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Dr Cristina Santos: Are we there yet? Queer sexual encounters, legal recognition and homonormativity in Portugal

Category
CIGS Seminar Series 2011-12
Events
Date

Date: 20 September 2011, 5.00pm
Location: Beech Grove House

Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Seminar Series

Title: Are we there yet? Queer sexual encounters, legal recognition and homonormativity in Portugal - Dr Cristna Santos, Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract

In 2010, Portugal became the eighth country worldwide to approve same-sex civil marriage. This recent legal change is the icing on a cake made of claims, struggles and achievements that have put Portugal at the forefront of sexual citizenship rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Europe. This paper investigates the political path of LGBT rights in this Southern European, majority Catholic and post-dictatorship country, exploring the role of the Portuguese LGBT movement in contributing to change. The example of same-sex marriage introduces an interesting complexity to the past tendency towards higher rates of success in what I call ‘individual claims’, compared to ‘relational claims’. It also highlights how the state is willing to compensate – via legal recognition – queer bodily encounters to the extent as they willingly embrace the dominant values of respectability and normalcy.

The paper begins with a contextualizing overview of sexual citizenship in democratic Portugal, providing an analytical account of LGBT rights, claims and achievements, structured around the notions of ‘individual claims’ and ‘relational claims’. In the second part, I suggest that a ‘politics of containment’ has characterised much of recent public discussions about sexual and reproductive rights, and I provide some examples. In the last section, I discuss the political and cultural implications of the same-sex marriage law, with a particular focus on issues of normalisation and homonationalism.

Keywords:
Same-sex marriage; LGBT activism; individual claims; relational claims; legal change; homonationalism