Up Against the Property Logic of Equality Law: Conservative Christian Accommodation Claims and Gay Rights

Cooper, Davina; Herman, Didi

doi:10.1007/s10691-013-9230-4

Cited by 37 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Macpherson (1962) addressed the foundational place of property relations within liberal political theory, including in its understanding of the subject (coded as white, European and male) as owner of both his person and capacities. 6 Approaching beliefs, today, as things that can also be 'held' and possessed similarly reveals the extending power of property discourse, as religious, ontological and moral beliefs get constituted as the legally recognized social property of individual and group subjects within the neo/liberal North (Cooper and Herman, 2013). The concept of beliefs as property does not mean beliefs are market-alienable, any more than other social properties such as whiteness (Harris, 1993;Grabham, 2009;Keenan, 2010).…”

Section: Possessive Beliefs and Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cases to end up in court included Christian registrars, florists, photographers, cake-makers and venue owners claiming a legal entitlement to deny services and accommodation to same-sex couples on grounds of religious belief. Other cases involved school districts refusing to make gay-positive books available to teachers or students, and universities, student bodies and youth organizations denying 'out' gays membership (Cooper and Herman, 2013;Malik, 2011;Pynes, 2016;Stychin, 2009). The withdrawal, however, of rights, resources and recognition was not just on one side.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Possessive Attachments: Identity Beliefs, Equality Law and the Politics of State Play

Cooper

2017

Theory, Culture & Society

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One feature of the neo/ liberal possessive self is the propertied character of certain beliefs: treated as belonging to those who hold them, recognised and supported in acting on the world, and protected. While an ownership paradigm predates anti-discrimination and human rights regimes, these regimes have consolidated and extended the propertied status of certain identity beliefs in ways that naturalise and siloise them. But if beliefs' propertied character is politically problematic, can it be unsettled and reformed? This paper considers one possible mode for doing so, namely play. Oftentimes, play works to secure and assert the propertied attachments people have to their beliefs; but some forms of play offer other possibilities. Focusing on the state as a complex site of play relations and encounters, this article explores how state play engages identity beliefs in a contemporary legal drama of colliding beliefs between conservative Christians and liberal gay equality advocates. Exploring these interconnected processes, this article focuses on state-based play in relation to the "propertisation" of beliefs. Specifically, it explores how play "plays with" the possessive ties attaching beliefs to their holders. Treating beliefs as belonging in propertylike ways is not a modern development; however, this discussion focuses on contemporary anti-discrimination and human rights law's contribution to propertising authorised beliefs about one's own and others' identities. While may deem these laws an important progressive

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Section: Possessive Beliefs and Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Possessive Attachments: Identity Beliefs, Equality Law and the Politics of State Play

Cooper

2017

Theory, Culture & Society

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“…Approaching human rights and anti-discrimination law as orders that bestow property 34 sheds light on their political claims to redistribute the capital and power that different identities hold. 35 But while one aspect of identity property is tuned to what it can do, another is tuned to its own protection and safeguarding.…”

Section: Deanmentioning

confidence: 99%

If the State Decertified Gender, What Might Happen to its Meaning and Value?

Cooper

Renz

2016

Journal of Law and Society

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As jurisdictions reform gender identity laws to accommodate transgender and intersex people, this article speculatively explores a more fundamental shift: eliminating state law's role in determining and assigning gender status altogether. Adopting a feminist perspective, we explore what the meaning and effects of comprehensively reforming legal gender might be in terms of gender's constitution as a socio-legal property, differentially recognised and protected by diverse but unequal bodies. Our discussion proceeds along two intersecting paths. The first concerns the different classificatory methods which could enable state law, without assigning gender, to continue to regulate gender identity decisions, thereby allowing state law to remain involved in tackling gender discrimination. The second concerns the changing form gender might take in conditions where state law withdraws its allocative function. These paths converge in a final discussion which considers what legal and political effects might follow from gender becoming a property that is individually and collectively cultivated.

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“…The same might be said of sexuality. A significant body of research has examined laws governing sexuality (Ashford ; Bernstein and Schaffner ), how and why sexual minorities seek particular rights (Bernstein and Taylor ), how sexual rights issues get framed when making legal claims (Barclay et al ; Cooper and Herman ), and the relationship between sexuality and citizenship (Richardson ; Stychin ). Indeed, research investigating queer asylum has explored some of these issues, including the way that cultural biases—such as the view that homosexuality should be kept private—influences judicial decision‐making (Millbank ; Millbank ).…”

Section: Sexuality Identity and The Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legally Queer: The Construction of Sexuality in LGBQ Asylum Claims

Vogler

2016

Law Soc Rev

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Using court decisions, interviews with legal actors, and ethnographic observations, this paper analyzes the development of sexual identity classifications for sexual minorities seeking asylum in the United States and argues that the adjudication of such claims works to consolidate and regulate sexual identities but also creates possibilities for recognizing marginalized queer identities. Asylum seekers must prove their sexual identities, and immigration officials must classify claimants as belonging to a protected group. At the inception of queer asylum law in 1990, protected categories were highly circumscribed, but the indeterminacy of the law allowed advocates and asylum seekers to challenge existing categories and stake out new claims based on their sexualities. Against the backdrop of extant criticisms of the asylum process for queers, this paper suggests that the way asylum law has been elaborated, adapted, and interpreted, particularly in approximately the past decade, offers possibilities for making unique identity claims that are not recognized in existing scholarship.

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Up Against the Property Logic of Equality Law: Conservative Christian Accommodation Claims and Gay Rights

Cited by 37 publications

References 36 publications

Possessive Attachments: Identity Beliefs, Equality Law and the Politics of State Play

Possessive Attachments: Identity Beliefs, Equality Law and the Politics of State Play

If the State Decertified Gender, What Might Happen to its Meaning and Value?

Legally Queer: The Construction of Sexuality in LGBQ Asylum Claims

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