Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hindman, Matthew Dean

Titel

Promiscuity of the past: neoliberalism and gay sexuality pre- and post-AIDS

Ist Teil von

• Politics, groups & identities, 2019-01, Vol.7 (1), p.52-70

Ort / Verlag

Abingdon: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Scholars of LGBT advocacy often characterize the 1990s as a pragmatic and conservative era of activism - a time when neoliberalism "de-sexed" the movement and suppressed any lingering "liberationist" sentiment. AIDS, of course, figures prominently into this narrative. This paper explores the point of convergence between neoliberalism, sexual praxis, and political advocacy, making two primary contributions. First, I investigate how interest group representation serves the ends of neoliberal governance by mobilizing neoliberal citizens. This form of citizenship emphasizes not only a market-centered individualism, but it also promotes individual-level actions in the face of deeply structured social problems and encourages deference to strategy-minded professional managers and entrepreneurs. Second, I reintroduce pivotal leaders and organizations of the 1970s into the story of LGBT politics, arguing that these organizations laid the groundwork of a sexually conscientious gay citizenry before the AIDS crisis began. While a sincere concern over public health undoubtedly motivated activists throughout the 1980s, AIDS merely intensified (rather than initiated) community leaders' policing of gay sexuality.