Abstract
This reflection explores how emotion shapes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights and law reforms. Drawing on case studies from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the author maps how disgust regulates sexuality, hate manifests in hate crime penalties, anger arises in anti-discrimination measures, fear polices refugee law, anxiety shapes trans children’s access to medical transition, pity and compassion inhibit intersex autonomy, and love enables marriage equality. Legal scholars, activists, lawyers, and judges need to take emotion seriously to better address the pressing challenges facing LGBTI people.
Highlights
This reflection explores how emotion shapes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights and law reforms
Why does disgust compel us to police certain sexual practices? How do we address violence motivated by hate? What can anger achieve in law reform designed to address discrimination and inequality? How do fears and anxieties shape the way law controls borders and bodies? Why do courts turn to love when dealing with relationship recognition? These are a few questions I’ve been thinking about lately as part of my advocacy on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI)[1] human rights
Campaigns for LGBTI legal equality generate strong feelings, among the scholars, activists, lawyers and judges who are invested in their outcomes
Summary
Policing has become an emotional symbol of LGBTI inclusion One example of this is hate crime legislation, which carries the promise of remedying bigoted violence. Hate crime provisions provide an instrument to channel our collective hostilities towards spectacular forms of homo/transphobic violence and inequality but, in redirecting our hate towards incarcerating those we might describe as ‘heinous humans’, we reproduce other forms of violence and inequality made possible by the carceral system.[11]. This cautions us to resist the (understandable) public appeals to hate through law if we are to address the structural causes of homo/transphobic violence and secure accountability that addresses, not entrenches, inequality
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