This article emerged from a conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of Dennis Altman’s book, Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. It examines the intersections and interruptions between personal, political and philosophical aspects of debating oppression and liberation when one’s own life experiences are implicated in the measure of the legacies of a social movement. Following Derrida’s deconstructive strategies of reading and writing, I rework the concept of ‘experience’ against Altman’s earlier call for ‘the end of the homosexual’. Returning to Gay Liberation’s affinities with other liberation movements, the article calls for challenging the mainstream rather than assimilating to it.
AhmedS (2010) The Promise of Happiness, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
2.
AlcoffLHames-GarcíaM (2006) Identity Politics Reconsidered, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
3.
AltmanD (1972) Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
4.
BadiouA (2010) The Communist Hypothesis, London: Verso.
5.
BerlantLWarnerM (1998) Sex in public. Critical Inquiry24(2): 547–566.
6.
ButlerJ (1992) Contingent foundations: Feminism and the question of ‘postmodernism’. In: ButlerJScottJ (eds) Feminists Theorize the Political, New York: Routledge, pp. 3–21.
7.
CaputoJ (1993) Against Ethics: Contributions to a Poetics of Obligation with Constant Reference to Deconstruction, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
8.
D’CruzCPendletonM (2013) After Homosexual: The Legacies of Gay Liberation, Perth: UWA Publishing.
9.
D’EmilioJ (1997) Capitalism and gay identity. In: LancasterRNdi LeonardoM (eds) The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 169–178.
10.
DerridaJSpivakG (1974) Of Grammatology, Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
11.
DerridaJKamufP (1994) Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International, New York and London: Routledge.
12.
DerridaJCaputoJ (1997) Deconstruction in a Nutshell: In Conversation with Jacques Derrida, New York: Fordham University Press.
13.
DugganL (2003) The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
FoucaultMSheridan SmithAM (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge, London and New York: Tavistock.
16.
FoucaultMHurleyR (1978) The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
17.
FoucaultM (1981) The order of discourse (trans. I Mcleod). In: YoungR (eds) Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, Boston, MA: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 51–77.
18.
GreerG (1970) The Female Eunuch, London: MacGibbon and Kee.
19.
GreggMSeigworthGJ (2010) The Affect Theory Reader, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
20.
HalberstamJJ (2011) The Queer Art of Failure, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
21.
HalperinD (2012) How to Be Gay, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
22.
HalperinDTraubV (2010) Gay Shame, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
23.
HarawayD (1988) Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies14(3): 575–599.
24.
HardingS (2004) The Feminist Standpoint Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies, New York and London: Routledge.
JohnsonKLGillS (2007) Swagger, sway, and sexuality: Judging sexual orientation from body motion and morphology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology93(3): 321–334.
27.
Kamuf P (2004) Experience. English Studies in Canada 3–4, Academic Research Library: pp. 24–29.
28.
Leonard W (2012) Private Lives 2: The Second National Survey of the Health and Wellbeing of GLBT Australians, Monograph Series No. 86. Melbourne: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, LaTrobe University.
29.
Leonard W, Mitchell A, et al. (2008) Coming Forward: The Underreporting of Heterosexist Violence and Same Sex Partner Abuse in Victoria, Monograph Series Number 69. Melbourne: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University.
30.
MarcuseH (1955) Eros and Civilization, Boston, MA: Beacon.
31.
McIntoshM (1981 [1968]) The homosexual role and Postscript. In: PlummerK (eds) The Making of the Modern Homosexual, London: Hutchinson, pp. 30–49.
32.
Monday Conference (1972) Australian Broadcasting commission (July).
33.
NietzscheF (1990 [1886]) Beyond Good and Evil, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
34.
PuarJ (2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.
35.
ScottJ (1992) Experience. In: ButlerJScottJ (eds) Feminists Theorize the Political, New York: Routledge, pp. 22–40.
36.
SerranoJ (2007) Whipping Girl: A Transexual Woman on Sexism and The Scapegoating of Femininity, Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
37.
Serrano J (2009) Whipping Girl FAQ on Cissexual, Cisgender and Cis Privilege. Available at: juliaserrano.livejournal.com/14700.html (accessed 18 June 2013).
38.
SpivakG (1993) More on power/knowledge. In: SpivakG (eds) Outside in the Teaching Machine, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 1–23.
39.
WarnerM (1999) The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40.
WeeksJ (1993) Introduction. In: AltmanD (eds) Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, New York: New York University Press, pp. 1–15.
41.
WeeksJ (1998) The ‘homosexual role’ after 30 years: An appreciation of the work of Mary McIntosh. Sexualities1(2): 131–152.
42.
WeeksJ (2007) The World We Have Won: The Remaking of Erotic and Intimate Life Since 1945, New York: Routledge.
