Publication
Title
From gay liberation to marriage equality : a political lesson to be learnt
Author
Abstract
This article deals with the issue of resignification to advance a hypothesis on the way in which social practices are transformed with recourse to the language of institutions. It first discusses the transition from gay liberation to same-sex marriage equality by exploring the trajectory of homosexuals' rights claims. The article continues by providing a theoretical interpretation of what brought this shift about, that is, what the author calls a movement 'from the street to the court': in both civil law and common law jurisdictions, legal means are increasingly being used by individuals and groups to make their claims audible to political institutions and to society at large. Then, an analysis is offered of the shape that social struggles take when socio-political claims are articulated with recourse to the legal language. The conclusion is that reliance on the law as a device to achieve political goals and construct same-sex group identity risks producing but a feeble resignification of the conventional heterosexual matrix. In light of that, a more effective way to defy this matrix is to create awareness of what is gained and what gets lost in becoming legally visible.
Language
English
Source (journal)
European journal of political theory. - London
Publication
London : 2018
ISSN
1474-8851
DOI
10.1177/1474885115581425
Volume/pages
17 :3 (2018) , p. 280-299
ISI
000447401900002
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 09.11.2018
Last edited 08.12.2021
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