Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wpx84 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-22T12:04:47.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fear of the Wandering Gay: some reflections on citizenship, nationalism and recognition in same-sex relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2012

Zvi Triger
Zvi Triger*
Affiliation:
College of Management, Haim Striks School of Law, Rishon LeZion, Israel
*
zht202@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Throughout the history of the modern state, homosexuality has been a legal category, and not simply a medical or a psychiatric one. Fear of that legal subject manifests itself in law and policy not only about ‘the family’ but also about nationhood and citizenship. This is an article about this fear of the ‘Wandering Gay’, about the ways in which this fear has influenced domestic and international law regarding recognition in same-sex relationships, and about ways in which it can be overcome. I begin by introducing the Wandering Gay as a hidden driving cultural concept behind a state's reluctance (and in some places, outright objection) to recognise same-sex relationships. I then compare American and Israeli immigration policies concerning immigrants' sexuality, and discuss the different focuses of each system: while American policy (prior to its reform) was mainly concerned with ‘sexual deviancy’, Israeli policy was concerned with otherness, particularly non-Jewishness, in general. However, as I argue, homosexuality is one way in which individuals are ‘othered’ by Israeli immigration policy, since they cannot acquire legal status based on their marital status. I then contend that marriage is being used as a weapon against LGBT individuals, and that this is done from within a discourse that elevates marriage to a right that only heterosexual citizens are entitled to. I argue that marriage is used as a means of discrimination against minorities, and I question whether the proper solution to this violation of human rights is indeed to add more and more minorities to the privileged class of those who can marry, thus equipping them with the weapon of marriage to use against others.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 8 , Special Issue 2: Family – An International Affair , June 2012 , pp. 268 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, George K. (1991) The Legend of the Wandering Jew, 3rd edn.Hanover/London: Brown University Press.Google Scholar
Anon, (1959) ‘Limitations on Congressional Power to Deport Resident Aliens Excludable as Psychopaths at Time of Entry’, Yale Law Journal 68: 931–48.Google Scholar
Associated press (2010) ‘Mass. Says Federal Marriage Law Unconstitutional’, New York Times, 19 February.Google Scholar
Bamforth, Nicholas (2001) ‘Same-Sex Partnerships and Arguments of Justice’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 31–54.Google Scholar
Bamforth, Nicholas and Richards, David A. J. (2008) Patriarchal Religion, Sexuality, and Gender: A Critique of New Natural Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin (2002) ‘Political and Lterary Answers to ‘Jewish Questions’: Freud, Herzl, Joyce, Proust', in Bunzl, John and Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin (eds), Psychoanalysis, Identity, and Ideology: Critical Essays on the Israel/Palestine Case. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 5–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleys, Rudi (1993) ‘Homosexual Exile: The Textuality of the Imaginary Paradise, 1800–1980’, in Mendès-Leite, Rommel and de Busscher, Pierre-Olivier (eds), Gay Studies from the French Cultures: Voices from France, Belgium, Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands. New York: Harrington Park Press, 165–82.Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy (1995) States of Injury. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bumiller, Elizabeth (2011) ‘A Final Phase for Ending “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”’, New York Times, 23 July, A13.Google Scholar
Canaday, Margot (2009) The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantarella, Eva (1994) Bisexuality in the Ancient World, trans. Culleanáin, Cormac Ó. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chauncey, George (1989) ‘From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: The Changing Medical Conceptualization of Female “Deviance”’, in Peiss, Kathy and Simmons, Christina (eds), Passion and Power: Sexuality in History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 87–117.Google Scholar
Cooper davis, Peggy (1997) Neglected Stories: The Constitution and Family Values. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Cott, Nancy (1998) ‘Marriage and Women's Citizenship in the United States, 1830–1934’, American Historical Review 103: 1440–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eskridge, William N. Jr. (1999) Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eskridge, William N. Jr. (2001) ‘The Ideological Structure of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate (And Some Postmodern Arguments for Same-Sex Marriage)’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 113–29.Google Scholar
Eskridge, William N. Jr. (2008) Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861–2003. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Eskridge, William N. Jr. and SPEDALE, Darren R. (2006) Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse? What We've Learned from the Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ettelbrick, Paula (1997) ‘Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?’, in Sullivan, Andrew (ed.), Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con, A Reader. New York: Vintage, 118–23.Google Scholar
Faucette, Judith (2009) ‘Same Sex Marriage and Free Movement in the EU’, Suite101.com, 1 Jun. Available at: http://marital-gender-equality.suite101.com/article.cfm/same_sex_marriage_and_free_movement_in_the_eu (last accessed 24 February 2010).Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol and Richards, David A. J. (2008) The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance & Democracy's Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, Aeyal (2001) ‘Challenges to Compulsory Heterosexuality: Recognition and Non-Recognition of Same-Sex Couples in Israeli Law’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 391–414.Google Scholar
Gross, Aeyal (2003) ‘Globalizatzya quirit vezchuyot adam: Dana International/Amnesty International’ [‘Queer Globalization and Human Rights: Dana International/Amnesty International’], Teoria Uvikoret [Theory and Criticism] 23: 227–36.Google Scholar
Gross, Aeyal (2008) ‘Sex, Love, and Marriage: Questioning Gender and Sexuality Rights in International Law’, Leiden Journal of International Law 21: 235–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halley, Janet (2001) ‘Recognition, Rights, Regulation, Normalisation: Rhetorics of Justification in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 97–111.Google Scholar
Hassine, Juliette (1994) Poétique, Judaisme et Écriture dans l'oeuvre de Proust. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hame'uchad Publishing House [Hebrew].Google Scholar
Hay, Harry (1996) Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of its Founder. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Herring, David J. (2003) The Public Family: Exploring Its Role in Democratic Society. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Nan D. (1991) ‘Marriage, Law, and Gender: A Feminist Inquity’, Law and Sexuality 1: 9–30.Google Scholar
Jones, Kathleen B. (1990) ‘Citizenship in a Woman-Friendly Polity’, Signs 15: 781–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josephson, Jyl (2005) ‘Citizenship, Same-Sex Marriage, and Feminist Critiques of Marriage’, Perspectives on Politics 3: 269–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Jonathan Ned (1995) The Invention of Heterosexuality. New York: Plume Books.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Randall (2004) Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Kiernan, James G. (1892) ‘Responsibility in Sexual Perversion’, Chicago Medical Recorder 3: 185–210.Google Scholar
Koppelman, Andrew (1988) ‘The Miscegenation Analogy: Sodomy Law as Sex Discrimination’, Yale Law Journal 98: 145–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koppelman, Andrew (1996) ‘Same-Sex Marriage and Public Policy: The Miscegenation Precedents’, QLR 16: 105–151.Google Scholar
Koppelman, Andrew (2001) ‘The Miscegenation Analogy in Europe, or Lisa Grant meets Adolf Hitler’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 623–33.Google Scholar
Koppelman, Andrew (2006) Same Sex, Different States: When Same-Sex Marriages Cross State Lines. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehr, Valerie (1999) Queer Family Values: Debunking the Myth of the Nuclear Family. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Lemish, Dafna (2007) ‘Gay Brotherhood: Israeli Gay Men and the Eurovision Song Contest’, in Raykoff, Ivan and Tobin, Robert Deam (eds), A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Hampshire: Ashgate, 123–34.Google Scholar
Lister, Ruth (2003) Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives, 2nd edn.New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livnat, Yuval and Ben-Dor, Anat (2010) ‘No Homosexuals and Lesbians’, Haaretz Online, 16 February. Available at: www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1150058.html (last accessed 24 February 2010).Google Scholar
Lochhead, Carolyn (2011) ‘S.F. Gay Married Couple Loses Immigration Battle’, SFGate, 9 August. Available at: http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-08-09/bay-area/29866637_1_marriage-act-immigration-equality-immigration-benefits (last accessed 9 December 2011).Google Scholar
Merin, Yuval (2002) Equality for Same-Sex Couples: The Legal Recognition of Gay Partnerships in Europe and the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosse, George L. (1996) The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. (2004) Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. (2008) Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. (2010) From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pettman, Jan J. (1995) ‘Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Australia’, in Stasiulis, Daiva K. and Yuval-Davis, Nira (eds), Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class. London: Sage, 65–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polikoff, Nancy D. (2008) Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing all Families under the Law. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Proust, Marcel (1993) Sodom and Gomorrah, In Search of lost Time, trans. Moncrieff, C. K. Scott and Kilmartin, Terence, rev. Enright, D. J.. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar
Richards, David A. J. (1998) Women, Gays, and the Constitution: The Grounds for Feminism and Gay Rights in Culture and Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Richards, David A. J. (1999) Identity and the Case for Gay Rights: Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Richards, David A. J. (2001) ‘Introduction: Theoretical Perspectives’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 25–29.Google Scholar
Richards, David A. J. (2005) The Case for Gay Rights: From Bowers to Lawrence and Beyond. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, Andrew (2011) ‘One Step Toward Repealing DOMA’, NYTimes.com, 10 November. Available at: http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/one-step-toward-repealing-doma/?scp=1&sq=doma&st=cse (last accessed 9 December 2011).Google Scholar
Simon, Mallory (2009) ‘Same-sex Couples Fight for Immigration Rights’, CNN.com, 3 June. Available at: www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/03/same.sex.immigration/index.html (last accessed 24 February 2010).Google Scholar
Spindelman, Marc (2011) ‘Sexual Freedom's Shadows’, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 23: 179–253.Google Scholar
Stychin, Carl F. (1998) A Nation by Rights: National Cultures, Sexual Identity Politics and the Discourse of Rights. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Stychin, Carl F. (2001) ‘Sexual Citizenship in the European Union’, Citizenship Studies 5: 285–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Andrew (ed.) (1997) Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con, A Reader. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Tal, Uriel (1975) Christians and Jews in Germany: Religion, Politics and Ideology in the Second Reich, 1870–1914. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Tobin, Robert Deam (2007) ‘Eurovision at 50: Post-Wall and Post-Stonewall’, in Raykoff, Ivan and Tobin, Robert Deam (eds), A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Hampshire: Ashgate, 25–35.Google Scholar
Triger, Zvi H. (2004) ‘Between Zionism and Judaism: Israeli Family Law and the Intersection of Anti-Semitism, Misogyny and Homophobia.’ Unpublished JSD, New York University.Google Scholar
Triger, Zvi H. (2009) ‘The Gendered Racial Formation: Foreign Men, “Our” Women, and the Law’, Women's Rights Law Reporter 30: 479–525.Google Scholar
Warner, Michael (1999) The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Whittle, Stephen (2001) ‘Sex: Has It Any Place in Modern Marriage?’, in Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds), Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 693–712.Google Scholar
Wintemute, Robert (2005) ‘From “Sex Rights” to “Love Rights”: Partnership Rights as Human Rights’, in Bamforth, Nicholas (ed.), Sex Rights. New York: Oxford University Press, 186–224.Google Scholar
Wintemute, Robert and Andenaes, Mads (eds) (2001) Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law: Oxford/Portland, OR: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Yoshino, Kenji (2002) ‘Covering’, Yale Law Journal 111: 769–939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshino, Kenji (2006) Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Liberties. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion (2003) ‘The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State’, Signs 29:1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira (1997) Gender & Nation. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira (2003) ‘Nationalist Projects and Gender Relations’, Narodna umjetnost 40: 9–36.Google Scholar