Abstract
This paper rethinks the origins of contemporary homonormativity. Through an analysis of archival material from a rural lesbian and gay social movement from the 1970s, it questions the common link between homonormativity and urban neoliberalism. The Gay Rural Aid & Information Network (GRAIN) provided support to lesbians and gay men living in rural Britain or who were exploring the possibility of leaving the city for rural life. The network consisted of a heterogeneous mix of lesbian and gay environmentalists and ‘back‐to‐the‐land’ enthusiasts, older lesbians and gay men who had retired to the countryside, and rural‐based gay activists. Drawing on archival material relating to GRAIN, this paper traces the diverse economic practices engaged in by rural‐based lesbians and gay men in this period. GRAIN members engaged in a complex mix of diverse economic practices and relations, both as a means towards their goal of living more ‘sustainably’ and in order to fit in to the changing post‐productivist rural economy. By acknowledging the ambiguous sexual politics of this counter‐cultural social movement, the paper questions theorisations of contemporary homonormativity which locate its origins solely in relation to neoliberal socio‐economic relations and subjectivities.
Highlights
The 1970s are often celebrated as the decade in which urban lesbian and gay subcultures became visible in major cities within the Global North (Abraham 2009)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Gay Rural Aid & Information Network (GRAIN) provided support to lesbians and gay men living in rural Britain
By focusing on rural gay lives, this paper offers a counterpoint to the urban focus of debates about homonormativity
Summary
The 1970s are often celebrated as the decade in which urban lesbian and gay subcultures became (qualitatively more) visible in major cities within the Global North (Abraham 2009). Many within the network articulated seemingly progressive ecological and social motivations for moving to rural areas; at times, their queer anti-urbanism betrayed more conservative sexual politics Before exploring this tension further, I examine the heterogeneous ways in which GRAIN members made a living in rural Britain, and consider the diverse economies that sustained them. He reported that he was involved in helping to establish a North Devon gay group operating out of the Quaker Meeting House in his town The resolution of this story is suggestive of the second theme emerging from the pages of the network’s newsletters – those men (and women) who actively chose rural life, but bemoaned the lack of lesbian and gay social networks they found there (and the problematic attitudes they found not just amongst long-term rural residents, and the wider ‘alternative’, backto-the-land movement). Others still seem to have got on with the hard work of integrating themselves into the web of reciprocal favours sustaining rural life
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