Playing Recognition Politics: Queer Theoretical Reflections on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Youth Social Policy in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

This paper provides a queer theoretical reflection on the emergence of lesbian, gay and queer (LGQ) youth as subjects of policy attention in Australia in the late twentieth century. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which specific forms of social, bureaucratic and organisational recognition have given shape to LGQ youth as categorical policy objects. To this end, this paper critically interrogates social policy related to the provision of funding for gender and sexual minority youth support during the 1980 and 1990s in two Australian states: New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia (WA). More specifically, it focuses on some of the ways in which LGQ youth were discursively shaped and materially supported by three different organisations, two of which continue to be strongly associated with support of LGQ youth in Australia. This study of the emergence of these organisations, resourced by three different sectors -the state, the church and the LGQ community itself -necessarily draws on ephemeral resources, reflecting the conditions of possibility in which this work was being enacted. We conclude with an analysis of possibilities for moving beyond recognition politics in order to better respond to the changing dynamics of young people, gender, sex and sexuality.