Queering Representation
Queering Representation
LGBTQ People and Electoral Politics in Canada
Queering Representation explores long-ignored issues relating to LGBTQ voters and politicians in Canada. Because political representation matters. And representation requires participation: voting, joining political parties, running as candidates, acting as politicians. Yet the election of openly LGBTQ people – lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer – is a relatively recent phenomenon in the West.
The presence at the heart of state power of individuals associated with historically ostracized, even criminalized, identities raises important questions. What are the LGBTQ electorate’s characteristics and voting behaviours, and what empowerment has it achieved through electoral systems? How do straight voters view out LGBTQ politicians, and what part do the media play in framing these perceptions? What pathways to power do LGBTQ politicians follow? Do they represent LGBTQ people and communities in particular, and, if so, how is this role articulated? And finally, how do Canadian party ideologies shape LGBTQ representation?
The so-called democratic deficit – whereby particular social, ethnic, and sex/gender groups have traditionally been excluded from the political landscape – is a significant concern not only for scholars but for the Canadian public. The contributors to Queering Representation offer diverse, nuanced readings of political representation, shining a spotlight on relations between electoral processes and LGBTQ communities.
Students and scholars of Canadian politics and LGBTQ movements in Canada will find this book insightful reading, as will politicians and journalists.
The authors do a great job of maintaining a balanced approach while engaging many seldom-explored issues. They force the reader to abandon their assumptions by examining the data and problematizing the issues raised by LGBTQ voters and representatives without reaching beyond the scope of the book.
Whereas much LGBT activism involves protests and articulating demands, this edited collection provides an informative and analytical look at another type of LGBT organizing: one aimed at securing a ‘place at the table’ by electing LGBT people to public office.
Manon Tremblay is a professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of 100 Questions about Women and Politics and, with Anne Mévellec, of Genre et professionnalisation de la politique municipale. She co-edited Stalled: The Representation of Women in Canadian Governments, with Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott, and The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship, with David Paternotte and Carol Johnson.
Contributors: Curtis Atkins, Frédéric Boily, Steven D. Brown, Alexa DeGagne, Joanna Everitt, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Brooke Jeffrey, Barry Kay, Mireille Lalancette, Catherine J. Nash, Andrea M.L. Perrella, Dennis Pilon, Tracey Raney, Ève Robidoux-Descary, Graeme Truelove, Angelia Wagner
Foreword / Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo
Introduction
Part 1: LGBTQ Voters
1 Profile of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Electorate in Canada / Andrea M.L. Perrella, Steven D. Brown, and Barry Kay
2 Winning as a Woman/Winning as a Lesbian: Voter Attitudes toward Kathleen Wynne in the 2014 Ontario Election / Joanna Everitt and Tracey Raney
3 Media Framing of Lesbian and Gay Politicians: Is Sexual Mediation at Work? / Mireille Lalancette and Manon Tremblay
4 Electing LGBT Representatives and the Voting System in Canada / Dennis Pilon
Part 2: LGBTQ Representatives
5 LGBT Groups and the Canadian Conservative Movement: A New Relationship? / Frédéric Boily and Ève Robidoux-Descary
6 Liberalism and the Protection of LGBT Rights in Canada / Brooke Jeffrey
7 A True Match? The Federal New Democratic Party and LGBTQ Communities and Politics / Alexa DeGagne
8 Representation: The Case of LGBTQ People / Manon Tremblay
9 Pathway to Office: The Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, and Election of LGBT Candidates / Joanna Everitt, Manon Tremblay, and Angelia Wagner
10 LGBTQ Perspectives on Political Candidacy in Canada / Angelia Wagner
11 Out to Win: The ProudPolitics Approach to LGBTQ Electoralism / Curtis Atkins
12 LGBT Place Management: Representative Politics and Toronto’s Gay Village / Catherine J. Nash and Andrew Gorman-Murray
Afterword: The Champion / Graeme Truelove
Index
The Canadian War on Queers
National Security as Sexual Regulation
By Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile
Representation in Action
Canadian MPs in the Constituencies
By Royce Koop, Heather Bastedo, and Kelly Blidook
