Governing from the margins: Queering the state of local government?¹

Abstract

Based on original field research, this article explores the relationship between lesbian and gay municipal politics and the local state. More particularly, it uses lesbian and gay work between 1990 and 2001 as a lens through which to examine local government's state identities. Focusing on local government's relationship to state power, its corporeality, agency, representative role and ties to local residents, the article argues that the lens brought by lesbian and gay work, for the most part, coincided rather than conflicted with dominant narratives. Yet lesbian and gay municipal activities offered more than a lens on the local state. The final part of the article examines the extent to which it also impacted upon local government's identities, in particular local government's relationship to heterosexuality and desire.