The Sex Booth Commeth

You may recall a story back in 2010 of plans for 'sex boxes' in Switzerland.  I think I even blogged on it but I can't for the life of me find the post.  Anyway, the 'boxes' were essentially three screens which you would drive into with a sex worker, providing a discreet space for a sexual rendezvous within the Red Light District (see the picture on the right of a similar screen in Germany).  Marvellous progressiveness I thought and that was that.  Only, here we are, two years on and finally it seems, Zurich will be introducing the booths with effect from next year.

It's reported that 'Zurich’s social welfare department will ban prostitution in certain parts of the city, making it only legal to solicit sex in the allotted “sex booths” that will posses parking spaces, as well as alarm buttons, in case Johns get too carried away. Employee’s of the public sex industry will have to register with a health insurer and also buy a $5 ticket per night in order to accept customers.'

It's an interesting move to control street prostitution and improve public health both for sex workers and punters.  Definitely one to watch - and one does wonder whether there will be booth 'capacity' issues.

Book launch for Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights

I'm sure this will be a terrific event for an important book.  Try and make it if you can.

Thursday 1st November 2012, 7pm

Gay's the Word bookshop
66 Marchmont Street
London, WC1N 1AB

The author of Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights would be delighted if you could join him for a discussion of some of the important issues raised in this first book-length study of the Court’s jurisprudence on sexual orientation.

The book offers a socio-legal analysis of the substantial number of decisions and judgments of the Strasbourg organs on the wide range of complaints brought by gay men and lesbians under the European Convention on Human Rights. It provides a systematic analysis of Strasbourgcase law since 1955 and examines decades of decisions that have hitherto remained obscure. Going beyond doctrinal analysis by employing a nuanced sociological consideration of Strasbourg jurisprudence, the book shows how the Court is a site at which homosexuality is both socially constructed and regulated.

The author argues that the Court’s judgments have played an important role in reshaping the landscape of sexuality in contemporary Europe and have provided lesbians and gay men with an authoritative and powerful resource with which to challenge homophobic and heteronormative social relations. The book identifies limitations in the Court’s approach to homosexuality and aims to promote discussion about how its interpretation of the Convention might be evolved in the future to better protect lesbian and gay rights and lives.

There will be a talk by the author, followed by open discussion and a wine reception.

The event is open to all and if you wish to attend please send an email to paul.johnson@york.ac.uk 

Published by Routledge, a GlassHouse book. ISBN: 978-0415696579

Paul Johnson is Anniversary Reader in Sociology at the University of York.

Same-Sex Marriage for Denmark

Various media outlets are reporting the news that the Danish Parliament has passed a new law enabling same-sex marriage in the country.  It's due to come into force on 15 June this year.  Interestingly, Denmark already had a system of registered partnerships in place (since 1989) so the move has similarities with any UK move to introduce same-sex marriage, given we have civil partnerships.

I get the impression that this will be religious as well s marriage ceremonies but the media reports are unclear.  GayStarNews states (in the best report on this I can find) that 'couples already in civil partnerships will automatically be granted 'married' status' which suggests that registered partnerships will be abolished as part of the move and people automatically converted to a marriage (whether they want it or not).  Far from something to welcome, this seems an unacceptable application of state power.

Hopefully in the coming days, a bit more information will come out but the brief "yay, Denmark has 'gay' marriage" perspective that seems to dominate the UK reporting fails to address the significant questions around religion (GayStarNews does touch on this) and the implications for civil unions.    It would be deeply regrettable if the UK was to simply replicate this approach, and it is even more regrettable that the LGBT media is not giving this move a little more scrutiny.

Spain's first 'gay' retirement home

I have no fear of death but I am absolutely terrified of becoming old and infirm.  The prospect of losing my independence and finding myself in a care home horrifies me.  With a bit of luck I'll keel over dead with a heart-attack before it comes to that.  The only thing that scares me more than that is to be stuck in a home surrounded by people who identify as 'straight'.  Even now, in our transformed legal world, there is a strange assumption that old people are heterosexual.  Old people - we wrongly assume - do not have sex, they revert to a sexless state and thus become re-defined as heterosexual.  For many, going into a home means going back into the closet.

There does seem some hope for men (why only men?) in Spain who identify as gay.  The Guardian reported yesterday that a group of elderly Spanish gay men are rebelling against the homophobia of their generation by setting up what will be the country's first gay and lesbian retirement home.

The retirement home would cost €1,000 (£834) a month to live in, he said – much lower than the average Madrid price of €1,400. It will have 30 staff to look after the 230 residents in the 120 apartments and studios in the complex, with some set aside for people who are HIV positive.

Whilst the issue of care has been back on the UK political agenda already this year, the focus - as ever - is on cost and not on the nature of provision.  Hopefully as the year progresses, the issue of LGBT elders will begin to be addressed more forcefully.

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle reports a growing need for - and growing development of - low-income housing for GLBTQ seniors in the USA. Philadelphia developers have secured a site for a gay-friendly, low-income housing project in Philadelphia. Housing developments cannot discriminate in favor of gay seniors, but a facility known to be gay-friendly and marketed as such will be appealing to gay seniors.  You can read more on that story here on the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog.

HIV criminalisation and law reform in Nordic countries

The wonderful Prof Matthew Weait at Birkbeck has announced plans to undertake an important new research study in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden next Spring. He will be exploring the ways in which HIV activists and others have sought to reform criminal law concerning HIV transmission and exposure in the region.

Full details have been published on Edwin Bernard's Criminal HIV Transmission blog and can be read here.  Matthew is looking for participants to take part in his research so if you are based in that part of the world, and can help out, I'd encourage you to give him a  shout.

Event: Jasbir Puar Lecture, Berlin

A nice treat for Europeans, able to pop along to Berlin next week:

Jasbir Puar
The Cost of Getting Better
Ecologies of Race, Sex, and Disability

This lecture examines the potential for affective connectivities and conviviality to rethink neoliberal stratification. Noting that discourses surrounding queer suicide reproduce problematic assumptions not only about race, class, and gender, but also bodily health, debility, and capacity, Jasbir Puar will be linking Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project and related discussions about the recent spate of queer suicides to broader social justice issues about disability as well as theoretical concerns in animal studies and post-humanist studies.

Jasbir Puar is professor and core faculty member in the department of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, USA. She is the author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Duke University Press 2007), which won the 2007 Cultural Studies Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies. Her edited volumes include a special issue of GLQ entitled “Queer Tourism: Geographies of Globalization” and she co-edited a volume of Society and Space entitled “Sexuality and Space”.

Tuesday
7 June 2011
7:30 pm
In English
Location:
ICI Kulturlabor Berlin
ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry
Christinenstr. 18/19, Haus 8
U-Bhf Senefelder Platz (U2)
www.ici-berlin.org

Wednesday 8 June, 11am-2pm there will be a workshop with Jasbir Puar for those who like to discuss the lecture in more detail.
Location: Institut für Queer Theory, Werbellinstr. 50, Haus 1a (U8 Boddinstr.)
Please register: mail@queer-institut.de

The lecture is part of the series
The Subtle Racializations of Sexuality: Queer Theory, the Aftermath of Colonial History, and the Late-Modern State
organized by Antke Engel, Institute for Queer Theory, in cooperation with the ICI Berlin.

Western states happily turn to gender and sexual politics in order to demonstrate their presumed progressiveness. They find support from some parts of feminist and LGBTI activism that regard (neo)liberal state and diversity policies as instrumental for achieving integration and recognition. Such alliances have recently been criticized for fostering new social divisions and endorsing occidentalist and sometimes racist premises. Interested in the nuances of this critique, the lecture series brings together theoretical and political considerations developed from Queers of Color and/or migrant perspectives on late-modern and neoliberal state policies. The speakers will analyze the sexual imaginaries that organize Western publics and develop queer counter narratives. Sara Ahmed, Fatima El Tayeb, Antonia Chao, Drucilla Cornell and Cathy Cohen will be among the next speakers.

More: http://www.ici-berlin.org/series/series-description/392/

The lecture series is organized by Antke Engel, Institute for Queer Theory (www.queer-institut.de) in cooperation with the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry (www.ici-berlin.org), which hosts the series. It is supported by other academic institutions and political organizations in Berlin who co-organize and sponsor individual lectures in the series.

The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects

Check out a fantastic conference paper by Susanne Dodillet and Petra Östergren, exploring the controversial Swedish Sex Purchase Act. The paper was presented at the International Workshop: Decriminalizing Prostitution and Beyond: Practical Experiences and Challenges. The Hague, March 3 and 4, 2011. It can be read in full here.

Europe + 'Sexual Deviants' = Telegraph Breakdown

The Telegraph carried a story yesterday that was a good old fashioned right-of-centre horror story. They reported that the European Commission has spent £124,000 on a five day conference 'for 200 homosexual, bisexual, transgender and "intersex" activists'.

Obviously images abound of orgies and grapes being served from an intersex activists naval at Telegraph Towers. They were probably also engaging in languages other than English. A true Halloween image for Telegraph readers.

OK, the price does seem remarkably steep especially if there was no income (conference fees etc), however, the idea of the event was a sound one. To explore and educate in an area that is still subject to so much ignorance. The Telegraph's branding of session titles as 'baffling' is an argument to fund these sort of events, rather than scrap them.

Read the full Telegraph story here.