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Citizenship 159

even including facial hair) (Mort, 1994 ). Older self - identified gays and
lesbians who fi nd “ queer ” problematic are concerned about the blurring
of boundaries it promotes. The inclusion of bisexuals, transsexuals, and
even heterosexuals who feel confined by conventional sexual expression,

as “ queer ” removes the solid political ground they have struggled to mark
out as a minority, and which provides the basis from which rights claims
are made. This is indeed a problem as liberal democracy accords right to
groups only if their membership is clear. A judgment in Colorado, for
example, found that there was no case for outlawing discrimination
against gay men, lesbians, or bisexuals since “ We don ’ t have a group that
is easily confi nable ” (the Colorado solicitor - general, quoted in Gamson,
1996 : 410).
As Steven Seidman ( 1993 : 132) has argued, anti - essentialist queer activ-
ists tend to see identity itself as the main axis of domination. This is
problematic insofar as the assertion of collective identity is necessary to
militate against institutional forms which exclude lesbians and gays from
full citizenship, so perpetuating violence and injustice. In this sense, the

conflict between essentialist and anti - essentialist strategies is similar in the
case of feminist and queer politics. However, it is not so easy to see how
the two strategies can be reconciled in practice. If, as Sullivan (1995)
argues, equal citizenship for lesbians and gays requires nothing more in
principle than the extension of existing rights to all individuals, it is not
clear that this commits those individuals as individuals to any particular

sexual identity indefinitely. It is clear, then, that it is possible to affi rm
the stable identities with secure boundaries the political system requires,
without individuals necessarily feeling bound by such identities. However,
it is also clear that the public disruption of fixed identities is problematic

so long as citizenship rights have not been extended to gays and lesbians.
So while both strategies are currently being pursued in practice, given the
dangers each one presents for the other, the outcome is far from assured.

4.4 Citizenship, Racialization, and Ethnicity

The themes of exclusion and inclusion in relation to a citizenship model
premised on a white male norm are continued in debates around citizen-
ship, “ race, ” and ethnicity. In these debates, however, the social identities
in question are highly contested and the very terms used to discuss the
issues are controversial in contemporary society.
In this text, and commonly elsewhere, “ race ” is in “ scare quotes ”
because it is so closely implicated in racism. Developed in a quasi - scientifi c