Terms of Exclusion

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AbstractTerms of Exclusion uses intersectionality to develop a new theory of political identity construction that directs attention to the effects of within-group marginalization on what comes to be known of identity-based groups and their agendas. Examining social movement activism and interest group advocacy on behalf of LGBT people from 1968 to 2001, this book argues that “rightful citizenship claims”—or the contention that certain lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people are denied rights owed to them as citizens—created the conditions for recognizing White, gender-normative, and monogamously partnered gay men and lesbians in institutions of citizenship, such as marriage and the military. The in-depth historical analysis of social movement and interest group primary source documents and publications reveals that the inclusion of these groups was secured through countless decisions to foreclose representation of interests that are most pressing for those members of the LGBT group who are Black, Latine, Asian, Native, transgender, non-Christian, undocumented, incarcerated, and/or subjected to intensified forms of surveillance. Terms of Exclusion shows that the marginalization of these members is not an accident of political expediency, relatively fewer resources, or lack of political sophistication on the part of those excluded, but the result of discursive strategies to make the group palatable to lawmakers and the general public through the language of rights and citizenship.