Dr. Surya Monro (University of Sheffield) Prof Diane Richardson (Newcastle University)

1. The Pitfalls of Box-Ticking: Intersectionality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equalities Work in the UK Dr. Surya Monro (University of Sheffield) Prof Diane Richardson (Newcastle University) Dr. Ann McNulty (Newcastle University)

2. Aims of presentation • Address the ‘box-ticking’ issue in relation to LGBT equalities initiatives in local government • Explore intersectionality theory in relationship to the strategic use of categorisation (‘boxes’) • Provide a snapshot of ongoing empirical work

3. Structure of presentation • Sexualities Equalities in Local Government project • Background • Policy context • Methods • Key analytic themes • Project update • Intersectionality theory • The role of categorisation in sexualities equalities work • Difficulties with categorisation • Do we need categorisation? • Indicative conclusion

4. Policy Context: Key legislation • Equality Regulations (Sexual Orientation) 2007 • Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (2003) • Gender Recognition Act (2004) • Civil Partnership Act (2004) • Proposed Single Equality Act • Section 75 (Northern Ireland 1998)

5. Local Government Context • Local government modernisation agenda • Equalities Standard (England) • Equalities Improvement Framework and Equalities Schemes (Wales) • Local government White Paper (2006) • Impact Assessments (England) • The impact of the Corporate Performance Assessment (Comprehensive Area Assessment from 2009) (England) • Equalities and Human Rights Commission (England and Wales) • Equalities Commission (Northern Ireland) • Other aspects including growth of partnerships, emphasis on increased public participation, and the new localism • Equalities work implemented by mainstreaming and performance management

6. Sexualities Equalities in Local Government • In depth qualitative work with four Local Authorities North England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Southern England • Four Action Learning Sets (one in each area) Each set meeting four times over 4-6 months • Focus groups with Councillors • Interviews with key national players

7. Key Analytic Themes • Processes of local authority resistance and compliance re LGBT equalities initiatives (and within LGBT communities, especially regarding different sexual/gender minorities) • Organisational Cultural Change • Debates concerning understandings of sexuality, citizenship and democracy

8. Project Update • North England Case Study and ALS Completed • Welsh Case Study and ALS Completed • South England Case Study Completed • Northern Ireland Case Study Ongoing • 33 Case Study Interviews Completed • National Stakeholder Interviews Ongoing

9. Upcoming • South of England ALS • Two Focus Groups with Councillors • Conferences for stakeholders

10. Intersectionality theory – background and development • Term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw (1989) • Intersectionality claimed by some (e.g. Leslie McCall 2005) as key contribution of women’s studies • Important in: • Highlighting subjectivities at sites of multiple marginalisation • Addressing the way that identities are routed through each other • Highlighting the way that social forces can work in different ways/directions • Can be used at individual, cultural, or institutional levels • Definitions now include: ‘the mutually constitutive relations among social identities’ (Shields 2008: 301)

11. Intersectionality: Categorisation • Davis (2009) discusses the tensions between postmodernist concern to deconstruct categories and the interests amongst critical feminist theorists in the material consequences of this • Also evident in McCall’s (2005) anticategorical/intracategorical/intercategorical typology • This tension evident elsewhere – including transgender politics (Monro 2005, forthcoming) – crux is need for identity categories as basis for identification and organisation, but focus on individual categories obscures intersectional diversity and reinforces categories themselves • Some (e.g. Weldon 2008) address by arguing for some intersectional and some additive effects of gender, race, class

12. Difficulties with categorisation • Acronym and terms • Trans is ‘about gender’ • Hierarchies within the ‘LGBT’ group: • I can understand that there is a need to have separate social networks sometimes, because the funding goes mainly towards gay men because of HIV, I can understand that being kind of ‘well they get the money, we’re not getting the money, so we need to sort of establish something ourselves and then push for it’ (Housing project community worker, North East) • ‘Tagging on’ of bi and trans e.g. ‘I couldn’t say for example, that we’ve specifically done some work just with bisexual people (Officer North East) • Language, e.g. ‘I prefer to use the term sexual orientation, it doesn’t translate well into Welsh though’ (Officer, Wales)

13. Cont. • The separation of the strands – and the marginal position of LGBT equalities • Institutionalisation of heteronormativity • Dumping of LGBT issues on LGBT ‘champions’ • Other forms of difference can be obscured (eg health, relationship status, spatial, nationality, class): • I – Yeah, you’ll have some that, you know, have the resources, you know, they have a car, they have money, they can go to places like Manchester, Liverpool, where there is a high concentration of LGBT people and a hive of activity going on in these places (-) • S – Yeah. • I – You have those who are probably on Sickness Benefit, live in a flat, so economically they’re not well off, you know they can’t afford, they don’t have transport, so they may feel very lonely and isolated and excluded because they don’t have the resources by which to access these places (Welsh Community Member)

14. Do we need categories? • Specificities of LGBT marginalisation, e.g.: • ‘there are higher levels of mental health problems, lots of sort of self harm, we encounter lots of people who self harm, suicide attempts is quite a common thing, um, all of these stem from the fact that they don’t feel, well there’s a connection anyway between their sexual orientation or their gender identity and their mental health and that often their sense of themselves isn’t one that they’re made to feel happy or proud or accepting of (Housing Officer North East) • if you are a 16 year old that’s just been thrown out of your home for coming out, and you go and live in another form of supported living [than an LGB-specific one] you might not feel comfortable talking to a key worker about being gay, it could potentially be a homophobic environment’ (Officer, Wales) • ‘you’ve always got your approved-of disability, approved-of equalities, because not the fault of the disabled, but some people, you’ve chosen a certain lifestyle… (Officer, Wales)

15. Cont. • I - I have been told, ‘oh my god, how far does this damned equalities gender agenda go?’, you know, ‘for goodness sake, is nothing safe?’… • S – And what do you think that’s about? • I – I think it’s about perhaps people being embarrassed, I think it’s about, ‘we got this far without thinking about that’, you know, ‘oh, we’re a local authority for goodness sake, leave that to Stonewall or somebody’, ‘we can’t go out to families, we can’t put that sort of [inaudible] on our website, we can’t put a link, a link to Stonewall off the council’s website’ [tone of disbelief] (Officer, Wales)

16. Cont. • Communication – ‘LGBT’ as a form of shorthand • Policy management requires categories, e.g. • ‘it makes it manageable which is what all these things do…em, not scaring people off, thinking, right we actually have 107 equality issues to consider here’ (Officer, Wales). • Strategic use e.g. • ‘we had a racist incidents reporting procedure which originally just focussed on ethnicity but due to work with our LGBT staff group and work with LGBT communities we managed to expand that system to include the reporting of homophobic incidents’ (Officer, North East) • Accountability within an audit culture, evidence base

17. Cont. • Evidence of attention to intersectionality in the more advanced localities, e.g.: • ‘they may have multiple categories for potential prejudice or discrimination, they may be gay and Asian for example, and there are sometimes like specific issues, you know, culturally, we bring people to the service whereby culturally and religiously there was no opportunity for them to express themselves and their sexual orientation and still be within their family. You know, on a personal level I know someone who’s like left home at the age of about 17 and never spoken to their family (Housing Worker North East)

18. Cont. • Importance for community organisation, e.g. • ‘there was kind of resistance for them all to be together from some people, but I think overall we realised that it was kind of stronger to be together and kind of like if T, if trans issues aren’t dealt with within LGBT then they’re not gonna, they’re going to tend to be sort of pushed aside a little bit, which would be a shame’ (Housing project community worker North East). • ‘people complain that the T in LGBT is the tail on the dog, I said, ‘yes it is, but it’s a big dog with teeth’, you know, on our own we’re a tiny little animal that people just ignore but if we’re part of that grouping, it’s much harder to ignore us ‘cause we’ve got a much bigger organisation (Trans community member)

19. Indicative conclusion • ‘Box ticking’ may be rhetorical but can be used to get sexuality equalities on the agenda • The usefulness of sexuality categorisation more broadly depends on context • Categorisation can be used strategically to advance sexualities equalities • It is impossible to deal with equalities within local authorities without categorisation, but there are dangers associated with sedimenting categories, so need for attention to intersectionality

20. Cont. • Intersectional theory is useful for understanding sexualities equalities work in: • Drawing attention to neglected interstices • Addressing the relationships between equalities categories • Addressing the hierarchies within the ‘LGBT’ acronym • Providing a means for starting to tackle the deconstructionist/categorisation tensions evident in local authority equalities work • Providing a means of bringing in attention to power inequalities, providing that analysis does not remain at the level of the individual