The Politics of Multiscalar Citizenship: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Organizing in Canada

Abstract

Citizenship is increasingly viewed as a multiscalar social practice, constituted and contested at local, urban, national and transnational scales. This paper attempts to bring this insight to bear on the study of queer social movement politics. A multiscalar perspective, we argue, enriches our understanding of contemporary LGBT citizenship struggles. Using qualitative case studies of lesbian and gay organizing at the pan-Canadian and urban levels in Canada, the paper demonstrates the relationships that exist between and among citizenship struggles and practices across scales. Queer political struggles at the urban level diverge widely from those at the pan-Canadian level. By using a multiscalar approach, we are able to demonstrate these critically important political differences. The paper contributes to an understanding of multiscalar citizenship by showing the different forms of politics that are produced at different scales of social movement organizing.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. John Grundy and Christopher Smith conducted the interviews on which the paper is based.

Notes

¹ The term LGBT is used by the groups that form the case studies in this paper. These groups define their mandate as including bisexuals (B) and transgender (T) people. For this reason, the terminology, LGBT has been used throughout the paper. Everyday terminology is currently in flux in English-speaking Canada. Queer is often used an umbrella term in everyday speech, especially by youth, and we adopt this usage in the paper.

² The case studies of urban organizing in Toronto are based on a large scale study of 65 LGBT nonprofit organizations in the city of Toronto, carried out from 2002 to 2003. The three cases presented at length here are a small subset of the 65 nonprofits on which detailed information was gathered. Altogether, 75 interviews were conducted with activists, members and groups leaders, including some of the specific interviews cited in this paper.

³ In this paper, the term “federal” or “pan-Canadian” is often used to describe the “national” scale of Canadian politics. This terminological choice recognizes the multinational character of the Canadian state.

⁴ Egale was recently renamed. Prior to 2001, its name in English was Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE). It has been renamed Egale Canada and is commonly referred to as Egale.