This sounds exciting. It’s a US based project but should still be of interest over here. Over the course of the next three months, the Legal Rebels website will be profiling the fifty most innovative lawyers in the USA. It’s being run by the ABA Journal and the first profiles are already up there and as you’ll see it’s not the usual definition of ‘innovation’ which involves finding new ways of screaming increasing amounts of money out of your clients. No, these are the good guys! Take a look here.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference
I've been attending a bit of the RGS Annual Conference in Manchester. You can listen to some of my thoughts below:
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
CAAN - UK SURVEY ON DISCRIMINATION AND MARGINALISED CONSENSUAL ADULT SEXUALITY / INTERESTS
For some reason you have to be logged into MSN/Windows Live to access the original post but here in full is a post that the Consenting Adult Action Network published earlier today. It's a really important survey so please do complete if applicable (this survey has nothing to do with me):
Do you have a story of being discriminated against or abused due to your sexuality (or sexual interests)? Do you have a story of being afraid because of your sexuality, please tell us that too. Please fill in this survey!
PLEASE SHARE THIS UK SURVEY WIDELY
As part of Consenting Adult Action Network's ongoing discussions with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, one fair point was raised - we do not have properly documented evidence of instances of human rights abuse and discrimination against consenting adults on the basis of interest or private practice of BDSM/fetish and other sexualities which are not already protected under the law. They want evidence of people being denied human rights afforded to others. So CAAN is putting together a handbook about discrimination and human rights abuse. We need your evidence.
There are several areas where we feel that such discrimination is worth documenting:
- in your personal life: friends, relatives and colleagues simply dismissing you as a “perve”, or being afraid to come out, or worse, attacks against you because of your interests;
- in your work life: being warned that your private sex life may be conduct that brings your company into disrepute, or being sacked because of your sexuality or interests;
- in your legal relationships: the threat of your private sex life being introduced into divorce proceedings, or losing contact with children because of it.
- you may have experiences in other areas, please still submit your story.
SURVEY ON DISCRIMINATION AND MARGINALISED CONSENSUAL ADULT SEXUALITY / INTERESTS
Please give as much information as possible. You can use this survey structure if you wish, but you don't have to and please feel free to write as much as you like.
YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WILL NEVER BE SHARED WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION, BUT PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THE STORIES ARE FOR PUBLICATION
1. Contact details (email address or other). If you really don't wish to be contacted we will respect that, but may not be able to use your story if you cannot verify certain things which may arise in followup.*
2. Who are you (real names will not be released without your permission,but we do need to verify you are a real person)*
a. name
b. pseudonym
c. role, if relevant (eg Freda Bloggs, primary school teacher)?
3. Who has discriminated against you or denied your human rights on the grounds of your sexuality and sexual interests? Or who do you fear will do so?
4. Describe the discrimination or abuse you have experienced, or that you fear you will experience.
5. Where did this happen, or where do you fear it will happen? If it has or could occur in more than one location, please let us know. eg in the workplace, and at a work social event).
6. When did it happen, or do you think it will happen? If it happened more than once, please state for each incident.
7. Why do you think it happened? what things have made this discrimination possible, what is the cause? Is the cause just your sexuality or sexual interests, or is the cause things such as discriminatory regulations, prejudice, isolation, lack of information, misinformation, exclusive policies, etc.
8. What details may we use? Let us know what details maybe used and what not. eg your name, name of employer, etc.
*You do not have to give contact details or real names, but bear in mind that this work may be called into question by critics who are far less positive towards BDSM than we are and therefore the more information we can have the better and followups may be necessary.
WHERE TO SEND IT
Please send your response to info@caan.org.uk
Background reading:
i. Our proposal to the EHRC - just to be clear, we have not proposed that BDSM be recognised as an orientation, we have asked that EHRC support us to fight for all consenting adults to have sexual rights and equality, whatever their sexuality:
A Case for Sexual Rights: CAAN - The Case for Sexual Rights
ii. CAAN have sent three letters to EHRC and had three replies, if you wish to see these letters, please contact us asking for this at info@caan.org.uk
iii. CAAN's website is here: www.caan.org.uk
iiii. CAAN's statement of principles:
"We believe in the right of consenting adults to make their own sexual choices, in respect of what they do, see and enjoy alone or with other consenting adults, unhindered and unfettered by government."
"We believe that it is not the business of government to intrude into the sex lives of consenting adults."
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Reflections on the SSSP: Radicalism and the Academic as Activist
I’m writing this as I await my return flight but by the time it’s posted, I’ll be back in the UK. Inevitably, the end of a conference brings a moment of reflection. Many of the sessions I’ve attended have been linked by an agenda of radicalism. Sessions on various aspects of sexuality, race, age, surveillance and education have been tied by a desire by academics to move out of the ivory towers and ‘into the street’.
It’s perhaps not that surprising at this conference. As one delegate reminded me, the Society for the Study of Social Problems has a long history of activism and was a key point of resistance to the attitudes to homosexuality that saw it both medicalized and criminalized. One former President of SSSP had (apparently) talked about the need to take the credibility that an academic body such as the SSSP has, and ‘lend’ that credibility to a group in need. That was decades ago. At this conference, those campaigning for health and social care reform, a radical agenda on race, a new relationship between the citizen and state, reform of the law on sexual offences and nothing short of a cultural ‘enlightenment’ on aspects of sexuality, were largely seeking a return to those radical academic politics of the 60s and 70s. Yet, a return to such academic politics doesn’t seem to be on the cards.
In the UK, our conferences are even less ‘radicalised’. Countless papers have been presented on terrorism, sexuality and a host of other social issues, yet with a few notable exceptions there has not been the same focus on radical activism. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) which informs the amount of funding each university gets for research activity is apparently going to place more emphasis on ‘impact’ in its new form of the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
That’s welcome. As academics, we need to recognise the importance of the research informed teaching agenda which sees us link what we research and study in the privacy of our homes and offices, directed back into the teaching we deliver but we also need institutions and professional bodies to value activities that also direct that research towards re-shaping our world. It is sad that we place more value on an article, that few may ever read provided it appears in the ‘right’ journal than work that actually makes an impact.
Academics often bemoan the lack of student activism on campuses in contrast to an older generations actvivism in the 60s and 70s. That generation continued to be activists as academics and now, as they retire and fade from the forefront of academic life, we are left with a void.
Academic lawyers have a key role in this agenda. Law pervades every aspect of life – whether its the type of food you can buy in a store, how that store came to be located there, the rules you follow as you return home, the condition of the vehicle you travel in or the state of the air you breath, law is at play. It is present in the boardrooms and in grand courts of law but it is felt way beyond that. By working with sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and others, by forging aliiances, we can achieve vibrant debate and ultimately change.
Right now in America, Proposition 8 (which effectively ‘banned’ gay and lesbian marriage) is totemic but the agenda is anything bu a radical one. As a couple of delegates discussed with me, being gay and saying “actually, do we want to get married? Do we want to join a straight institution and its control of power?” is not a socially acceptable thing to say within the gay community. If you’re gay, how can you not want equality? Equality or ‘the apologists’ as one academic said, are winning and the radical queer agenda of the 60s/70s and lesser extent 1980s has been largely lost, along with similar radical agendas on race and (as I discovered for the first time at this conference) on age.
Queer as an agenda of radicalism emerged in the 1990s and by the time I arrived at University had been and gone, yet there remains a small section of activists and academics who see value int hat agenda and a new generation of grad students appear to be seeking to re-vitalise queer as a tool of academic inquiry. Carol Stychin’s Queer Legal Theory has been largely ignored for far too long. Just before I flew out, I finished an article considering queer approaches to online ethnographic research and I’ve a couple of others looking at ‘barebacking’ and public sex that are in the pipe line. If anything, this conference has inspired me to re-double my efforts and work to move beyond the dominant equality agenda.
It’s perhaps not that surprising at this conference. As one delegate reminded me, the Society for the Study of Social Problems has a long history of activism and was a key point of resistance to the attitudes to homosexuality that saw it both medicalized and criminalized. One former President of SSSP had (apparently) talked about the need to take the credibility that an academic body such as the SSSP has, and ‘lend’ that credibility to a group in need. That was decades ago. At this conference, those campaigning for health and social care reform, a radical agenda on race, a new relationship between the citizen and state, reform of the law on sexual offences and nothing short of a cultural ‘enlightenment’ on aspects of sexuality, were largely seeking a return to those radical academic politics of the 60s and 70s. Yet, a return to such academic politics doesn’t seem to be on the cards.
In the UK, our conferences are even less ‘radicalised’. Countless papers have been presented on terrorism, sexuality and a host of other social issues, yet with a few notable exceptions there has not been the same focus on radical activism. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) which informs the amount of funding each university gets for research activity is apparently going to place more emphasis on ‘impact’ in its new form of the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
That’s welcome. As academics, we need to recognise the importance of the research informed teaching agenda which sees us link what we research and study in the privacy of our homes and offices, directed back into the teaching we deliver but we also need institutions and professional bodies to value activities that also direct that research towards re-shaping our world. It is sad that we place more value on an article, that few may ever read provided it appears in the ‘right’ journal than work that actually makes an impact.
Academics often bemoan the lack of student activism on campuses in contrast to an older generations actvivism in the 60s and 70s. That generation continued to be activists as academics and now, as they retire and fade from the forefront of academic life, we are left with a void.
Academic lawyers have a key role in this agenda. Law pervades every aspect of life – whether its the type of food you can buy in a store, how that store came to be located there, the rules you follow as you return home, the condition of the vehicle you travel in or the state of the air you breath, law is at play. It is present in the boardrooms and in grand courts of law but it is felt way beyond that. By working with sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and others, by forging aliiances, we can achieve vibrant debate and ultimately change.
Right now in America, Proposition 8 (which effectively ‘banned’ gay and lesbian marriage) is totemic but the agenda is anything bu a radical one. As a couple of delegates discussed with me, being gay and saying “actually, do we want to get married? Do we want to join a straight institution and its control of power?” is not a socially acceptable thing to say within the gay community. If you’re gay, how can you not want equality? Equality or ‘the apologists’ as one academic said, are winning and the radical queer agenda of the 60s/70s and lesser extent 1980s has been largely lost, along with similar radical agendas on race and (as I discovered for the first time at this conference) on age.
Queer as an agenda of radicalism emerged in the 1990s and by the time I arrived at University had been and gone, yet there remains a small section of activists and academics who see value int hat agenda and a new generation of grad students appear to be seeking to re-vitalise queer as a tool of academic inquiry. Carol Stychin’s Queer Legal Theory has been largely ignored for far too long. Just before I flew out, I finished an article considering queer approaches to online ethnographic research and I’ve a couple of others looking at ‘barebacking’ and public sex that are in the pipe line. If anything, this conference has inspired me to re-double my efforts and work to move beyond the dominant equality agenda.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
SSSP Final Day
I went to the session I'd been the most excited about in advance this morning. Once again an 8.30 start so the session didn't get the audience it deserved. It was the only session I've attended that had people presenting/chairing, who I were familiar with and had read their work. One of the speakers knocked the ball out of the stadium. Incredible mind, terrific presentation. The rest of the papers I've seen today have been OK but didn't really grab me. I'm off in a little while to a session I wouldn't have gone to ordinarily but I'm going to support someone.
The audience for academic papers tends to be a mix of those who want to be there because they're interested in the topic, those whoa re there because the person presenting is one of 'the great and good', those that are there because they want to be noticed by/have a conversation with the 'great and good' and those that are their to support someone else.
So, that will then be the last session of the conference. I've been asked along to a social tonight and that will be my last night in SF. Flying back tomorrow afternoon so I shall be back to "normal" blogging in a few days.
My aim of these last few blog posts was to give readers more of an insight into the academic conference . I hope by being as honest and complete as possible, it has done that.
The audience for academic papers tends to be a mix of those who want to be there because they're interested in the topic, those whoa re there because the person presenting is one of 'the great and good', those that are there because they want to be noticed by/have a conversation with the 'great and good' and those that are their to support someone else.
So, that will then be the last session of the conference. I've been asked along to a social tonight and that will be my last night in SF. Flying back tomorrow afternoon so I shall be back to "normal" blogging in a few days.
My aim of these last few blog posts was to give readers more of an insight into the academic conference . I hope by being as honest and complete as possible, it has done that.
'Community', Homelessness and the Castro
So I took a little bit of time out from the conference today and headed out to the Castro. I discovered (after waiting a while at a MUNI stop like an idiot - along with many others), that the F-line route was temporarily out this morning so I walked out to the Castro which was good (and let's be honest, much needed) exercise. I had a nice stroll around, checked out a few sites ready for the next field trip, bought some books from the book store there (one of which will help form the basis of a paper I plan to present next April in Bristol -on Queer Legal Theory/'Slutdom'), and ended my little tour with a beer at Cafe Flore and watched the world go by. Whilst there, my ears were flapping in their usual listening station like way and I overheard a group talking about homelessness.
Anyone whose visited SF will be stunned at the poverty and failure of any safety net that is on display in the Tenderloin. This group of folks talked about the homeless in the Castro and one of the group had spent time talking to various homeless guys. They'd told him about the lack of shower facilities - a basic aspect which led to people instantly developing a negative impression of he homeless because of how they look/smell. Apparently there had been a scheme that allowed the homeless to use showers in schools when the schools were shut but parents had objected. Anyway, this group of people said something had to be done.
Yea, we've all had those discussions. They went further and talked about planning their group, what to call it, how it would operate, remit etc. They were sorting it. It was a community response. How often does the same happen in Newcastle or Manchester? Sure, it happens amongst those paid to care, but what about the wider 'community'?
More generally, there was some interesting social justice stuff today that is still being processed by my brain. Off out for some fun tonight and then the last day of the conference tomorrow. Once it's over, I might then return to the Castro to pick up a queer theory book I can't get in he UK and maybe head to Ocean Beach to say a sad farewell. Then it's Monday, time to pack and a journey that results in me landing Tuesday afternoon in the UK (and left confused as to what day it is).
Anyone whose visited SF will be stunned at the poverty and failure of any safety net that is on display in the Tenderloin. This group of folks talked about the homeless in the Castro and one of the group had spent time talking to various homeless guys. They'd told him about the lack of shower facilities - a basic aspect which led to people instantly developing a negative impression of he homeless because of how they look/smell. Apparently there had been a scheme that allowed the homeless to use showers in schools when the schools were shut but parents had objected. Anyway, this group of people said something had to be done.
Yea, we've all had those discussions. They went further and talked about planning their group, what to call it, how it would operate, remit etc. They were sorting it. It was a community response. How often does the same happen in Newcastle or Manchester? Sure, it happens amongst those paid to care, but what about the wider 'community'?
More generally, there was some interesting social justice stuff today that is still being processed by my brain. Off out for some fun tonight and then the last day of the conference tomorrow. Once it's over, I might then return to the Castro to pick up a queer theory book I can't get in he UK and maybe head to Ocean Beach to say a sad farewell. Then it's Monday, time to pack and a journey that results in me landing Tuesday afternoon in the UK (and left confused as to what day it is).
Saturday, 8 August 2009
SSSP Day 2/3/4
OK, I got up at 6.30 this morning as the conference kicks of at 8 and I need to get changed and grab some breakfast. A friend called last night and I was so out of it that I was convinced the phones in the hotel randomly ring in the night and it was "just doing it again". Very odd. Yesterday I caught some papers that helped inform the content of my law and sexuality course together with how I teach the course but they were generally speaking a mixed bag. One could have been done much better by my past graduates (if you're reading this - that's definitely you!) but I bottled it and said nothing in the questions, fearing an ugly crowd. Another was brilliant. Really well delivered, contained passion and humour, and was actually really interesting research. Definitely going into my course next year as I always struggle to address lesbian issues. So, more papers today, I'm hoping I can actually stay awake to go out tonight but it's touch and go. Nothing desperately exciting today actually so I might take a couple of hours out this afternoon to visit the Castro. It's tomorrow I'm excited about - there's a BDSM panel and given I'm working on an article that tries to link the R vBrown notion of 'violence' through to 'barebacking', it should be really useful for my current research. It might be Monday when I next update, just before I fly back. It's all gone by far too quickly.
Friday, 7 August 2009
SSSP Day 2 (Post Paper Analysis)
I'm trying through my entries on the SSSP conference to reveal something of the "private academic" beyond the student classroom based construction of the academic. This morning pretty much covers a lot of ground! So, as I've indicated on twitter etc, this morning was my paper. 8.30am, around 13 people in the audience so fairly quiet, but these sort of presentations help to get my ideas out there and prepare the ground for projects such as the publication of my book on public sex next year. the more people who have at least heard my name, let alone seen me speak, the better for getting that text noticed in North America.
So I head down. I'm staying in the conference hotel so it's pretty straight forward but because it's held on several floors the whole lift system kinda collapsed (not literally) with long waits to get a lift heading in the right direction. So I get down (having registered, picked my pack up and found the room I'd be delivering my paper in a little earlier). I go in the room, meet one of my fellow panellists and see there's a projector but no laptop. A little irritating as I thought there would be one but not an issue - I'd go get mine in my room so off I go. Wait at the lift, OK now cutting it a little tight but not an issue. Get back to my room, go to the safe to retrieve my laptop and what do I get but "error 90". I had no notes for my presentation, just my slides and what's in my head. So I go to the phone, look for the reception button, there isn't one. I look int he hotel handbook, no number. I phone the concierge, not on 'till 10. It's now after 8.30 and I'm stressed. I'm shouting a lot of abuse at no-one in particular realising that if I head down to try and physically find someone at reception I might be even later. I remember seeing a maid in the corridor so I go running (yes really, I ran. lol) down the corridor, coming across like a maniac to a woman whose grasp of English is tenuous. She fly's into a similar panic, but bless the amazing woman, calls for an engineer. He comes, he can't get it to open with his magic code breaking thing. I'm now nearly 30mins late. This is not good. He calls for another engineer to pull my desk apart to get into the safe. Then, the thing randomly opens. Retrieve my laptop, run back to the lift. Wait. Wait some more. Get down, run to the room, realise I can't open the door. Lots of banging. my saying "fuck fuck" under my breath.
Burst in (literally), and attempt to sit quietly at the back. So I get up and give my presentation when my turn and by now I'd recovered my composure but my thoughts were pretty fluid. Amazingly, the adrenalin seemed to really make me buzz and it seemed t go amazingly well. Couple of people wanted references for my work on the area so I swapped email.
Got chatting to this really quite attractive guy about research and stuff in general and we ended up sat outside the room talking for a good while (maybe half an hour, maybe more) and decided to go for a drink. He was telling me about his research, his life, sex, all sorts. Lots of physical contact which is well, not that common (and I'm really not tactile with people I know, let alone strangers). We head out to find a coffee store, hes from SF but not that well up on Nob Hill and he wondered why I hadn't stayed at a more "interesting" hotel in the Castro or SOMA. Anyway, we went over, talked some more, headed back to the hotel, hugged (that doesn't normally happen) and arranged to meet tonight (you were worried where that was going for a minute wheren't you). He has a bf so don't read too much into things!
So pretty crazy morning. Off to some panels this afternoon on 'coming out experiences and non-heterosexual identities'. There's then some social justice and pedagogy themed sessions over the weekend that fit with what we're trying to develop at Sunderland so should be interesting. I'm feeling very happy and extremely privileged.
So I head down. I'm staying in the conference hotel so it's pretty straight forward but because it's held on several floors the whole lift system kinda collapsed (not literally) with long waits to get a lift heading in the right direction. So I get down (having registered, picked my pack up and found the room I'd be delivering my paper in a little earlier). I go in the room, meet one of my fellow panellists and see there's a projector but no laptop. A little irritating as I thought there would be one but not an issue - I'd go get mine in my room so off I go. Wait at the lift, OK now cutting it a little tight but not an issue. Get back to my room, go to the safe to retrieve my laptop and what do I get but "error 90". I had no notes for my presentation, just my slides and what's in my head. So I go to the phone, look for the reception button, there isn't one. I look int he hotel handbook, no number. I phone the concierge, not on 'till 10. It's now after 8.30 and I'm stressed. I'm shouting a lot of abuse at no-one in particular realising that if I head down to try and physically find someone at reception I might be even later. I remember seeing a maid in the corridor so I go running (yes really, I ran. lol) down the corridor, coming across like a maniac to a woman whose grasp of English is tenuous. She fly's into a similar panic, but bless the amazing woman, calls for an engineer. He comes, he can't get it to open with his magic code breaking thing. I'm now nearly 30mins late. This is not good. He calls for another engineer to pull my desk apart to get into the safe. Then, the thing randomly opens. Retrieve my laptop, run back to the lift. Wait. Wait some more. Get down, run to the room, realise I can't open the door. Lots of banging. my saying "fuck fuck" under my breath.
Burst in (literally), and attempt to sit quietly at the back. So I get up and give my presentation when my turn and by now I'd recovered my composure but my thoughts were pretty fluid. Amazingly, the adrenalin seemed to really make me buzz and it seemed t go amazingly well. Couple of people wanted references for my work on the area so I swapped email.
Got chatting to this really quite attractive guy about research and stuff in general and we ended up sat outside the room talking for a good while (maybe half an hour, maybe more) and decided to go for a drink. He was telling me about his research, his life, sex, all sorts. Lots of physical contact which is well, not that common (and I'm really not tactile with people I know, let alone strangers). We head out to find a coffee store, hes from SF but not that well up on Nob Hill and he wondered why I hadn't stayed at a more "interesting" hotel in the Castro or SOMA. Anyway, we went over, talked some more, headed back to the hotel, hugged (that doesn't normally happen) and arranged to meet tonight (you were worried where that was going for a minute wheren't you). He has a bf so don't read too much into things!
So pretty crazy morning. Off to some panels this afternoon on 'coming out experiences and non-heterosexual identities'. There's then some social justice and pedagogy themed sessions over the weekend that fit with what we're trying to develop at Sunderland so should be interesting. I'm feeling very happy and extremely privileged.
SSSP Day 1 (Pre-conference)
Well as you will have gathered from the last couple of posts, I'm over in San Francisco for the Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting. I joined SSSP earlier this year and the group describes its aim as:
'Founded in 1951, the Society for the Study of Social Problems promotes research on and serious examination of problems of social life. The SSSP works to solve these problems and to develop informed social policy. As a member, you will find peers and colleagues working together to develop and apply research which makes a difference'.
So, I'm trying to find an audience over in North America for my research around public sex. As I write this I'm sat in my hotel room, taking a mini break from preparing my paper to write this. It's 9.45pm so don't go thinking it's all play in conference land. That said, there is some play, and I managed to get a few sites in earlier, pictures from which I've posted on my Facebook page. As I sat on Ocean Beach earlier today, I did reflect on how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful job. I have a red sun burnt nose and aching feet from my trekking about Golden Gate Park to prove it.
Back to the conference, it starts at 8.30am tomorrow morning (oh joy) and guess what, my paper is in one of the first sessions at 8.30 so I'll be up bright and breezy to finish up and present. I'll let you know how it goes. Given the focus of the conference, I aim t throw a little in about the failure of UK groups (notably Stonewall) to sensibly engage with the subject of public sex and the issues of queer theory this raises and I may get a into deconstructing the heteronormative narrative around PSEs. Right now, as I right this, I'm just hoping I manage to get the key points in (I don't know the exact time we have to speak but I'm guessing the usual 20mins plus questions) and make reasonable sense.
'Founded in 1951, the Society for the Study of Social Problems promotes research on and serious examination of problems of social life. The SSSP works to solve these problems and to develop informed social policy. As a member, you will find peers and colleagues working together to develop and apply research which makes a difference'.
So, I'm trying to find an audience over in North America for my research around public sex. As I write this I'm sat in my hotel room, taking a mini break from preparing my paper to write this. It's 9.45pm so don't go thinking it's all play in conference land. That said, there is some play, and I managed to get a few sites in earlier, pictures from which I've posted on my Facebook page. As I sat on Ocean Beach earlier today, I did reflect on how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful job. I have a red sun burnt nose and aching feet from my trekking about Golden Gate Park to prove it.
Back to the conference, it starts at 8.30am tomorrow morning (oh joy) and guess what, my paper is in one of the first sessions at 8.30 so I'll be up bright and breezy to finish up and present. I'll let you know how it goes. Given the focus of the conference, I aim t throw a little in about the failure of UK groups (notably Stonewall) to sensibly engage with the subject of public sex and the issues of queer theory this raises and I may get a into deconstructing the heteronormative narrative around PSEs. Right now, as I right this, I'm just hoping I manage to get the key points in (I don't know the exact time we have to speak but I'm guessing the usual 20mins plus questions) and make reasonable sense.
Monday, 3 August 2009
Trouble at' Mill: the EHRC
We have an old saying in Lancashire: 'trouble at' mill'. There's been an awful lot of trouble at the mill that is the Equality and Human Rights Commission as of late. I've been holding off posting a story to see how things pan out with this and it does seem to have died away after a week and it didn't really feature in the Sunday's. That said, I have a feeling this story will be back and I'd be very surprised to see Trevor Phillips in his post this time next year. Shami Chakrabarti apparently failed to get the post first time round and I'm sure there will be a growing mood to plonk her in the job as soon as seems dignified.Whoever gets the role, I have doubts about whether it is a deliverable agenda. I caught a bit of Radio 4's religious output on Sunday morning (by accident, whilst in the bathroom) and they actually had a thoughtful debate about the compatibility of religious freedom verses sexuality. On the one hand, the one equality body is more resource efficient (so I don't see a Conservative government reversing things) and pulls a string of different groups together under the 'equality banner' (so very New Labour - their not going to reverse their decision). On the other, it is trying to represent competing agendas at the same time. Kind of like that elderly relative that keeps knitting old style jumpers - she means well but you'd just rather go and buy your own. The EHRC undoubtedly means well but it's just not as effective as it could be.
When I met a rep of the EHRC last year, he was pretty up front about the fairy chaotic state of things at the EHRC. You would hope things would have settled down since then but they don't seem to have. If that forces a radical re-think of this group, it might just be a good thing.
SSSP Conference Presentation: Public Sex
I'm off to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems later this week in San Francisco. Followers on Twitter will no doubt be treated to my Heathrow frustrations during Wednesday. I'll also try and tweet my way through the conference (subject to technology). I have a suspicion that Audioboo won't work unless I can find some free wi-fi so it will be mainly text. Anyway, I'll be speaking a bit mroe on my public sex research and it will be nice (terrifying?!) to see how it goes down with this broad audience. I'm speaking on Friday in session 2 and as the conference is following the American convention of starting early, the slot kicks off at 8.30am. Whoo hoo! The abstract for my paper can be read below:
Public Sex and the Law: A UK Perspective
Legal reform of sexuality appears to have focussed upon the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community in recent years. By the end of the first decade of the twenty first century those men and women who identify as gay and lesbian find themselves the benefactors of a raft of measures incorporated into English law during the preceding decade. Civil Partnerships, the repeal of Section 28 which prevented teachers from ‘promoting’ homosexuality as it was a ‘pretended family relationship’, new adoption rights, new rights of access relating to goods and services and a concomitant shift in societal attitudes have dominated discourse relating to law and sexuality.
Yet despite this shift, as recently as 2003 the law relating to the policing of public sex was re-stated largely along the same lines as the previous legislation designed to reflect the attitudes of a 1950s and 60s Britain. For the media, law makers and law enforcers public sex appears to remain a social problem. Whilst ‘gay’ sexual acts and identities have seen a raft of legal reform and international debate, notably the recent Proposition 8/gay marriage protests; acts that might take place between men who have sex with men, heterosexual couples and bisexual couples or groupings have received less attention.
This paper will seek to examine the current status of public sex in English law. It will draw upon original research into the operation of the ‘public sex community’ primarily in England and Wales but will also give consideration to international locations, particularly in the USA. This paper will draw upon multi-disciplinary research in this under-researched field. This original research takes the form of an asynchronous virtual ethnographic study incorporating snowball sampling. It will highlight the varied and sometimes contradictory approaches to policing within England and Wales and offer insights into the growing role that technology is playing for both sides.
Public Sex and the Law: A UK Perspective
Legal reform of sexuality appears to have focussed upon the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community in recent years. By the end of the first decade of the twenty first century those men and women who identify as gay and lesbian find themselves the benefactors of a raft of measures incorporated into English law during the preceding decade. Civil Partnerships, the repeal of Section 28 which prevented teachers from ‘promoting’ homosexuality as it was a ‘pretended family relationship’, new adoption rights, new rights of access relating to goods and services and a concomitant shift in societal attitudes have dominated discourse relating to law and sexuality.
Yet despite this shift, as recently as 2003 the law relating to the policing of public sex was re-stated largely along the same lines as the previous legislation designed to reflect the attitudes of a 1950s and 60s Britain. For the media, law makers and law enforcers public sex appears to remain a social problem. Whilst ‘gay’ sexual acts and identities have seen a raft of legal reform and international debate, notably the recent Proposition 8/gay marriage protests; acts that might take place between men who have sex with men, heterosexual couples and bisexual couples or groupings have received less attention.
This paper will seek to examine the current status of public sex in English law. It will draw upon original research into the operation of the ‘public sex community’ primarily in England and Wales but will also give consideration to international locations, particularly in the USA. This paper will draw upon multi-disciplinary research in this under-researched field. This original research takes the form of an asynchronous virtual ethnographic study incorporating snowball sampling. It will highlight the varied and sometimes contradictory approaches to policing within England and Wales and offer insights into the growing role that technology is playing for both sides.
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