Fixing the meaning of marriage: political symbolism and citizen identity in the same-sex marriage debate

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which politicians use same-sex marriage as a sign that both conveys a wide range of meanings to the electorate and implicates the construction of particular citizen identities. Politicians’ views discussed range from those of Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard to George W. Bush and Barack Obama. By analysing the ways in which heteronormative signs are contested, the article questions whether measures such as same-sex marriage are as unambiguously normalizing as critics like Butler suggest. For, despite some normalizing aspects, same-sex marriage can also challenge the way in which heteronormative citizen identities have been constructed. That is precisely why some conservative (and not so conservative) politicians see it as a threat while others see same-sex marriage as an important sign of progress. Meanwhile, what had been intended as a reassuring sign for the religious right contributed to Australian Labor losing votes on the left.