area of Kenya with little market access. And, as LGBTI refugees observe, people are reluctant to buy their goods anyway due to stigma. </p>
<p>More meaningful would be connecting LGBTI refugee activists with Kenyan LGBTI community-based organisations. At present there is little overlap or communication between the two movements. There is a precedent for this in UNHCR Kenya’s selection of various Kenyan NGOs as implementing and operational partners. While this may present a challenge for UNHCR’s relationship with the Government of Kenya, it is a vital first step in enabling LGBTI refugees to make a home in the country, and to form the networks and systems of support that would in the long term reduce demand on UNHCR.</p>
<p>Just as monumental a challenge is the resumption and speeding up of the resettlement processes for LGBTI refugees. This will provide what many LGBTI refugees see as the only realistic durable solution. It starts with two shifts that require political will: the processing of a huge backlog of refugee status determination claims by the Government of Kenya, and with countries which can offer safety to LGBTI refugees significantly enlarging their quotas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Pincock has previously received funding from the ESRC.</span></em></p>LGBTI refugees from other countries expect Kenya to be safer but are quickly disillusioned.Kate Pincock, Researcher, Overseas Development InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790932022-04-12T20:00:49Z2022-04-12T20:00:49Z‘Cold case’ gay murders: two books illuminate Australia’s dark history of police and military violence<p>In 1972, Dr George Duncan was a newly employed law lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Late one night, he visited a well-known beat on the banks of the River Torrens where men would meet for sex. There, Duncan and another man, Roger James, were attacked and thrown into the water. James’s ankle was broken, but he managed to pull himself out to safety. Duncan drowned. </p>
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<p><em>Review: The Death of Dr Duncan – Tim Reeves (Wakefield Press) and The Boy in the Dress – Jonathan Butler (Affirm Press)</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457303/original/file-20220411-11-i520qy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>According to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/feature/out-sight-untold-story-adelaides-gay-hate-murders">rumours</a> within the gay community, police patrolling the beat would often throw men into the Torrens. Although members of the South Australian Vice Squad were put on trial for Duncan’s murder, they were acquitted. No one else has ever been charged.</p>
<p>Duncan’s case, as revealed in Tim Reeves’ detailed and valuable account of the crime and its impacts, <a href="https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1762">The Death of Dr Duncan</a>, was both typical and rare. Violence against homosexual and bisexual men, at beats and elsewhere, is a shameful part of Australia’s history. </p>
<p>In the years when male homosexuality was considered a criminal act, many men lived in fear of police, not only because of the threat of arrest, but the beatings and verbal abuse that regularly went with it. </p>
<p>Entrapment was common, with police sending young, handsome officers to loiter at beats as a form of bait. Homosexuality’s criminal status prevented victims of homophobic violence from reporting attacks, for fear they would be outing themselves in the process.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A memorial plaque by a river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457311/original/file-20220411-14-jglebd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A memorial to Dr George Duncan near the site of his death in the River Torrens. Photo: Adelaide Law School Facebook page.</span>
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<p>Duncan’s murder may well have disappeared as another largely ignored death of a “pervert” – seen as sad, perhaps, but hardly worth investigating. Unusually, however, the crime led to <a href="https://indaily.com.au/opinion/2022/03/04/duncan-drowning-files-a-disturbing-reminder-of-past-attitudes/">multiple inquiries</a>, had <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41964671">significant political impacts</a>, and is still commemorated today. </p>
<p>As Reeves points out, Duncan was a well-regarded legal academic with prominent colleagues able to push for his murder to be investigated. His death also occurred at a moment when lesbian and gay <a href="https://theconversation.com/queer-wars-the-best-place-to-start-promoting-gay-rights-is-at-home-55747">activism</a> was emerging as a political force. Activists condemned police harassment of men at beats and argued that Duncan’s murder was evidence of the desperate need for homosexual law reform.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-hidden-in-plain-sight-australian-queer-men-and-women-before-gay-liberation-155964">Friday essay: hidden in plain sight — Australian queer men and women before gay liberation</a>
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<p>The Death of Dr Duncan is divided into two sections, the first exploring the various investigations into Duncan’s murder and the second the process of law reform that saw SA become <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-24/sa-marks-40-years-decriminalisation-homosexuality/6715308">the first Australian state to decriminalise sex between men</a>. </p>
<p>Given that inquiries into the crime continued well beyond decriminalisation in 1975, this creates a slightly disjointed narrative that might have been avoided if the two threads had been interwoven. Nonetheless, Reeves’ exhaustive research and deep knowledge of the case, gained over many years, forms the basis of an important work investigating a pivotal historical moment.</p>
<h2>True crime and queer joy</h2>
<p>The Death of Dr Duncan joins a growing list of recent popular histories examining historical violence against gay and bisexual men in Australia. Indeed, its publication is aligned with the first performances of <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-extraordinary-collaboration-watershed-the-death-of-dr-duncan-is-a-sensational-and-important-work-175330">Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan</a>, an oratorio by composer Joe Twist and co-lyricists Alana Valentine and Christos Tsiolkas, based on Reeves’ research. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457302/original/file-20220411-6515-z8jc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, performed at Adelaide Festival, March 2022.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Former police officer Duncan McNab’s 2017 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33222216-getting-away-with-murder">Getting Away with Murder</a> was a damning account of New South Wales policing in the 1980s and 1990s, when at least 80 gay and bisexual men and transgender women were murdered in Sydney. Their deaths were often met with a lack of interest by police, who seemed happy to assume suicide even when the evidence suggested otherwise. </p>
<p>Podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/bondi-badlands/id1585916975">Bondi Badlands</a> (investigating murders and disappearances of gay men on the southern headland at Bondi Beach in the late 1980s) and television series <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/770448963646/deep-water-s1-ep1">Deep Water</a> similarly tell the stories of these Sydney cases. The TV movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7328908/">Riot</a> contained a moving portrayal of the first Sydney Mardi Gras, when a street party was violently shut down by police. The recently released podcast <a href="https://www.audible.com.au/pd/The-Greatest-Menace-Audiobook/B09S169W9J">The Greatest Menace</a> examines the dark history of Cooma Gaol, where men charged with homosexual acts were imprisoned in the 1950s.</p>
<p>This focus on violence represents, in part, the recent surge in the popularity of true crime. It also represents a truth of the archives. Male homosexuality was decriminalised state by state in Australia, with Tasmania last, in 1997. Although things began to change in the 1960s, for much of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/saying-sorry-for-governments-intruding-in-your-bedroom-21954">criminalisation era</a>, homosexual people had little or no opportunity for the kinds of open social or cultural participation that would leave a written record. </p>
<p>In fact, the consequences of exposure meant that many worked very hard not to leave evidence of their sexual and romantic lives. To find queer histories in the archive, it is often necessary to rely on records of trials and police investigations. </p>
<p>We know very little about George Duncan’s social and sexual life because its discovery would have cost him his career as a legal academic – and possibly his freedom. The main reason evidence of his sexuality survives is that he was the victim of a violent crime.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457304/original/file-20220411-13-b6pa30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cooma Correctional Centre, Australia’s only ‘gay jail’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result, stories of gay tragedy are often better known than stories of happiness and pleasure. Yet, <a href="https://www.pridehistory.org.au/oral-histories">oral history interviews</a> and surviving letters or diaries tell us that, even in the highly oppressive days of the 1950s, well before Duncan visited the River Torrens beat, there was immense joy to be had in a queer life. </p>
<p>The activism emerging at the time of Duncan’s murder was angry and determined, certainly, but also centred humour, sex and joy in ways that were both politically effective and enormously fun. Activists specifically rejected the idea that they should keep themselves hidden from view, creating newsletters, <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-violence-and-class-wounds-in-thatcher-era-glasgow-what-booker-winner-douglas-stuart-did-next-179095">books</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-moonlights-oscar-win-hollywood-begins-to-right-old-wrongs-73843">movies</a> and other stories that celebrated queer lives by making them visible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pages-and-prejudice-how-queer-texts-could-fight-homophobia-in-australian-schools-111437">Pages and prejudice: how queer texts could fight homophobia in Australian schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The Boy in the Dress</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://affirmpress.com.au/publishing/the-boy-in-the-dress/">The Boy in the Dress</a>, a combination of memoir, true crime, and deeply researched history, Jonathan Butler describes the broader ramifications when homosexual lives are understood as inherently tragic. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457305/original/file-20220411-22-1n40b5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a teenager in 2007, Butler came out as gay to his parents, and both responded negatively. Their reaction was based, in part, on fears that his “sexuality would put [him] directly in harm’s way” and “there were just too many ways to die or be hurt as a gay man.” </p>
<p>Butler’s parents each had their own stories of homosexuality’s tragic outcomes. A gay schoolfriend of his father had died by suicide. And his mother’s family would tell, in whispered tones, the story of a murdered relative, Warwick Meale. That latter story forms the basis of Butler’s book.</p>
<p>As a young child more interested in the clothes and toys of his sisters than proper “boy” things, Butler was fascinated by a photograph of his grandmother and her cousin Warwick playing dress-ups as kids. In the photo, his grandmother was dressed as a boy, while young Warwick was looking joyful wearing a dress. </p>
<p>Like many LGBTQ+ people in their childhoods, Butler faced bullying and ridicule for his inability to <a href="https://theconversation.com/strapped-packed-and-taking-the-stage-australias-new-drag-kings-79747">perform gender</a> “correctly”. He had little information about gay lives through which he might understand (let alone celebrate) his feelings of difference and begin to build an identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457308/original/file-20220411-14-5ga2p5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warwick (right) and the author’s grandmother, Winifred, playing dress ups, 1928.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The photo of young Warwick resonated with Butler because it suggested comradeship; here was someone else who understood the joy of being a boy wearing the clothes everyone said were for girls. The image was evidence that people like him existed – and perhaps always had.</p>
<p>As he grew older, Jonathan heard stories of this intriguing figure from the past, including shame-filled suspicions among the family that Warwick had been homosexual. Tragically, Warwick was murdered in Townsville in 1942 while serving in the Australian army. </p>
<p>As with George Duncan’s, his murder was never solved. Butler dives into the archives in the hopes of learning more about Warwick’s life and death, interweaving the evidence he finds with stories of his own coming out. </p>
<p>In the process, Butler describes the brutal homophobic <a href="https://twistedhistory.net.au/tag/lance-corporal-jack-lloyd/">murder</a> of another Australian soldier, Jack Lloyd, whose killer was acquitted on the basis that his victim had made a sexual advance and the killing was therefore justified.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/witch-hunts-and-surveillance-the-hidden-lives-of-queer-people-in-the-military-76156">Witch-hunts and surveillance: the hidden lives of queer people in the military</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The value of the past in the present</h2>
<p>Throughout The Boy in the Dress, Butler articulates the need, like many other LGBTQ+ people, to find his experience of sexual identity reflected in history. Although sometimes too keen to apply his experience to that of his forebears, he explores the value of history to queer individuals in the present –particularly the dual search for validation and justice – with grace and insight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457309/original/file-20220411-6515-am14x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warwick (right) in his summer uniform with his parents, Irene and Sidney, at their family home in Earlwood. They saw him for the first time on home leave in 1944.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The kind of history Butler explores is rarely, if ever, taught in schools. Indeed, Australia’s obsession with our military history leaves little place for the fact that <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-137-36514-9">some soldiers</a> <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/serving-silence/">were queer</a>. </p>
<p>Butler’s clear passion for his research stems, at least in part, from its revelation that people like him have a place in Australia’s most treasured historical narratives. Once isolated and bullied for his difference, Butler is reassured to now know that we were there, too. Some of the nation’s war heroes, generally imagined as archetypes of masculine heterosexuality, were once little boys who loved to wear dresses. </p>
<h2>Police history of violence towards queer people</h2>
<p>These books, and other recent historical true crime stories, hope that shining a light on historical injustice will lead to positive change in the present. Discussion of these crimes might prompt some form of reckoning.</p>
<p>It is unlikely the murderers of Dr Duncan will ever be punished. The only form of justice now available is to keep his story alive and use it as a basis for change.</p>
<p>The government has just announced a new <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7670285/canberra-to-get-new-crime-funded-australian-museum-of-policing/">Museum of Australian Policing</a>, to be opened in Canberra. The announcement included a list of likely exhibits, providing evidence of police successfully fighting crime and protecting the nation’s citizens. This raises the question of whether the museum will be an honest account of policing histories, or an expensive marketing tool for present-day police forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="policemen in uniform, standing by a police car" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457314/original/file-20220411-12-mynlit.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South Australia Police Traffic Division Courtesy Patrol, 1959.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of South Australia/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stories of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (not to mention <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-black-lives-matter-protests-must-continue-an-urgent-appeal-by-marcia-langton-143914">racist</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/carceral-feminism-and-coercive-control-when-indigenous-women-arent-seen-as-ideal-victims-witnesses-or-women-161091">and</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/report-reveals-entrenched-nature-of-sexual-harassment-in-victoria-police-51810">misogynist</a>) violence – whether committed, deliberately ignored, or inadequately investigated by police – are an alternate narrative. </p>
<p>Reeves’ book, in particular, would make an excellent starting point for an exhibition exploring the history of police either failing to protect queer people from violence or deploying violence to oppress otherwise joyful queer lives. </p>
<p>There could be space, certainly, for the valiant efforts of some police to reshape their organisations towards greater inclusivity. But at its core, the exhibition would reflect on one element of Australian policing’s darker histories.</p>
<p>Reeves concludes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>That a state-funded apparatus operated – with the potential for imprisonment – to entrap and brutalise homosexuals is a powerful commentary on the irrational fear that then existed around a sexual minority.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As these books reveal, the history of that fear shouldn’t be understood as prompted by or inherent in LGBTQ+ lives – but as instigated, perpetuated and acted upon by violent criminals, often operating in a system that explicitly supported their crimes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McKinnon is affiliated with the Pride History Group.</span></em></p>Two books on historical gay hate crimes – the murder of George Duncan in Adelaide, 1972, and army officer Warwick Meale in Townsville, 1942 – aim to create positive change by revealing past injustice.Scott McKinnon, PERL Research Fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.