Queering conflict: examining lesbian and gay experiences of homophobia in Northern Ireland.

Beckett, Clare

QUEERING CONFLICT: EXAMINING LESBIAN AND GAY EXPERIENCES OF HOMOPHOBIA IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Duggan, M. (2012) Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. 174pp. hbk. 55.00 [pounds sterling] ISBN 978-1-40942016-3

This short, but packed, book offers a focused account of homophobia in the particular setting of Northern Ireland, where social, political and religious currents create tempestuous storms. Tracing different strands present in that space, and making sense of one manifestation of those currents, is a daunting prospect. The author states that the aim of the book is to 'account for the ways in which homophobia has become normalised in facets of Northern Irish social and political cultures to the detriment of those affected by it' (p.3) and certainly the book does this. It also presents a wider and soundly theoretical account of ways in which particular discourses work to support and legitimate fierce heteronormativity. Marion Duggan introduces her work by referring to the public statements of Mary Robinson in 2008 condemning homosexuality. This illustrates her contention, that the microcosm of Northern Ireland has produced particular and traceable manifestations of homophobia that contain lessons for understanding homophobia more generally.

The author offers six chapters, all of which present a different perspective and can be read alone. The first of these gives an overview of the history that has created the Northern Irish position that is one of the most concise and clear accounts of this troubled period that I have read. Using this background, the author develops a sophisticated account of ways in which nationalist and loyalist discourses both situated homosexual as 'other' and 'threat'. Linking this with colonial discourses makes for a convincing argument for the specificity of the experience of homophobia at this point. This argument is well made and presented in writing that moves from theoretical to practical with clarity. This chapter is the conceptual underpinning of Duggan's account.

The following chapters establish this conceptual analysis within action and reaction. The British Government's failure to extend the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, (decriminalising some sexual acts between consenting men), to Northern Ireland meant that being gay was experienced against a background of secrecy, vigilance and fear even after the social positioning of gayness had begun to change on mainland Britain. This experience was situated against political, moral and religious discourse that Duggan presents as creating a climate of fear and revulsion which also created and recreated particular forms of support for families and masculinity. In their turn, these institutions were inimical to homosexuals.

There is a sense of relief in this reader when much of the work concentrates on the voiced experience of gay people, living through and resistant of the dominating force of homophobia so well established and explained. Chapter two uncompromisingly begins by discussing techniques of resistance to the actual and the perceived danger. However, there is also a thorough and grounded empirical account of violence, harassment and oppression experienced by homosexuals in Northern Ireland. One specific point here that deserves further exploration is the difference in experience between rural and urban living: Duggan touches on this experience in the Irish setting, but does not extrapolate. The account leads back to the exploration, in chapter three, of ways in which the political climate and the actual policies that govern homophobia have changed and been changed and, therefore, offers a hopeful path through a book that could have been uncompromisingly doom laden.

It would be unrealistic to attempt to examine Northern Ireland without making some attempt to untangle the different religious perspectives of the actors. As Duggan herself says 'Christian teachings around homosexuality have led people to focus on the primacy of sexual activity whilst overshadowing all other aspects of the committed relationship' (p.94). This leads to specific and painful dilemmas for homosexuals and for others alike. It also can lead, and in Northern Ireland appears to have led, to contradictions in ways in which faith and sexuality interrelate. It is interesting that Duggan argues that protestants may have more difficulty in working with homosexuality that Catholics: it is an argument well-presented and justified in the book. Some of the experiences presented here could reverberate wherever faith and sexuality converge. For example, there could be lessons here that would inform inner city experience of conflict between faith and sexuality communities.

It would also be unrealistic to present the experience of homophobia without recognising that gender is a key player in this history. Duggan's answer to this is to present the experience of lesbians as a specific chapter. Lesbians have a separate relationship to law from men: for example, the Sexual Offences Act 1967 does not have direct implications for women. They also have, arguably, a different relationship with dominating discourses from men. In this book, that experience is backgrounded throughout the discussion except in chapter 5. It would be difficult to broaden the arguments that support Duggan's conceptual base by including a gender dimension, but it is sometimes frustrating that heterosexual and gender based arguments are not made more explicit.

To some extent, this points to both the strength and the weakness of this book. It is short, thorough, specific and packed with evidence to support a strong analytical model. This in turn reduces the opportunity to explore ways on which that model could be made more universal, or could be informed by other analyses.

Rd. Clare Beckett, Senior Lecturer in Probation Studies, University of Bradford