POLS-485
Seminar in Gender and Politics - Queer Canada
Fall 2013
INSTRUCTOR: Kyle Jackson
EMAIL ADDRESS: kyle.jackson@queensu.ca
OFFICE LOCATION: M-C B309
OFFICE HOURS: Wednesdays 12:30-2:30 or by appointment
CLASS DETAILS: Wednesdays 2:30-5:30 M-C E230
Academic integrity comprises the five core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (see www.academicintegrity.org
). These values are central to the building, nurturing and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the “freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas” essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate Report on
Principles and Priorities). Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar: see Academic Regulation 1 (http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academic-calendars/regulations/academicregulations/regulation-1) and from the instructor of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen’s. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university.
Students are advised that incomplete standing will be granted only with the permission of the chair of undergraduate or graduate studies (as appropriate) and only where there is a clear demonstration of need. Applications for “Incomplete” standing must be made in the first instance to the instructor on the form available in the General Office. The simple fact of non-submission of work does not constitute an application and will result in a grade of zero for that assignment.
Students who feel that there are reasons to have their grades reviewed should follow the steps set out in the Faculty of Arts and Science’s Regulation 11, “Review of Grades and Examinations”
(http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academic-calendars/regulations/academic-regulations/regulation-11).
Copyright of Course Materials
This material is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in POLS 485. This material shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in POLS 485. Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright, and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate’s Academic Integrity Policy Statement.

GRADING SCHEME:
All components of this course will receive letter grades which, for purposes of calculating your course average, will be translated into numerical equivalents using the Faculty of Arts and
Science approved scale:
Arts & Science Letter Grade Input Scheme
Assignment mark
Numerical value for calculation of final mark
93 A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
87
82
78
75
72
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F48 (F+)
F24 (F)
68
65
62
58
55
52
48
24
F0 (0)
Grade
0
Your course average will then be converted to a final letter grade according to Queen’s Official
Grade Conversion Scale:
Queen’s Official Grade Conversion Scale
Numerical
Course
Average
A+
A
(Range)
90-100
85-89
A-
B+
B
B-
80-84
77-79
73-76
70-72
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F
67-69
63-66
60-62
57-59
53-56
50-52
49 and below

Course Description:
“Queer Canada” explores how Canada perceives itself, and has become perceived by others, as a global leader on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights in the post-same-sex marriage era in the 21 st century. The course explores LGBT inclusion and exclusion, and therefore what has been termed “sexual citizenship,” from multiple perspectives and along multiple dimensions. For example, the historical institutionalism of Miriam Smith and its focus on political institutions is considered alongside the “queer Marxist feminism” of Alan
Sears and its focus on capitalism. The course mostly attends to qualitative scholarship, but some quantitative scholarship on public opinion (for example, Scott Matthews) is also considered. What ties these diverse interventions together is that they are all looking at issues of LGBT politics (for example, the decriminalization of same-sex sexual activity, gays and lesbians serving openly in the Canadian Armed Forces, same-sex marriage,
LGBT immigration and refugee status,” gay villages”, the persistence of heterosexism in the education system) in the Canadian context. An attempt is made in the course to cover some of the varied history of LGBT exclusion/inclusion in Canada before launching into contemporary issues of inclusion and exclusion. LGBT issues have become part of the institutional and cultural fabric of the Canadian nation-state and its constituent parts
(provinces, national minorities, cities, ethno-cultural minorities, etc.). That being said, students will be invited to weigh relatively more optimistic accounts of Canada as a “gay-friendly” country against those that are relatively more critical of the state of LGBT inclusion and the inclusion of “others” in Canada. In other words, students will be invited to develop their own normative and theoretical positions in relation to issues of LGBT inclusion and exclusion in Queer Canada.
Mandatory Course textbook: Course pack from the P&CC.
Week 1: September 11: Welcome to Queer Canada!
*No assigned readings
Week 2: September 18: Historical Context – No presentations this week
Tom Warner, Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2002. “Introduction” and all of “Part 1.” *Get online via library catalogue as an e-book.
Gary Kinsman, The Regulation of Desire: Sexuality in Canada. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1987. *Coursepack
Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile, The Canadian War on Queers: National Security As Sexual Regulation.
Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2010. *Coursepack
Mariana Valverde, Sex, Power and Pleasure. Toronto: Women’s Press, 1985. Chapter 3 and 4. *Get online via library catalogue as an e-book.
Week 3: September 25: The Public Recognition of LGBT People and Relationships: LGBT Rights –
Presentations Begin
Smith, Miriam. In Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada. New York and
London: Routledge, 2008. *Coursepack
Rayside, David. “Publicly Recognizing Queer Families,” and “Canadian Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships.”
In Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions: Public Recognition of Sexual Diversity in Canada and the United States.
Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 2008. *Get online via library catalogue as an e-book

Week 4: October 2: LGBT Citizenship/Nationalism (Federal, Provincial, Cities); and Political Parties
Carl F. Stychin, Law’s Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (New York: Routledge, 1995). Chapter 6.
*Coursepack
Miriam Smith, “The Politics of Multiscalar Citizenship: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Organizing in Canada”
Citizenship Studies 9, no. 4 (September): 389-404. *Get online via library catalogue.
Terrie Goldie, “Queer Nation?” In In a Queer Country: Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Canadian Context. Edited by
Terrie Goldie. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001. *Moodle
Gary Kinsman, “Challenging Canadian and Queer Nationalisms.” In In a Queer Country: Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Canadian Context. Edited by Terrie Goldie. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001. *Moodle
Brenda Cossman, “Queer as Citizens.” *Moodle
Thomas Waugh, “Fairy Tales of Two Cities, or Queer Nation(s)/Urban Cinema(s).” In In a Queer Country: Gay and
Lesbian Studies in the Canadian Context. *Moodle
Week 5: October 9: Transgender Politics in Queer Canada
Jean Bobby Noble, “Our Bodies Are Not Ourselves: Tranny Guys and the Racialized Class Politics of Incoherence”
*Coursepack
Sara Lamble, “Unknowable Bodies, Unthinkable Sexualities: Lesbian and Transgender Legal Invisibility in the
Toronto Women's Bathhouse Raid” *Coursepack
Sheila Cavanagh and Heather Sykes, “Transsexual Bodies at the Olympics: The International Olympic Committee's
Policy on Transsexual Athletes at the 2004 Athens Summer Games” *Moodle
Viviane Namaste, “Beyond Image Content: Examining Transsexuals' Access to the Media” *Moodle
Week 6: October 16: The Politics of Racialization in Queer Canada
Rinaldo Walcott, “Outside in Black Studies: Reading from a Queer Place in the Diaspora” *Coursepack
Rinaldo Walcott, “Black Men in Frocks: Sexing Race in a Gay Ghetto.” In Claiming Space: Racialization in
Canadian Cities. Edited by Cheryl Teelucksingh. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press,
2006.*Coursepack
Andil Gosine, “FOBS, Banana Boy, and the Gay Pretenders: Queer Youth Navigate Sex, "Race," and Nation in
Toronto, Canada” *Moodle
Charmaine Nelson, “The "Hottentot Venus" in Canada: Modernism, Censorship, and the Racial Limits of Female
Sexuality” *Moodle
Wesley Crichlow, “Introduction: Entering and Opening the Black Closet.” In Buller Men and Batty Bwoys: Hidden
Men in Toronto and Halifax Black Communities. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2004. *Get online via library catalogue as an e-book
Week 7: October 23: Queer Canada and Colonialism, Neo-colonialism and Transnationalism
Martin Cannon, “The Regulation of First Nations Sexuality” *Coursepack
Kyle Jackson, “Imagining Homonationalism and Homophobia in Transnational Perspective: The Case of Canada and Jamaica.” In Queering Paradigms III: Queer Impact and Practices. Edited by Kathleen O’Mara and Liz Morrish.
Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2013. *Coursepack

Week 8: October 30: LGBT Social Movement Activism/Resistance in Queer Canada
Miriam Smith, “Identity and Opportunity: The Lesbian and Gay Rights Movement” *Moodle
Miriam Smith, “Diversity and Identity in the Nonprofit Sector: Lessons from LGBT Organizing in Toronto,
Canada” Social Policy and Administration 39, no. 5 (October): 463-480.*Get online via library catalogue,
Becki Ross, “Like Apples & Oranges: Lesbian Feminist Responses to the Politics of The Body Politic” *Instructor will send by email
Week 9: November 6: Disease, Sport, and Religion in Queer Canada
Elise Chenier, “The Criminal Sexual Psychopath: Sex, Psychiatry, and the Law at Mid-Century” *Instructor will send by email
Richard Fung and Tim McCaskell, “Continental Drift: The Imaging of AIDS” *Instructor will send by email
Brian Pronger, “Sport and the Homoerotic Paradox” *Moodle
Tom Warner, “Faith, Politics, and the Transformation of Canada” *Coursepack
Week 10: November 13: Employment and Capitalism in Queer Canada
Gerald Hunt and Jonathan Eaton, “We Are Family: Labour Responds to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender
Workers” *Instructor will send by email
Sears, Alan. “Queer Anti-capitalism: What’s Left of Lesbian and Gay Liberation?” Science and Society 69, no. 1
(2005). *Get online via library catalogue
Week 11: November 20: Marriage and the Family in Queer Canada
J. Scott Matthews. “The Political Foundations of Support for Same-Sex Marriage in Canada” Canadian Journal of
Political Science 38-4 (2005): 841-866. *Get online via library catalogue
Karen Duder, "That Repulsive Abnormal Creature I Heard Of in That Book": Lesbians and Families in Ontario,
1920-1965” *Moodle
Mariana Valverde, “A New Entity in the History of Sexuality: The Respectable Same Sex Couple” *Moodle
Rachel Epstein, “Queer Parenting in Canada in the 21st Century: Issues, Debates, and Controversies” *Moodle
Week 12: November 27: Education in Queer Canada
John Guiney Yallop, “Gay and Out in Secondary School: One Youth's Story” *Instructor will end by email
David Rayside, “Canadian School Lethargy” *Instructor will end by email
Sheila Cavanagh, “Sexing the Teacher: Voyeuristic Pleasure in the Amy Gehring Sex Panic” *Instructor will end by email
Course Assessment:
Critical Commentary: Students will be required to write a 10-page essay making use of readings and lectures from the course. Students must develop their own voice or argument in relation to some aspect of the material. The critical commentary will constitute 25% of the student’s grade. Critical commentaries are to be written in proper essay format, including with citations and a works cited. More information on this assignment, including due date, etc., will be provided in class.

Each student will be responsible for a seminar presentation . Seminar presentations will begin in week three of the course. Students will present in groups of 2 or 3 (to be determined in the first class). The group will be responsible for summarizing part of the week’s material and facilitating class discussion for 2 hours of the class. The presentations should convey understanding, critical insight, application of the content in the context of the presentation and the class discussion, as well as a high degree of creativity. Students are encouraged to bring in current events and issues as a means of applying the material and facilitating discussion. The presentation is worth
25% of the student’s grade. More information on the seminar presentation will be provided in class.
Final Exam: A final exam constituting 25% of the student’s grade will be scheduled during exam period.
More information on the final exam will be provided in class.
Finally, 12.5% of the student’s grade will derive from their attendance , and 12.5% from the quality of their participation . The two are obviously connected, as one cannot achieve the latter without the former. More information on attendance and participation will be provided in class.
There is no midterm.
Late Policy
Late papers or presentations will not be accepted and will be given a grade of 0, except in the case of illness or other extenuating circumstances.
Accommodation Policy
Students with different abilities – for example, who learn in different ways or who face particular limitations or challenges – are encouraged to contact the Disability Services Office and/or the
Instructor in order to come up with a plan of action that will promote an effective and equal learning experience for you in this class. This may refer to physical differences or mental differences (for example, anxiety), or their combination, that require reasonable accommodation.
Do not hesitate to talk to me about this!
Religious and faith traditions and spiritual practices that require absence from class or otherwise require accommodation should also be brought to the attention of the instructor.