An LGBTQ Ethics of Identification: The Demand for Recognition and Equal Dignity

Abstract While South Africa formally recognises the rights of LGBTQ persons, there is ongoing marginalisation and discrimination of and violence against such individuals. What is at stake here is not simply a matter of the legal recognition of LGBTQ rights, but rather a matter of the recognition of the identities and equal dignity of LGBTQ individuals. Cornell and Murphy suggest that recognition of marginalised identities and equal dignity stem from a demand for the freedom to imagine, rework, and shape one’s own identifications—a freedom which is often not afforded to LGBTQ individuals within South Africa. Drawing on Cornell and Murphy’s notion of multiculturalism and an ethics of identification, this paper posits that despite the formal legal recognition of the rights of LGBTQ groups and individuals, without a rearticulation of the notion of identity, such groups and individuals will continue to live without equal dignity and without the social, symbolic, and material consequences associated with being ‘legitimate’ members of the nation.