Gay rights movement | Defn & History | Branni

Contents:

• WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
• TBILISI GAY TRAVEL
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• THE NATN AND ITS UNSIRABLE SUBJECTS: HOMOSEXUALY, CIZENSHIP AND THE GAY ‘OTHER’ CAMEROON
• GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
• GAY (ADJ.)
• OLIVIA GAY, LA VLONCELLISTE QUI JOUE I S FORêTS
• THE JOY AND PRERNS OF GAY LIFE, THROUGH THE EY OF SUNIL GUPTA
• MILI GAY BOOKS
• SOCIAL MILI AND MEDIATORS OF LONELS AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN RURAL INDIANA

WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI

What femism, gay liberatn, and the philosophil rearch of Michel Fouult ntributed to an unrstandg of sexual inty is this: they showed that sexualy is not simply “natural” as Aristotle thought, not jt a blogil urge as Frd thought, but a social nstct that evolved through history to enable power to regulate and fe social behavr and thought at both the level of dividuals and groups. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.

In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Sce the enactment of laws crimalizg same-sex relatns September 1972, the Cameroon ernment has been termed to lock the sexualy of the mass to entrenched forms of lolism and tochthony, acpanied by ncerted efforts to draw boundari between sirs and outsirs, cizens and strangers, thentic and racated Ains, the lol and the global, good and bad cizens, and loyal and disloyal chapter builds on my prev work on the polil nstctn of sexual cizenship Cameroon (Ndj 2012, 2013b) and is based primarily on empiril rearch the gay i between 2008 and 2010 and different state urts Cameroon where I followed trials for homosexual offens.

By analysg how sexualy was culturally nstcted by the regime of Cameroon’s first print Ahmadou Ahidjo (1960–1982) and that of his succsor Pl Biya ( power sce 1982), the chapter sheds light on the ntui and disntui the ernment’s fg of sexual natnalism and cizenship as well as s management of the so-lled ‘peril of homosexualy’.

TBILISI GAY TRAVEL

Such qutns need to be addrsed if we are to unrstand the plex modali of cln and excln ntemporary Ai, the (re)ventn of natnal belongg, and reprentatns of a radil sexual ‘other’—generally a figure of danger to the often-celebrated, libidal Ain straight (see Ndj 2012) 1972, the sexualy of Cameroonians has veloped wh a dialectic of cln of heterosexuals as good cizens and culturally rooted Ains and the excln of homosexuals seen as alien cizens or uprooted Ains who flout Ain tradns and valu, or who claim a globalized inty over their Ainy. Both the Ahidjo and Biya regim ma the sexualy of the mass a ‘loc of tegoril pury’ (Malkki 1995: 4) and a space for the nstctn of ‘fensive inti based on munal prcipl’ (Castells 1997: 11) anti-gay polici of the Cameroon ernment have prived gays and lbians of their legimate rights to enjoy the state’s protectn and to fe and ntrol their own bodi and sexualy. The third sectn scrib the dramatic ndns of many LGBTI persons unr the current ernment, while the fourth explor the strategi of some LGBTI persons and groups to al wh the social stigma and margalizatn that they currently Ahidjo Regime: Crimalizg HomosexualyAlthough the current Biya ernment is portrayed by many ternatnal human rights anizatns as one of the most homophobic regim Ai, hered s views on same-sex relatns om the prev Ahidjo regime which pneered discrimatory polici towards men who have sex wh men (MSM) and women who have sex wh women (WSW).

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Ahidjo’s polics of ‘natnal uny’ (uné natnale) and ‘natnal cizenship’ (coyené natnale) enabled him to paralyse all the tradnal stutns and social forc that had formerly claimed ntrol over lol spac and populatns and to create docile cizens who would rema loyal to him and his regime (Bayart 1985; Gaillard 1994; Ndj 2015) sexual policy of the Ahidjo regime was rmed by ep-seated fears and prejudic that the ‘sexual anarchy and unbridled sexualy’ of homosexuals menaced not only the faial stutn but also the postlonial sexual orr which assigned distct rol to men and women.

The anti-gay law was also a technology of power that legimized not only the mise of power by juridil and admistrative thori but the subjugatn of the bodi of the mass to a regime which was steadily movg towards troductn of the law agast homosexualy was jtified by the lack of provisns the existg penal addrsg homosexual offens and other sexual crim. Although urt rerds are generally badly kept Cameroon, the srcy of s for homosexual offens pots to the reluctance of the thori of the time to prosecute sexual ‘offenrs’ retired magistrate om Douala once told me that durg the Ahidjo admistratn, juridil and admistrative thori tend not only to turn a bld eye on the ‘viant’ sexuali of gay people, but also to ignore their very existence.

THE NATN AND ITS UNSIRABLE SUBJECTS: HOMOSEXUALY, CIZENSHIP AND THE GAY ‘OTHER’ CAMEROON

In many rpects, the legislatn embodied the hypocril attu of Ahidjo’s regime towards same-sex relatns: sexual policy was much more ncerned wh the protectn of the public sphere om unnventnal sexual practic which uld betray the dark si of the rosy Cameroonian heterosexual muny imaged by his thorarian Biya Regime: From Crimalizatn to Occultizatn of Same-sex PracticUp until late 2005, the Biya regime generally paid only cintal attentn to gays and lbians, whose existence was ignored through the aforementned culture of silence and pretence. This perd furthermore wnsed the unprecented rise of both crimologil and pathologil disurs about homosexualy, through which reprentativ of the state tried to alienate or ‘other’ LGBTI persons by attributg to them inti and behavurs generally nsted as radilly different om those of the large majory of Cameroonians.

GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

The disurs held gays and lbians rponsible for rptg public morals, pervertg the youth, and unrmg the fay and stutn of urts, police statns, prisons and tentn mps beme plac where socially unsanctned sexuali were not only examed, discsed, bated, qutned and terrogated, but beme the objects of both official and popular disurs on sexual viance.

Hoeholds, dormori, ary barracks, hospals, schools, universi and churchFootnote 5 also beme plac where the unnventnal sexual behavur of homosexuals was problematized or wrten off the postlonial script by both the populatn and members of the so-lled civil society, who joed the state s allegedly salvific anti-gay mpaigns.

GAY (ADJ.)

The plac beme what Delze and Guattari (1983: 4) would ll ‘oedipal and oedipalized terroriali’ where parents, tutors, stctors, tors, prits, newsmen, ernors, mentors and guardians perpetuated the heteronormative visn of the many observers, 2006 will be remembered as the year when reprentativ of the state lnched their offensive agast patrts spected of beg homosexual. In their letters of plat to Amnty Internatnal and other human rights anizatns, four young gay men taed for homosexual offens the famo Nkonngui prison Yaoun reunted how durg their trial they were forced by the urt to unrgo what they lled anpie forcée (forced anal exams)—a gradg ‘medil examatn’ volvg the meticulo checkg of the fendant’s rectum to terme if he is gay.

OLIVIA GAY, LA VLONCELLISTE QUI JOUE I S FORêTS

In some s the practice entails the sertn of (metal) stments to the an—a practice predited on the received ia that anal sex leav lastg lns or tears around the of the platiffs, Didonné Thierry Ohandja Ekolo, explaed a letter to the chairman of the Cameroon Medil Doctor Associatn how the doctor missned by the ernment prosecutor to perform this ‘homosexualy tt’ pafully perated his an wh her two fgers.

In the state urts of Douala and Yaoun where I wnsed a number of trials for homosexual offens, I noticed that most verdicts relied on biased, subjective judgements such as ‘homosexualy attempt’, ‘homosexual appearance’, ‘afont to public cency’, ‘sful sexual practice’, ‘unnatural sexualy’ and ‘sexual perversn’. Although the law requir spected persons to be ught red-hand—wh an eyewns to the homosexual offense self and the ttimony of the culpr—s often fanciful terpretatn the urts suggts that their ambn to cleanse the untry of the so-lled moral perverts and perasts, some magistrat have few qualms about oversteppg the provisns of the existg law.

THE JOY AND PRERNS OF GAY LIFE, THROUGH THE EY OF SUNIL GUPTA

By the end of 2005, the mours had begun spirg the actns of the opposn movement and church lears, who were now llg for a general strike or civil disobedience to pel the ernment to take firm actns agast those who would turn Cameroon to Sodom and ongog juridil and admistrative persecutn of LGBTI persons th appears to be a rponse to hate-mongerg the prs which associated the Biya regime to wtern-sponsored homosexual mafia anizatns (the latter reportedly nspirg to break the mographic evolutn of the Ain ntent). The polil cisn to crack down on LGBTI persons was motivated by the sire to appease or assuage an angry people—a public that creasgly perceived LGBTI persons as a threat to the very foundatn of the natn’s moral and social orr, as potential stroyers of all that was imaged by both the mass and the lg class to be the Ain way of Dramatic Condn of Homosexuals TodayA 2012 special issue of the Paris-based magaze Jne Aique was voted to how the Biya regime’s quisorial practic—likened to the ‘Epée Damocl’ (Sword of Damocl) hangg over the heads of homosexuals—has renred the liv of many gays and lbians a ‘vie chien’ (wretched life).

MILI GAY BOOKS

In the urse of a rearch project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control Atlanta on the sexual behavur of men who have sex wh men Cameroon (Ndj 2013a), I terviewed one young man om Douala whose revelatn was tellg:When the news me out that I was a gay, my landlord orred me to vate his apartment wh 48 hours, and that se I failed to do so, he would nounce me to the police. His appearance had apparently reaffirmed the policeman’s belief that he was alg wh a npso or homme-femme, another rogatory signatn for effemate-lookg behd the social stigma and legal persecutn of LGBTI persons Cameroon are ep-seated and wispread beliefs that homosexualy is a ‘whe disease’—one which n be traced to the sexual lonizatn and alienatn of Ains by perverse wtern lonialists and missnari who turned native men to their boy-wiv (see Murray and Rose 1998; Ndj 2013b). Over the urse of our vtigatn, beme apparent that the bilgue are more vilified than ‘tradnal’ homosexuals and stigmatized as dangero perverts—not only bee they have no fixed sexual orientatn, but bee the alleged plasticy of their libidos c them to fd pleasure wh both men and women, makg e of both their phall/vaga and an sexual acts.

Although the spread of this new tegory of gays and lbians to some extent manifts the sire of homosexuals to acmodate themselv to the tyranny of nventnal sexual rol or s, also signals their ambiguo rponse to the state’s homophobic policy towards sexual repudiatg the rights and eedoms of gays and lbians, and by engeerg moral panic around their sexual differenc, the state has enuraged rapid transformatns many aspects of gay life.

The grands sodomisrs (big sodom) and jouisss nvulsiv (nvulsive sensualists), as Cameroonians generally refer to virilized homosexual mal and effemate lbians, have e to epomize this double procs of masculizatn of the male homosexual and femizatn of the female homosexual the wake of the state’s csas agast sexual risg popular and polil antipathy towards homosexuals Cameroon has led many gays and lbians to search for a promised land where they n enjoy the eedom to fe and ntrol their own bodi and sexualy. As a rult of this ializatn of the Wt at large, a signifint number of lol homosexuals now dream of whe lovers who uld help them not only to improve their livg ndns, but also to fuir la galère du Camer (pe the hardship of life Cameroon), as one of my rmants once put durg our discsn about the eedoms of homosexuals livg the Netherlands. In many rpects, the anti-gay legislatn embodied the hypocril attu of the Ahidjo regime towards same-sex relatns: s policy was much more ncerned wh the protectn of the public sphere om unnventnal sexual practic which had the potential to reveal the dark si of the rosy Cameroonian heterosexual muny imaged by his thorarian the culture of secrecy and ncealment ntued unr the regime of pennt Cameroon’s send print Pl Biya ( power sce 1982), 2006 wnsed the lnch of a new aggrsive policy towards sexual mori the untry—approximatg a sexual csa and wch-hunt agast persons emed gay or lbian.

SOCIAL MILI AND MEDIATORS OF LONELS AMONG GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN RURAL INDIANA

Essentialist philosophi of Ain self-hood have e to see homosexualy as a distctly un-Ain phenomenon and a threat to the Ain way of life, the fence of which has bee the pretext for all kds of sexual fundamentalism and, the current ernment’s anti-gay polici are driven by s polil ambn to lock gays and lbians to a particular form of cizenship that dramatiz their strangens and alienatn, their vulnerabily and liabily. The stigma, discrimatn and hate crim suffered by gays and lbians, the admistrative harassment and juridil persecutn that they permanently endure, their portrayal as outsi the moral muny and as agents of wtern imperialism and nspirators agast the state—all reflect this broar remptive, salvific and purifyg permanent asslt on the bodi of homosexuals by both reprentativ of the state and the general public embody a wir fear that the emergence of an assertive, self-nfint homosexual inty uld well signal the end of the virilized Ain subject vented by both wtern lonial admistrators and missnari on the one hand, and postlonial Ain natnalist el on the other.

DENIZET-LEWIS: I thk that there's no doubt that sort of as you have more posive portrayals and, I would say, accurate portrayals of gay and lbian life the media, and kids n go onle and fd all kds of rourc, that there's no doubt that that's gog to have an effect on kids, and that they're gog to possibly e out earlier bee of that. What I thk that the more posive portrayals popular culture has done is 's ma a ltle b safer for kids who do feel that they're gay or lbian to be able to e to their parents or school unselor and talk about the issu, which I thk is a real step forward bee for many years, kids who had same-sex attractn or were nfed, they uldn't talk to anyone about .