Glasgow’s contested LGBT pride spaces: examining dimensions of variegated homonormativities

Homonormativity is a key analytical concept for examining LGBT politics, and Pride events are key spaces of contested politics surrounding LGBT/queer populations. Yet conceptualisations of homonormativity as monolithic do not sufficiently explain grassroots LGBT opposition to the normalizing tendencies of mainstreamed Pride events. This paper explores how an analysis of the spatial dimensions constituting homonormativity in place can instead produce a conceptualisation of variegated homonormativities sufficient for understanding how homonormativity plays out between oppositional LGBT Pride groups in Glasgow. Drawing on archival material, interviews, and participant observation I place debates of homonormativity within the national and local contexts through which they are produced and embedded within. My analysis reveals how homonormativity in Glasgow manifests in uniquely Glaswegian ways along dimensions of politics, commodification, and inclusion/exclusion. These dimensions arise from local histories and governance that in turn shape Glaswegian homonormativities in contradictory ways to reveal the depth that deploying homonormativity as a variegated rather than monolithic concept adds for producing a more nuanced, place-sensitive analysis of national and local sexual politics. Conceptualizing homonormativities as variegated is shown to be a necessary analytical tool for understanding the complex ways that normativities are produced, altered, and resisted through space at Pride events.