Article on Cooptation of Gay Pride Marches (based on interviews with Paola Bacchetta and others). Author is Ashley Yang. In USA Today.

Voices of Democracy Journal, 2011

Today, Pride parades are staged in countries and localities across the globe, providing the most visible manifestations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex movements and politics. Pride Parades and LGBT Movements contributes to a better understanding of LGBT protest dynamics through a comparative study of eleven Pride parades in seven European countries – Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK – and Mexico. Peterson, Wahlström and Wennerhag uncover the dynamics producing similarities and differences between Pride parades, using unique data from surveys of Pride participants and qualitative interviews with parade organizers and key LGBT activists. In addition to outlining the histories of Pride in the respective countries, the authors explore how the different political and cultural contexts influence: Who participates, in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and political orientations; what Pride parades mean for their participants; how participants were mobilized; how Pride organizers relate to allies and what strategies they employ for their performances of Pride. This book will be of interest to political scientists and sociologists with an interest in LGBT studies, social movements, comparative politics and political behavior and participation.

The article seeks to demonstrate how marchers in the annual LGBTQ Pride Parade strategically contest and reclaim heteronormative public spaces in Belfast, Northern Ireland. There is an exploration of participants adapting transnational symbolic representations and discourses to the distinct national-local cultural milieu in which they are scripted and performed. The discursive frames, symbols, and performances of Belfast Pride are compared to those of sectarian parades in the city. The subaltern spatial performances and symbolic representations of Belfast Pride are depicted as confronting a universalized set of heteronormative discourses involving sexuality and gender identity, while at the same time contesting a particularized set of dominant local-national discourses related to both ethno-national sectarianism and religious fundamentalism in Northern Ireland.

2013

School psychologists are adult learners. They support children and youth within the K-12 system who are facing academic, emotional, behavioral, or systematic barriers to education. Among the most vulnerable are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, and school psychologists need to learn to be LGBTQ competent. The purpose of this mixed method research study was twofold: a) to examine the level of LGBTQ competency and LGBTQ social advocacy work of practicing school psychologists; and b) to explore how active social justice advocates for LGBTQ K-12 students perceive they acquired their skills, knowledge and expertise. The theoretical framework of the study was grounded in both critical perspectives of adult education, and the Theory of Planned Behavior. It is also informed by aspects of queer theory and gay affirmative practice. An LGBTQ Affirmative Practice and Intent Scale was developed based on the Gay Affirmative Practice Scale (Crisp, 2006) and an application of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Two hundred eleven school psychologists, school psychology educators, and retired school psychologists completed the survey. The survey results indicate the respondents overall had affirming beliefs, however there was a wide range in actual LGBTQ advocacy work. The quantitative data also revealed significant differences in scores relative to sexual orientation and current religious/spiritual affiliations. Of those respondents, volunteers were solicited to participate in an in-depth interview, whose survey scores were within the top 15th percentile. The qualitative findings indicate personal characteristics, such as experience as an educator, having LGBTQ friends, or the influence of religion or spirituality may shape attitudes toward LGBTQ social justice advocacy. The findings also indicate the context, such as environmental barriers, job diversity, and cognizance of marginalization may shape normative beliefs. Lastly, the current findings indicate strategies of advocacy, such as taking action, drawing on LGBTQ resources and continuing to seek out LGBTQ knowledge to close information gaps can shape perceived behavioral control. As a result of the research, the Theory of Planned Behavior, critical perspectives of adult education and LGBTQ affirmative practice are merged to create a proposed integrated model for fostering LGBTQ social justice advocacy in school psychologists.

Festivalization of Culture, 2014

Drawing on current theoretical debates, international queer activist literatures, LGBTIQ press and my own participant observation of local pride festivities, this chapter will examine the meanings and functions of gay pride in the festival context. Its approach makes use of a methodological framework that offers ‘nuanced comparisons of multiple particulars’ (Jones 2010: 271), situating knowledge in historical, social, global and local contexts. To begin, I will give a brief historical overview of pride festivities that bespeak the illusory authenticity of current pride rhetoric. I will unpack the performative affect of pride events, collectively imagined as deconstructive spatial tactics. With reference to processes of festivalization, I will examine the trend towards consumption, tourism and the commodification of gay pride as a global event in international cities. Following this, I will discuss the increasing opposition to neoliberal sexual citizenship and the ideological impulses towards and counterdiscursive strategy of gay shame as posited by some radial queer activists. Drawing on my hometown of Brisbane, Australia as an illustrative case example, I will then look at localized pride festivities as multi-discursive platforms.

Co-authored with Shayne E. Watson, this report was adopted by the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2015.

Studying Youth, Media and Gender in Post-Liberalization India: Focus on and beyond the 'Delhi Gang Rape', 2014

Men have always engaged in penetration and yet fucking has never been the same. The symbolic attributions, emotions and the desire-specific framings of norms and expectations of society constantly change. As capitalist logic pressures people to label themselves, produce authenticity to mark difference and market more specific identities, sexual practices increasingly become identity resources. Looking at the history of gay empowerment and social activism in Indian cities since 1991, I argue that the very project of sexual liberation is heavily influenced by capitalist change and its interests articulated in semantics melding the rhetorics of freedom, pluralism (i.e. the production of difference), (in)security and egoism. This discourse became meanwhile medialised in India, where the new urban middle-class sets the agenda for the production of norms for media society, and heavily impacted on the legal process. As I will show in this chapter both debates were crucial for processes of communication and recognition of distinct LGBTQ sexual identities.

Journal of Political Studies, 2017

Has equality for everyone within the LGBTQ2+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, two-spirit) com- munity been met? This paper addresses this line of inquiry by demonstrating how Pride parades have become de-politicized by resisting anti-racist activism. The backlash to Black Lives Matter’s (BLM) protest against police racism in Toronto’s 2016 Pride parade highlights the politics of assimilation to a heterosexual and cisgender society. In this world, BLM’s plea for safety is disregarded in the presence of a political landscape that has now become driven by profit and consumerism in a ‘homonationalist’ ‘post-gay’ movement that this paper explores.

Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology, 2019

There is a well-developed literature on neighborhoods, as well as one on sexual identities and communities, but little research brings these two subfields together to explore the relationship between sexuality and the city. In this chapter, I suggest that urban sociology can meet the sociology of sexualities through culture. I use the reasons straight people provide for wanting to live in a gay district as an opportunity to reflect on how sexuality informs our imaginations of place. By examining residential logics, scholars can conceptualize “the city” as a culturally saturated site where neighbors negotiate the meanings and material significance of their sexuality alongside their sexual differences from others.