Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality Before Liberation

公众对北爱尔兰同性恋历史的了解主要是该地区的不宽容——从直言不讳的伊恩·佩斯利牧师在20世纪70年代发起的“从鸡奸中拯救阿尔斯特”运动，到最近在法律平等方面的滞后。学术工作集中在同性恋权利运动，因为它出现在20世纪60年代末，更广泛地反映了政治和“以权利为基础”的方法在麻烦期间和之后的主导地位（1968-1998）。只有少数“著名的酷儿”为人所知，比如东贝尔法斯特的统一党议员爱德华·德·科本（被指控在19世纪90年代对十几岁的男孩进行“严重猥亵”），或者爱尔兰革命者罗杰·凯斯门特（他在爱德华七世时代的贝尔法斯特巡游并记录了他的性经历）。但北爱尔兰有一段更长的、不为人知的同性恋历史。在贝尔法斯特和更广泛的地区，来自不同阶级和宗教的男性都有过性经历——从城市的港口、公园和街道，到阿尔斯特新教精英的乡村别墅，甚至在小的农村社区。同性恋在当时是非法的，而且是不列颠群岛上普遍厌恶的话题，但这些人仍然表达了他们的欲望，而且——如果只是在有限的程度上——也得到了一些接受。如果说与男人发生性关系的男人不是北爱尔兰的主要话题，那么关于女人对其他女人的欲望的写作实际上是缺失的。然而，大量未被发掘的私人信件，加上报纸上关于性别规范的辩论，表明也有女性理解同性的爱情和陪伴。利用从未使用过的档案，这个项目将是第一个敏感而批判性地重建北爱尔兰从19世纪末到20世纪60年代同性恋解放运动开始的同性恋历史的项目。我们关注这一时期是因为：在这一时期，因男性同性恋犯罪而被捕的人数显著上升，一种任性的“新女性”话语的出现，导致了档案材料的产生；和其他地方一样，在国际同性恋权利运动兴起之前，北爱尔兰对性有着特殊的体验，这标志着人们对性的理解得到了分享。细读的技巧将拆解用于起诉男同性恋者的证人陈述，显示他们是如何以及在哪里相遇并发生关系的。私人信件、信件和日记将揭示男女双方对身份和欲望的理解。对当地媒体委婉的搜索，现在已经数字化，将展示同性恋是如何被公开呈现的。学术文章和专著将把北爱尔兰的性行为置于“酷儿理论”和爱尔兰研究的更广泛的文学中，而为期一天的讨论会和编辑的卷将把北爱尔兰的经历与联合王国四个国家中的其他三个国家放在一起。将我们的研究结果与LGBT社区联系起来，我们将通知在北爱尔兰教育和支持的组织。由倡导组织卡拉·弗兰德（Cara Friend）支持的参与性研讨会将向该地区的LGBT青年团体介绍他们自己社区的历史。一种教学资源将鼓励学校参与性行为的历史。在北爱尔兰公共记录办公室举办的公开演讲和庆祝活动的展览和节目将展示酷儿历史对爱尔兰研究的重要性。一部受委托制作的纪录片和一段解释性的音乐将使我们项目的故事栩栩如生。我们的网站上有一个酷儿互动的数字地图和每月特刊，将把这个项目传达给公众。该项目将原始的学术研究与重点的公众参与工作相结合，将以最引人注目的方式揭示一段丰富而“隐藏的历史”，并增强对北爱尔兰和更广阔世界性行为的学术和非学术理解。

Public knowledge of the history of homosexuality in Northern Ireland is mostly of the region's intolerance - from the outspoken Reverend Ian Paisley's 1970s campaign to 'Save Ulster from Sodomy' to more recent lags in legal equality. Academic work has focused on the gay rights movement as it emerged in the late 1960s, reflecting more broadly the dominance of political and 'rights-based' approaches during and since the Troubles (1968-1998). Only a few 'famous queers' - like the Unionist MP for East Belfast Edward de Cobain (charged with 'gross indecency' with teenage boys in the 1890s), or the Irish revolutionary Roger Casement (who cruised Edwardian Belfast and diarised his sexual experiences) - have become known. But there is a longer and untold queer history of Northern Ireland. Men from across class and religious divides found sexual experiences in Belfast and the wider region - from the city's port, parks and streets, to the country houses of the Ulster Protestant elite, and even in small rural communities. Homosexuality was illegal and the subject of a British Isles-wide discourse of disgust, but these men still expressed their desires and - if only to a limited degree - found some acceptance too. If men who had sex with men have not been a major topic of interest in Northern Ireland, writing on women who desired other women is virtually absent. Unexplored collections of extensive private correspondence however, coupled with newspaper debate about gender norms, suggests there were also women who had understandings of same-sex love and companionship.Drawing on under- or never-before used archives, this project will be the first to sensitively and critically reconstruct Northern Ireland's queer past from the late 19th century to the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in the 1960s. We focus on this period because: it saw a notable rise in arrests for male homosexual offences and the emergence of a wayward 'New Woman' discourse, with the creation of archival material as a result; and, like other places, Northern Ireland had an idiosyncratic experience of sexuality before the rise of an international gay rights movement signalled understandings that were shared.Techniques of close-reading will unpick the witness statements used to prosecute men who had sex with men, showing how and where they met and had relationships. Private correspondence, letters and diaries will reveal understandings of identity and desire for both men and women. An intensive trawl of the euphemistic local press, now digitised, will show how homosexuality was publicly represented. Academic articles and a monograph will situate Northern Irish sexuality in the broader literature of 'queer theory' and Irish Studies, while a 1-day colloquium and edited volume will place Northern Ireland's experience alongside the other 3 of the 4 nations of the United Kingdom. Connecting our research findings with the LGBT community, we will inform organisations that educate and support in Northern Ireland. Participatory workshops, supported by the advocacy group Cara Friend, will introduce LGBT youth groups across the region to the history of their own community. A teaching resource will encourage schools to engage with the history of sexuality. An exhibition and programme of public talks and celebrations at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland will demonstrate the importance of queer history to Irish Studies. A commissioned docu-film and interpretive piece of music will bring our project's stories to life. Our website, with a digital map of queer interactions and monthly features, will communicate the project to the public.Combining original academic research with focused public engagement work, this project will reveal a rich and 'hidden history' in the most striking of ways, and enhance both academic and non-academic understandings of sexuality in both Northern Ireland and the wider world.