‘Straightening’ space and time? Peripheral moral panics in print media representations of Canadian LGBTQ2S suburbanites, 1985–2005

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts a spatial-temporal lens to examine mainstream print media representations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) suburbanites in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas in the 1990s. Due to major changes in Canadian gay rights legislation, the 1990s were a decade when the spatial and temporal reproduction of heteronormativity was contested, including in suburban areas. Through a focus on the metropolitan periphery, this paper argues that LGBTQ2S people and their politics were discursively positioned in print media coverage as spatially unexpected and temporally disruptive of heteronormativity. Drawing upon a suburban LGBTQ2S print-media database from 1985 to 2005 (n = 1300), an analysis of aggregate patterns is provided and three exemplary case studies of suburban ‘moral panics’ detailed from within case-study metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The paper concludes that the greatest public debate in the print media was generated when queers intruded upon institutions that were central to the reproduction of heteronormative futures, that is, the institutions that are the very foundation of suburbia such as recreational spaces, religious institutions and schools.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article adopte un point de vue spatio-temporel pour examiner les représentations des LGBTQ2 des banlieues dans les média de la presse traditionnelle des plus grandes zones métropolitaines du Canada dans les années 90. A cause des changements considérables dans la législation canadienne des droits des homosexuels, les années 90 furent une décennie où la reproduction spatiale et temporelle de l’hétéronormativité fut contestée, y compris dans les zones suburbaines. En se concentrant sur la périphérie métropolitaine, cet article soutient que les personnes LGBTQ2 et leur politique étaient discursivement positionnées dans les couvertures médiatiques écrites comme spatialement inattendues et temporellement perturbatrices de l’hétéronormativité. Puisant dans une base de données de média de la presse écrite LGBTQ2 suburbaine de 1985 et 2005 (n=1300), une analyse des tendances générales est présentée et trois exemples de cas d’étude de « panique morale » suburbaine sont détaillés à partir de cas d’études des zones métropolitaines de Toronto, Montréal et Vancouver. Cet article conclut que le débat public le plus important dans la presse écrite a été généré lorsque les gays ont empiété sur les institutions qui étaient essentielles à la reproduction des avenirs hétéronormatifs, c’est-à-dire les institutions qui sont le fondement même des zones suburbaines telles que les espaces de loisir, les institutions religieuses et les écoles.

RESUMEN

Este documento adopta una lente espacio-temporal para examinar las principales representaciones en la prensa escrita de los suburbanos LGBTQ2S en las áreas metropolitanas más grandes en Canadá en los años noventa. Debido a cambios importantes en la legislación canadiense sobre los derechos de los homosexuales, la década del noventa fue un período en el que se impugnó la reproducción espacial y temporal de la heteronormatividad, incluso en áreas suburbanas. A través de un enfoque en la periferia metropolitana, este trabajo argumenta que las personas LGBTQ2S y su política se posicionaron discursivamente en la cobertura de los medios impresos como espacialmente inesperadas y temporalmente perjudiciales para la heteronormatividad. Basándose en una base de datos de medios impresos LGBTQ2S suburbana entre 1985 y 2005 (n=1300) se proporciona un análisis de patrones agregados y tres casos de estudio ejemplares de ‘pánicos morales’ suburbanos detallados dentro de las áreas metropolitanas en el estudio de caso de Toronto, Montreal y Vancouver. El documento concluye que el mayor debate público en los medios impresos se generó cuando los homosexuales se inmiscuyeron en instituciones centrales para la reproducción de futuros heteronormativos, es decir, las instituciones que son la base misma de los suburbios, como espacios recreativos, instituciones religiosas y escuelas.

KEYWORDS:

• Print media discourses
• LGBTQ2S
• Canadian suburbs
• moral panics
• queer temporality
• heteronormativity

MOTS CLÉS:

• discours des média de la presse écrite
• LGBTQ2
• banlieues canadiennes
• paniques morales
• temporalité gay
• hétéronormativité.

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• discursos de medios de comunicación impresos
• LGBTQ2S
• suburbios canadienses
• pánicos morales
• temporalidad homosexual
• heteronormatividad

Acknowledgements

We thank three anonymous reviewers for their instructive feedback and Alexe Lépine-Dubois for assistance compiling the French-language portion of the database.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Statistics Canada defines a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) as ‘an area consisting of one or more neighbouring municipalities situated around a major urban core’ with a population of greater than 100,000 and a concentration of 50,000 living within that urban core (Statistics Canada, 2012b).

2. Canada has two ‘national’ community-based LGBT archives, the pan-Canadian CLAG (www.clga.ca), and the Québec-based AGQ (www.agq.qc.ca). There are also two regional community-based archives, Traces: Archives lesbiennes de Montréal, and the B.C. Gay and Lesbian Archives in Vancouver. The more recent University archives include the Transgender Archives the University of Victoria (www.uvic.ca/transgenderarchives/index.php) and the Archives of Lesbian testimony at Simon Fraser University (http://alotarchives.org/).

3. These collections include rare historic news items, but their density is highest in the 1980s and 1990s (when the public visibility of LGBTQ2S populations increased) and lowers in the early 2000s (when the volume of articles became too large to maintain and news media became increasingly digital).

4. These databases have important limitations: the archiving of articles is more complete for some newspapers (e.g. The Globe and Mail) and the start dates for each newspaper is also variable.

5. Relevant keywords were searched in English (gay, homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, sexual-orientation, same-sex, homophobia, homophobic, transphobic, transphobia) and French (gay, gai, homosexuel, lesbienne, bisexuel, transsexuel, travesti, transgenre, bispirituel, queer, orientation-sexuelle, même-sexe, homophobie, homophobe, transphobie) for each municipality under study.

6. The selection of suburban municipalities is based upon Statistics Canada’s 2011 definitions for each CMA (Statistics Canada, 2012ac). Any suburban district that was independent prior to municipal amalgamations in Toronto (1998) and Montreal (2002–2006) were included and any independent central-city municipalities are excluded (e.g. Westmount). The results include a total of 131 suburban municipalities, 20 ‘Indian Reserves’, 18 former suburban municipalities and 3 adjacent municipalities (Oshawa, Burlington and Abbottsford).

7. The national newspapers are National Post, Globe & Mail and le Devoir. The metropolitan newspapers are Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Journal de Montréal, La Presse and The Gazette.

8. Under Canadian criminal law, the legal obligation to disclose HIV-status was established in the 1990s and reinforced with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2012 that criminalized HIV non-disclosure. People living with HIV can be charged and prosecuted if they do not disclose to their sexual partner(s) their seropositivity prior to having sex, even if they have no intention of harming their partner(s) and even if HIV is not transmitted (www.aidslaw.ca).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2016-1142];