Homophobic Conduct as Normative Masculinity Test

Homophobic violence can be considered as an expressive act. Violent behavior can be considered as anti-homosexual when victims are chosen because they are considered or perceived as homosexual. Following this reasoning, hate crimes as homophobic crimes have a communicative value, since they represent a range of “masculinization” practices within the processes of gender socialization, both in conventional and illegitimate social worlds. Every homophobic act aims to intimidate not just the victim, but the whole group associated with the, whether concretely or merely in the perception of the perpetrator. This chapter will take into account the main research on victimization from an international perspective; it will highlight how both the gender of the perpetrator and the cultural constructions of masculinity(ies), in a heterosexist and hegemonic system, seem to play a fundamental role in producing homophobic and anti-homosexual behaviour.

Cruising the staged Wonderland: Scenographic photography and the queering of space

This article attempts to introduce and define the creative practice of ‘scenographic photography’ through the exploration of a body of practice-based research completed as part of a Ph.D. at the University of Tasmania in 2018. As research, it examines how traditionally representational forms of photography and scenography can inform each other through the more performative mode of ‘scenographic photography’, an interdisciplinary neologism operating between the performing, spatial and visual arts. Throughout this article, in attempting to define ‘scenographic photography’ as an emergent field, I will concurrently explore how queer space making was used as a critical tool for the research, visualization, execution and exhibiting of this body of work. The title of the body of work – Cruising Wonderland – refers to a specific ‘beat’ site in Sydney associated with illicit encounters and the homophobic violence it engendered during the 1980s, as well as an embodied means of re-presenting such traumatic histories. Within Cruising Wonderland scenographic scale-model making is adopted as a critical tool with which to interrogate specific sites of queer trauma. The inherent ‘wonder’ and fascination associated with the art of the miniature encourages the possibility of a reparative reading not always possible via the explicit documentary tradition of photographing actual sites of trauma. Once presented the audience are required to ‘cruise’ the darkened exhibition environment, like the ‘beat’ spaces referenced in the work, with an acute sensory awareness of their surroundings, of fellow spectators and how they, as participants within Wonderland, perform and are perceived by others. This immersive approach to engaging with the work is designed to encourage a process of empathic engagement, illuminating often-invisible histories, allowing us to move towards reparation through active re-witnessing.

8. Hate crime

This chapter addresses hate crimes, which are complex, as these offences can be linked to both personal gain or even profit, as well as concepts such as ‘difference’ and ‘othering’. This area of criminology came about primarily because the civil rights movements in the US and the UK raised the profile of racist and (later) homophobic violence so that they became important political and social issues. The chapter looks at a range of different types of hate crime, including offences based on prejudice towards victims because of their disability, race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, and gender identity. It also identifies some of the factors that can affect these offences in ways that are not immediately obvious. These elements include the influence politicians can have, especially when using language that excludes minority groups and portrays them as a threat to the public or as somehow being ‘Other’ (different and arguably not to be trusted).

The feminine target: Gender expression in same-sex relationships as a predictor of experiences with public displays of affection

The extent to which sexual minority individuals present publicly as masculine, feminine, or both has been associated with their perceptions of threat and safety in public spaces. The current study investigates the role of gender expression in men and women’s experiences of public displays of affection (PDAs) in same-sex relationships. Participants (N = 528) reported their own gender expression as well as that of their partner, perceptions of support for PDAs, PDA-related vigilance, general vigilance and overall PDA frequency. Men in same-sex relationships reported less frequent PDAs and greater PDA-related vigilance than women, while women reported greater overall variability in their gender expression than men. Multiple regression analyses show femininity within the participant (for men) or their partner (for both men and women) was associated with greater general and PDA-related vigilance. These findings align with previous research on femmephobia, in which femininity is described as making individuals feel ‘targeted’ for other forms of oppression (e.g., homophobia, sexism, transphobia; Hoskin, 2019). Although femininity was associated with greater vigilance, the association between masculinity within a same-sex relationship and vigilance was more tenuous, demonstrating evidence of masculinity serving as both a potential target for homophobic violence as well as a source of protection. The dual nature of masculinity was particularly salient among women in same-sex relationships, where masculinity tempered by femininity was associated with greater perceived support for PDAs but for women with partners low in femininity, the more masculine their partner, the greater their reported levels of vigilance.

Colourblind coverage: Mainstream media erasure of intersectionality in large-scale cases of anti-LGBTQ violence

Despite extensive critique calling for greater acknowledgement of intersectionality, the LGBTQ community in North America continues to foster a White, upper- and middle-class, gender-normative culture. Media discourse has perpetuated these narratives by downplaying the racism inherent in events centring homophobic violence against racialized LBGTQ people. Through a content analysis and discourse analysis of national and local news sources in the United States and Canada, this study explores the hesitation of journalists to explicitly acknowledge the intersectionality of race and LGBTQ identity in two North American instances of large-scale anti-LGBTQ violence targeting predominantly racialized members of the community. The Bruce McArthur case in Toronto, Ontario involved the serial murder of mostly racialized gay men, while the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida was a mass shooting that took place on Latinx night at an LGBTQ nightclub. In both cases, despite superficial acknowledgement of the victims’ demographics, journalists minimized the racial aspect of the violence in order to present more palatable politicized narratives.

Racialized Risks, Queer Threats: Refugee Experiences of “Sanctuary” in the City of Toronto

There appears to be a gap in the literature that examines the intersectionality of identities for the refugee subject, especially for queer refugees. As well, there is a prevalence of heteronormative discourses throughout the literature. In all cases, homophobic violence is named but I will argue this is not the problem; it is merely a symptom of a broken system rooted in discourses of securitization and heteronormativity. Currently, migration to Canada is overseen by an increasingly over-securitized state which treats refugee claimants as threats to the nation. Concomitantly, the cultural adherence to traditional, white, heteronormative identities adds another dimension of risk for racialized, queer refugee subjects. This research study examines the experiences of resettlement for racialized and queer refugees in Toronto – a city that claims to be a sanctuary for such refugee claimants. The findings show that although queer refugees are generally safe from blatant and overt forms of violence post-migration, they still feel the need to resort to strategic methods of discretion, as it takes time to unlearn the fear and insecurity that exists as a result of experiencing trauma in the previous country. The interviews demonstrate that although some queer refugees may have to overcome internal and external challenges in their resettled lives, ultimately the action of migrating to Canada has opened up a multitude of promising possibilities.

Racialized Risks, Queer Threats: Refugee Experiences of “Sanctuary” in the City of Toronto

There appears to be a gap in the literature that examines the intersectionality of identities for the refugee subject, especially for queer refugees. As well, there is a prevalence of heteronormative discourses throughout the literature. In all cases, homophobic violence is named but I will argue this is not the problem; it is merely a symptom of a broken system rooted in discourses of securitization and heteronormativity. Currently, migration to Canada is overseen by an increasingly over-securitized state which treats refugee claimants as threats to the nation. Concomitantly, the cultural adherence to traditional, white, heteronormative identities adds another dimension of risk for racialized, queer refugee subjects. This research study examines the experiences of resettlement for racialized and queer refugees in Toronto – a city that claims to be a sanctuary for such refugee claimants. The findings show that although queer refugees are generally safe from blatant and overt forms of violence post-migration, they still feel the need to resort to strategic methods of discretion, as it takes time to unlearn the fear and insecurity that exists as a result of experiencing trauma in the previous country. The interviews demonstrate that although some queer refugees may have to overcome internal and external challenges in their resettled lives, ultimately the action of migrating to Canada has opened up a multitude of promising possibilities.

Battyboy must die! Dancehall, class and religion in Jamaican homophobia

Homophobia is ingrained in Jamaica, and homophobic violence is rampant. This study, developed from 30 interviews with gay Jamaicans, unravels the nation’s complex ideological issues surrounding political and social discrimination. Few empirical researchers have explored homophobia in Jamaica. This study is the first that includes interviews exclusively from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer and asexual communities. These interviews, combined with an examination of media reporting and cultural phenomena, reveal the deep interconnections between three predictors of homophobic sentiment: dancehall music, gender and religiosity. Since dancehall culture so thoroughly implicates the other predictive factors, I use it as the primary object of analysis in this essay. Furthermore, since all three predictive factors – religiosity, dancehall music and even masculine identity – are cultural phenomena articulated through social conventions and texts, this essay examines them through a cultural studies lens.

Nostalgic Masculinity: Homosocial Desire and Homosexual Panic in James Ellroy's This Storm

The second volume in James Ellroy's ‘Second LA Quartet’, This Storm (2019), offers a complex miscellany of war profiteering, fifth column sabotage, and institutional corruption, all of which is starkly projected against the sobering backdrop of the internment of Japanese-Americans. Whilst presenting Ellroy's most diverse assemblage of characters to date, the narrative is, nonetheless, principally centred on the intersecting bonds between men. Although the prevalence of destructive masculine authority in Ellroy's works has been widely discussed, what has often been overlooked are the specifically ‘homosocial’ dimensions of these relationships. Whilst these homosocial bonds are frequently energised and solidified by homophobic violence (both physical and rhetorical), this paper will argue that they are simultaneously wrought by ‘homosexual panic’; the anxiety deriving for the indeterminate boundaries between homosocial and homosexual desire. This panic is expressed most profoundly in This Storm in the form of corrupt policeman Dudley Smith. Haunted by a repressed homosexual encounter, Smith's paranoid behaviour and increasingly punitive violence derives from his inability to establish clear boundaries between his intense homosocial bonds and latent homosexual desires. Thus, whilst Ellroy's ‘nostalgic masculinity’ attempts to circumscribe the dimensions and inviolability of male identity, the paranoia and violence that underscores the various machinations of Ellroy's crooked cops ultimately exposes the fragility of such constructions.