'Gay couple's break like Fawlty Towers' : dangerous representations of lesbian and gay oppression in an era of 'progressive' law reform.

Abstract

This article considers the production of knowledge around the discursively constructed sexual subject in light of the politico-cultural debates that ensued during the enactment of the controversial Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. Exploring the rise, during the course of these debates, of what it terms the “bed and breakfast paradigm” of lesbian and gay oppression, the article questions the extent to which that paradigm provides a representative account of housing-related discrimination experienced by lesbians and gay men. It goes on to criticise the silence that, conversely, surrounds intra-familial discrimination experienced by young lesbians and gay men at the hands of their parents within the home; a consequence of law’s power to define the parameters of discourse around anti-discrimination protections according to an implicit public/private binary.