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Article published In: Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 6:1 (2017) ► pp.30–60

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Unnatural acts lead to unconsummated marriages

Discourses of homosexuality within the House of Lords debate on same-sex marriage

 | University of Oxford, UK
Published online: 22 June 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.6.1.02fin
Abstract
In June and July 2013, the UK House of Lords debated, and ultimately accepted, a Bill to legalise same-sex marriage. Following the model of Baker, Paul. 2004. ‘Unnatural acts’: Discourses of homosexuality within the House of Lords debates on gay male law reform. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8(1): 88–106. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar work on a set of earlier Lords debates relating to homosexuality, this study uses a corpus-based keywords analysis to assess the main lexical differences between those arguing in favour and those arguing against a change to the marriage laws. In so doing, it sheds light on the ways in which discourses relating to homosexuality are constructed and accessed by the Lords. In general, it is shown that supporters of reform take advantage of their hegemonic liberal position to construct a simple line of argument in contrast to the opponents, who are forced to use more subtle and elaborate lines of reasoning by the limited discursive space available to those espousing anti-LGBT sentiments.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Same-sex marriage in the UK
    • 2.2The House of Lords
  • 3.On the notion of ‘discourse’
  • 4.Literature review
  • 5.Data
  • 6.Keywords
  • 7.Discourses of homosexuality
    • 7.1Homosexual acts, but gay identities?
    • 7.2Supporters of the Bill: A classical liberal discourse of freedom
    • 7.3Opponents of the Bill: A discourse of due process
    • 7.4‘Unintended and unanticipated consequences’
    • 7.5‘It changes the nature and meaning of marriage’
    • 7.6‘The stability and complementarity of different sexes’
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Legislation mentioned in text
  • References
References (45)
Legislation mentioned in text
Local Government Act 1988, Chapter 9. Available at: [URL]
Gender Recognition Act 2004, Chapter 7. Available at: [URL]
Civil Partnership Act 2004, Chapter 33. Available at: [URL]
Equality Act 2006, Chapter 3. Available at: [URL]
2010, Chapter 15. Available at: [URL]
Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013, Chapter 30. Available at: [URL]
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014, asp 5. Available at: [URL]
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