Le Jeu de Qui? Sexual Politics at Play in the French Caribbean

Abstract

By virtue of their non-independent political status, Martinique and Guadeloupe (France's Antilles) operate under a legal regime unique to the Caribbean vis a vis sexual rights. While in certain independent countries in the region homosexuality is criminalized and “homosexual acts” are punishable by law, France’s legal code both affords protections and extends certain rights, such as access to the PACS (the pacte civil de solidarite is a form of civil union available to both same sex and heterosexual couples in France since 1999), to Martinican and Guadeloupean citizens. This paper seeks to understand the modes of representation that frame lesbian and gay Antilleans as subjects of particular (European) rights and victims of certain (Caribbean) violences. I document the loci of power that emerge as these discourses develop in a circuit between the Caribbean and the metropole, paying particular attention to the 1 Translation: Whose Game? * I would like to thank all of the people who read and commented upon early drafts of this essay, foremost among them Lila Abu-Lughod, Yasmin Moll, Marie, Varghese, Ram Natarajan, Anna Wilking, and Andil Gosine. In addition, the arguments contained herein were productively honed in conversations in the New York University Institute of French Studies doctoral student/faculty seminar. Sections of this work were presented at the Collegium for African American Research’s and the Caribbean Studies Association’s 2009 conferences in Bremen and Kingston, respectively, where audience and co-panelist questions proved invaluable. Finally, I am grateful for the interventions of the CRGS’ two anonymous reviewers, whose insightful comments continue to push my thinking as it relates to the larger project of which this paper forms a part.