Queering Nationalism and nationalising the queer- An observation from Political Pride Manchester

The last weekend was busy Manchester Pride and Political Pride were both running at the same time not to mention the numerous events around the city. It is lovely to see everyone making the most of the last of summer.

While Manchester Pride was the centre of the city Political Pride was more restrained and certainly focused on the LGBTQIA community. A month before Manchester Pride shops had rainbow flags everywhere. The very same organisations that have have been pulled up in recent years for mistreatment of workers of all sexualities. This alignment with a fringe movement would seem contradictory but it is not. As one friend remarked Pride has become a family event full of rainbows where you can take your children to wave at gay people who will wave back. We have forgotten how this is a same community that was going to unleash the destruction of the family and morality. Rainbows are bright, cheerful and non-threatening. You can pick up a bag of British carrots and potatoes in a shop full of rainbow flags.

This is where the change lies the community that was once dangerous has now been domesticated. It has been given the same moral institutions that heterosexual individuals are expected to enter into- marriage. Marriage is the one institution that carries with it not only a gendered patriarchal expectation but also a nationalistic one. Gay weddings are not only good for business but also good for the national image. Gay marriage is now seen as one of the last bastions of liberation. It plays on the idea that by offering the LGBTQIA community the same ‘privileges’ as heterosexual couples equality has been achieved. It plays into the idea it is so much better out here than anywhere else where gay people are murdered.

The problem with this comparison is that it puts across a crude idea of queer liberation through the framework of national identity. Isn’t that how the right plays the immigration debate, eroding British values, their liberalism interfering with our liberal society. Needless to say we won’t be seeing a black liberation march meet such acceptance anytime soon. Pride events have come to pit one issue against another. Homosexuality is pitted against race and immigration. The apparent liberation of the LGBTQIA community is seen as a benchmark of civilisation. Is it any surprise then that this argument is used in the LGBTQIA community. In the few years I have lived here I have been told to be grateful, or asked why my country or community are homophobic. Some even going as far to say well black people have been through so much why are they so homophobic? Then of course is the other side of this propaganda black people and immigrants have it so good however being LGBTQIA is still looked down upon.

Queerness has acquired nationality in its fight for liberation. It is both a mark of liberation and national degradation. However this is not an idea that is alien to nationalism. Anne McClintock claims that all nationalisms are gendered and dangerous. Taking this argument forward it would be appropriate to say nationalism is gendered and heterosexual. Since the link between women as reproducers of culture symbolically and literally signifies the strength of the nation its obvious sexuality must also be mentioned. Given the strong connection family plays in nationalism is it any surprise that heterosexual women who fail in this expectation are immediately classified as lesbians. Similar fears exist around feminists of all sexualities whose claims are often thought of as damaging family life.  

While Britain is going through a phase where gay rights are more accepted the same cannot be said for other nations that have recriminalised homosexuality. I will stress on the word recriminalised here because it is often imagined that the history of homosexuality in the global south has been a monolith since Independence.  Recriminalising homosexuality has much to do with nationalism, as it has to do with the resurgence of religious and political extremism. Take for example Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code  which became an issue in the general election of 2014. Both sides of the debate focused very little on the present but went back to the glorious past. The liberal side arguing that our history has had a liberal interpretation of sexual identity which has only just been destroyed through colonisation. The counter argument that is put forward is that Indian values have been eroded in the recent colonial past and sexual morality must be restored. Both sides harp on the past and both do little for the LGBTQIA community in the present.

It is the liberal side of the argument that is picked up by LGBTQIA activists in the west Britain included. While the role of colonialism cannot be negated to insist that the former colonial subject is still reeling under cultural trauma denies agency and panders to homophobia. Recriminalising homosexuality in this moment of time comes as no surprise, at a time when censorship and violent opposition to anything perceived as non-Indian exist homosexuality is one of the many casualties.

History is used as a political tool to justify social exclusion. Indian history in particular has a way of making inroads into political, scientific, cultural discussion. We are both a liberal and conservative nation at the same time when it suits us. Nationality plays a role in how we view all kinds of issues. What I mean by this is that history is invoked to justify the problems of the present. Take for instance the homosexuality debate where a few random moments and exceptions in history are used as an argument. Invoking history does little for a community that lives precariously on the margins. However it is not all bad as there is still space for gay marriage in India, while homosexual activity is criminalised the law does not ban gay marriages, loophole that came under scrutiny in recent months. As in the west this was met with exhilaration, however it was short lived.  The gentleman in question and his mother put out a matrimonial advert which like the millions of adverts in Indian newspapers demanded ‘a boy of an upper caste background’.  As in the west this did not challenge the status quo but affirmed it.

The most exhilarating thing queerness can do in light of these changes is to queer gendered heterosexualised notions of the society it lives in. While it is wonderful that the law now accepts gay marriage it should not turn into the end of the discussion.  Queerness at the heart of it has the potential to challenge troubling ideas of nationality, gender, sexuality, race and class.