In this article I focus on conceptualizations of equality in the discourses deployed
in the campaign to repeal Section 28 in Scotland. I use the parliamentary debates
and two newspapers: the Daily Record, which supported the campaign to Keep
the Clause, and The Guardian, which supported repeal, to exemplify the
different discursive articulations around equality and citizenship. I suggest that
the Scottish example provides further evidence of the ways in which liberalism
naturalizes heterosexuality as the standard for citizenship and thus bequeaths a
hierarchy of ‘equality’ and citizenship in the realm of
sexuality, wherein lesbian and gay citizenship is either rendered invalid or
characterized as ‘special rights’. However, within the narrow
confines of the parliamentary debates, more expansive and differentiated notions of
citizenship and equality are evident. Whilst I conclude that the
‘shape’ of equality achieved through the repeal has been moulded
to support institutionalized heterosexuality – with Section 28 replaced by
statutory guidelines on sex education which advocate marriage – I also
suggest equality is contested, both through the recognition of transformations in
heterosexual family forms and the appeal to non-discrimination as a democratic
principle. It is possible, therefore, that current destabilizations of the
heterosexual social order simultaneously destabilize the precepts of liberal democracy.
