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Pride and prejudice : legalising compulsory heterosexuality in Boston and New York’s annual St Patrick Day parades
Author(s)
Date Issued
2007-02
Date Available
2010-08-27T14:17:29Z
Abstract
This article discusses the vicious territorial disputes surrounding the tradition of St Patrick’s Day Parades through the city streets of New York and Boston, USA. It documents the legal arguments mounted successfully to exclude Irish lesbian, gay and transgender participants from the march, exploring what ideologies of nation-space and public space underpin them. It argues that the progression through urban space of the marches enforces compulsory heterosexuality, through actual and semiotic exclusion. Irish-American nationalism can be read as illustrative of the heterosexualisation of nationalism. It was the unquestioned assumption that being homosexual is antithetical to being Irish that provided the fundamental premise from which it was logically and successfully argued in the US courts: that the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization is a violent, obscene enemy bent on the destruction of Irish ethnicity and Irish communities. By contrast, the article holds up the Parades in Cork and Dublin as designated inclusive and multicultural events, the nation-space of the Irish Republic ‘economically liberated’ and wishing to communicate modernity to its citizens.
Sponsorship
Not applicable
Type of Material
Journal Article
Journal
Space and Culture
Volume
10
Issue
1
Start Page
91
End Page
114
Copyright (Published Version)
2007 Sage Publications
Subject – LCSH
Saint Patrick's Day--United States
Parades--New York (State)--New York
Homosexuality--Law and legislation
Gays--Legal status, laws, etc
Irish Americans--Ethnic identity
Web versions
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1206-3312
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
File(s)
No Thumbnail Available
Name
SPACE&CULTURE Pride & Prejudice K.O'D.doc
Size
110.5 KB
Format
Microsoft Word
Checksum (MD5)
07a87dc5bf3dfc351a75e012da966819
Owning collection