ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, there has been considerable growth in academic research and theory exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) experiences, identities, and lives in Northern Ireland. Analyses and accounts of LGBTQ+ lives and experiences were largely overlooked in historical and political scholarship, despite the circumstances around the decriminalisation of homosexuality being of huge political and legal significance at the time. In this chapter, the author offers a critical reflection on the evolution of LGBTQ+ citizenship, rights, and visibility which highlights the significant impact and impediments of a strategic and politicised weaponising of homophobia. She begins by revisiting the historic battle for homosexual decriminalisation in Northern Ireland to provide a contextual and conceptual backdrop while demonstrating the template which influenced all subsequent legal changes. The author assesses how socially conservative politics has manifested in prohibitions on gay male blood donations, laws preventing civil partners from adopting, and the delayed extension of same-sex civil and religious marriage rights.
