Respectable Queerness

Abstract

This Article proposes a new theoretical framework to understand public recognition of gay people and relationships. This framework — called “respectable queerness” — suggests that public recognition of gay people and relationships is contingent upon their acquiring a respectable social identity that is actually constituted by public performances of respectability and by privately queer practices. The challenges posed by such recognition include dissonance between one’s public and private selves and fueling moralism and entrenching divisions between different queer constituencies.

Keywords: same-sex marriage, gay marriage, LGBT rights, LGBT politics, queer politics, queer theory