Diachronic Corpus-Assisted Comparison of "No" Speeches on Gay Rights Debates in UK Parliament
This study examines language changes in debates on gay rights in the UK Parliament from 1998-2000 to 2013, focusing on anti-equality arguments and representations of gay people. It analyzes corpus data from opposition speeches against the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill and Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill, highlighting shifts in attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals over time.
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"Homosexuals are delightful, artistic and loving people": A diachronic corpus-assisted comparison of "no" speeches on gay rights debates in the UK Parliament Robbie Love Paul Baker
Introduction The context of the study, research questions and literature (Paul Method (Robbie) Keywords analysis (Paul) Collocates analysis (Robbie) Homphobic words and conclusion (Paul)
Context : the love that dare not speak its name 1998-2000 debate on Bill to change the Age of Consent (AoC) for gay men to 16 (Tony Blair s Labour government) 2013 debate on Bill to allow Same Sex Marriage (SSM) Both bills passed although both seen as controversial: AOC Bill rejected by House of Lords 3 times, requiring lower house to use Parliament Act to pass Bill SSM Bill passed but negative attitudes widely reported in media Evidence that homophobic attitudes are less popular (always/mostly wrong = 40.7% in 2000 vs 28% in 2013) British Social Attitudes Surveys.
Research Questions In what ways did language change (or not) between the two sets of debates in terms of a) anti-equality arguments b) representations of gay people
Relevant Literature As societies change, Mills (1998: 247-8) points to more subtle and indirect manifestations of sexist discourse that can be more difficult to identify and challenge requiring a more in-depth and critical form of analysis. Kitzinger (2005) used CA to show how disclosure of gay identity was implicitly marked as problematic while heterosexual identities were taken-for-granted disclosures. Chirrey (2003) The coming-out of Will Young, marked in newspaper discourse by sensational language such as admits, frank admission, secret and in hiding. Baker (2005) focus on AoC debate keywords to compare the 2 sides. Anti-side used historical terminology gross indecency , buggery . Bachmann (2011) focus on 2004 Civil Partnership debate also keywords (5 standpoints) comparisons to opposite-sex relationships, thin end of wedge, good/bad for society.
Corpus data House of Commons and House of Lords debates Late 1990s/early 2000s Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill Transcripts retrieved online* (not transcribed by us) Cleaned, oppositional speech isolated, speakers identified Data = only the speech of those who voted against the Bills LGBT-opposition corpus 188,025 words AOC corpusSSM corpus 124,024 words 63,983 words *www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/
Corpus data: AOC Length in tokens Topic Date Age of Consent (AOC) corpus (1998-2000) House of Commons 2nd attempt: Second Reading 25th January 1999 2nd attempt: consideration of clause 1 2nd attempt: Third Reading 1st attempt: Second Reading 22nd June 1998 6,673 13,950 10th February 1999 14,224 1st March 1999 5,102 3rd attempt: Second Reading 1st attempt: rejection 2nd attempt: Second Reading (rejection) 3rd attempt: Second Reading (rejection) 3rd attempt: Resolution to Committee 10th February 2000 22nd July 1998 12,094 12,063 House of Lords 13th April 1999 28,156 11th April 2000 18,449 13th November 2000 13,331 TOTAL 124,042
Corpus data: SSM Length in tokens Topic Date Same-Sex Marriage (SSM) corpus (2013) 5th February 2013 21st May 2013 3rd-4th June 2013 15th July 2013 House of Commons Second Reading 22,331 Third Reading Second Reading Third Reading 2,750 37,539 1,363 63,983 House of Lords TOTAL
Tools and Procedures Corpus analysis tool: AntConc (Anthony 2011) Initial approach = corpus-driven Identified salient lexical items Keywords used to compare the corpora to each other (see Baker 2006: 125) Supplementary analysis = corpus-based Examined LGBT-related words chosen by us as relevant Frequency-based disambiguation Collocation common patterns of co-occurrence All subjected to concordance analysis to interpret findings
Keywords Two sides of the debates compared against each other to identify keywords (words which are statistically more frequent in one side when compared to the other). Log-likelihood measure used. We focussed on the top 40 most significant keywords (enough to elicit arguments and repetitions of findings)
Table of top Keywords Age of Consent age, consent, anal, intercourse, activity, buggery, lowering, acts, reduction Same Sex Marriage marriage, civil, same, partnerships, institution, union, Marriage, traditional, sex, married, partnership, marriages Relating to topic Relating to procedure Amendment, hon, Member, Young, clause, report, amendment homosexual, homosexuality, young, boys, girls, men, year, olds, people, older, boy, adults, moral, health, abuse, advice, trust, protection, medical, AIDS, HIV, vulnerable Bill, legislation, Prime, Dear, consultation, process, state Relating to identity couples, woman Other concepts consummation, faith, church, commitment, love, change, religious, create, society, definition, redefinition, redefine, meaning, forced been, this, and, has Grammatical he, I, But, under
Age of Consent keywords Argument 1: homosexuality is immoral: a violation of a moral code. Argument 2 : gay people do disgusting and unnatural things: Emphasis on anal sex as a practice, danger and indulgence. Similarly, buggeryis an unnatural, unsanitary and dangerous act , pathological , the abominable crime , and a dangerous practice . Argument 3: gay sex is unhealthy ( run the risk of AIDS , frightening healthrisks ) Argument 4: girls and boysare different so shouldn t have the same laws, boys are less mature and vulnerable and need protection from predatory gay menlest they be ruined for life Argument 5: the current law already allows equality as the age of consent for anal intercourse is 18 for boys and girls Notable: the keyword I (collocates with: repeat, suspect, hope, wonder, conclude, intend, believe, regret, agree, quote, welcome, understand, think, remember).
Same Sex Marriage keywords Argument 1: The procedure was wrong: The consultation processwas a sham and seriously deficient . It asked how to change the law not whether the law should change, pro- equality comments of dubious origin while anti-equality all from uniquely identified individuals . Also no mandate for Bill. Argument 2: The religious freedom of the faith community will be compromised as they will be forced to conduct same sex marriage. Argument 3: We can t redefine marriage as it s between a man and a woman.
gay* and homosexual* Lemma searches for gay and homosexual, using wildcard symbol (*) to retrieve every morphological form with the base gay or homosexual Addressed by Baker (2005) and Bachmann (2011) Change in word frequency as a whole across corpora and disambiguation
Proportion of gay* and homosexual* 0.600 0.500 0.400 0.300 gay* % homosexual* % 0.200 0.100 0.000 AOC corpus (1998- 2000) SSM corpus (2013)
homosexual*: frequency disambiguation AOC corpus (1998- 2000) SSM corpus (2013) LL of change between whole corpora raw % raw % % change adjective homosexual 377 0.30 29 0.05 -0.26 167.21** noun homosexuality 116 0.09 9 0.01 -0.08 51.21** noun homosexuals 89 0.07 13 0.02 -0.05 24.24** noun homosexual 12 0.01 1 0.00 -0.01 5.09* noun homosexualism 5 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 4.16* adverb homosexually 4 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 3.33 adjective homosexualist 1 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.83 * = p < 0.05 ; ** = p < 0.0001
homosexual* quotes: AOC First, I regard homosexualism, certainly lifelong homosexualism, as a sad disorder and handicap (The Earl of Longford, 13 November 2000) There is another motive, however. There is a homosexualist agenda. The homosexual community, by its nature, is sterile, and it can survive and grow only by proselytising (Mr Swayne, 1 March 1999)
gay*: frequency disambiguation AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) LL of change between whole corpora raw % raw % % change adjective gay 101 0.08 61 0.10 0.01 0.93 noun gays 6 0.00 4 0.01 0.00 0.15 noun gayness 2 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.66 noun gay 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.83
gay* quotes: AOC and SSM I have met representatives of Stonewall, mothers of gay sons and representatives of young gays and lesbians, and I have listened carefully to their views. But at the end of the day I believe that in public life one must stand up for those things which one believes to be right (Baroness Young, 13 April 1999) In 2004 we passed the Civil Partnership Act [ ]. The interests of lesbians and gays were addressed comprehensively. No one at that time, eight or nine years ago, suggested that there should be the kind of legislation that we have before us now. (Lord Brennan, 4 June 2013)
Identity vs. Behaviour AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) LL of change between whole corpora raw % raw % homosexual/gay as identity 169 0.14 49 0.08 13.90* homosexual/gay as behaviour 309 0.25 41 0.06 92.62** Association with identity becomes stronger Association with behaviour becomes (much) weaker
Collocates How have the contexts in which gay* and homosexual* occurred changed between the two sets of debates?
Collocates of homosexual* AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 adoption 5 7.83885 rights 5 8.49807 2 acts 46 7.54406 people 7 7.42711 3 heterosexuality 8 7.41739 about 6 7.02202 4 heterosexuals 10 7.32428 was 5 6.44088 5 marriages 5 7.18678 marriage 9 6.05849 6 lobby 9 7.17228 are 5 5.85762 7 consenting 6 7.10189 and 20 5.82066 8 heterosexual 46 7.07966 a 13 5.53883 9 homosexualism 7 7.00235 not 7 5.49921 10 activity 34 6.98548 of 19 5.41878
AOC: sexual behaviours AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 adoption 5 7.83885 rights 5 8.49807 2 acts 46 7.54406 people 7 7.42711 3 heterosexuality 8 7.41739 about 6 7.02202 4 heterosexuals 10 7.32428 was 5 6.44088 5 marriages 5 7.18678 marriage 9 6.05849 6 lobby 9 7.17228 are 5 5.85762 7 consenting 6 7.10189 and 20 5.82066 8 heterosexual 46 7.07966 a 13 5.53883 9 homosexualism 7 7.00235 not 7 5.49921 10 activity 34 6.98548 of 19 5.41878
AOC: sexual behaviours If, on the other hand, the origins of homosexuality are more complex, we may be right to see homosexual activity and acts of buggery as pathological (Lord Ashbourne, 13 April 1999) The word activity does not occur at all in the SSM corpus!
AOC: heterosexuality AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 adoption 5 7.83885 rights 5 8.49807 2 acts 46 7.54406 people 7 7.42711 3 heterosexuality 8 7.41739 about 6 7.02202 4 heterosexuals 10 7.32428 was 5 6.44088 5 marriages 5 7.18678 marriage 9 6.05849 6 lobby 9 7.17228 are 5 5.85762 7 consenting 6 7.10189 and 20 5.82066 8 heterosexual 46 7.07966 a 13 5.53883 9 homosexualism 7 7.00235 not 7 5.49921 10 activity 34 6.98548 of 19 5.41878
AOC: heterosexuality Those who support the amendment say that they demand equality before the law for homosexual acts. But there is no equality between heterosexual and homosexual behaviour. One is the natural order of things; the other is not (Lord Stoddart of Swindon, 22 June 1998)
SSM: grammatical words AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 adoption 5 7.83885 rights 5 8.49807 2 acts 46 7.54406 people 7 7.42711 3 heterosexuality 8 7.41739 about 6 7.02202 4 heterosexuals 10 7.32428 was 5 6.44088 5 marriages 5 7.18678 marriage 9 6.05849 6 lobby 9 7.17228 are 5 5.85762 7 consenting 6 7.10189 and 20 5.82066 8 heterosexual 46 7.07966 a 13 5.53883 9 homosexualism 7 7.00235 not 7 5.49921 10 activity 34 6.98548 of 19 5.41878
SSM: homosexuals are This Bill ignores a fact well understood for centuries: marriage is not about just love. Of course, homosexuals are often very delightful, artistic and loving people. No one doubts that for one single moment. However, marriage is not about just love. It is about a man and a woman, themselves created to produce children, producing children. (Baroness Knight, 3 June 2013)
Collocates of gay* AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 clubs 5 10.26226 community 9 8.39588 2 lesbian 5 9.58419 said 6 5.5959 3 community 13 8.79277 would 6 5.15884 4 rights 7 7.4549 marriage 22 5.1177 5 gay 114 7.30449 gay 63 5.10257 6 men 9 5.82485 people 6 4.97442 7 against 6 5.62805 who 7 4.81276 8 young 19 5.59132 or 6 4.61265 9 people 25 5.53325 The 5 4.07447 10 sex 7 5.43299 in 14 3.65208
AOC: grouping (gay) people AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 clubs 5 10.26226 community 9 8.39588 2 lesbian 5 9.58419 said 6 5.5959 3 community 13 8.79277 would 6 5.15884 4 rights 7 7.4549 marriage 22 5.1177 5 gay 114 7.30449 gay 63 5.10257 6 men 9 5.82485 people 6 4.97442 7 against 6 5.62805 who 7 4.81276 8 young 19 5.59132 or 6 4.61265 9 people 25 5.53325 The 5 4.07447 10 sex 7 5.43299 in 14 3.65208
AOC: grouping (gay) people However, in the gay community sexuality seems to matter almost totally. There are gay clubs, gay bars, the gay press, gay this and gay that, and it is not healthy (Jamie Cann, 25 January 1999) If what is offered to young gay men is promiscuous, narrowly physical relationships or membership of an overt community defined by gayness, it will be all the more difficult for them to live faithful, broader-based lives, to their full humanity. (The Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, 25 January 1999) I hope that although many of us may disagree with the Government's proposal, we shall not be regarded as antagonistic to the homosexual gaycommunity, because that is not our intention (Sir Normal Fowler, 10 February 1999)
SSM: grouping (gay) people AOC corpus (1998-2000) SSM corpus (2013) Collocate Freq. MI Collocate Freq. MI 1 clubs 5 10.26226 community 9 8.39588 2 lesbian 5 9.58419 said 6 5.5959 3 community 13 8.79277 would 6 5.15884 4 rights 7 7.4549 marriage 22 5.1177 5 gay 114 7.30449 gay 63 5.10257 6 men 9 5.82485 people 6 4.97442 7 against 6 5.62805 who 7 4.81276 8 young 19 5.59132 or 6 4.61265 9 people 25 5.53325 The 5 4.07447 10 sex 7 5.43299 in 14 3.65208
SSM: community The equality that it purports to seek is a cheapened version of spurious uniformity in glaring defiance of reality. Our gay community, talented and caring, deserves better and can have it (Lord Quirk, 3 June 2013)
SSM: people My Lords, we have just had a telling and detailed explanation of the road that we have travelled in getting equality for lesbian, gay and gender- transmuted people. (The Duke of Montrose, 4th June 2013) gender-transmuted Google = only 25 hits (10 from this quote alone) (February 2014)
Terms relating to homophobia Freq. AOC % AOC Freq. SSM % SSM % LL of change between corpora 16.33*** 15.89*** 1.44 0.70 1.89 19.37*** change homophob* bigot* intoleran* prejudice* discriminat* Total 20 13 10 24 60 127 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.10 32 25 9 9 41 116 0.05 0.04 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.18 +0.03 +0.03 0 -0.01 +0.01 +0.08 * p < 0.0001
Homphobia- changes Age of Consent: I am not homophobic in any way. I do not dislike or hate people of a different sexual orientation from the normal, so long as they are adult and know what they are doing. It is not a question of homophobia; it is a question of people having a differing view. (Lord Stoddart of Swindon, July 22, 1998) Same Sex Marriage: It is intolerable, however, that as soon as Members of Parliament put their heads above the parapet and speak to the media, they are called a homophobe, a Nazi - I have been called that a bigot, and many other expletives that I would not dare to read out. I have been told to be ashamed of myself, and to die: I have received specific death threats relating to my travel plans. I have been told that I am a disgrace, and that I have no right to express my opinion on this subject. My children have been told that their dad is a bigot and a homophobe. Mr Burrowes, 5 February 2013
Conclusion Age of Consent debate: more openly homophobic discourse, gay men as predatory, gay sex as unnatural, unhealthy, immoral; homosexualism/homosexualist. Same Sex Marriage debate: careful not to attack gay people, use of mitigation strategies (although backfire as stereotyping), focus on procedural issues, less likely to personalise position with I , debaters appropriate discourse by positioning themselves as victims of intolerance. In light of changes to public attitudes, homophobia is the hate that dare not speak its name. Discourses do not match act of voting indicating need for greater vigilance and reliance on social context in analysis.
References Anthony, Laurence. 2011. AntConc (Version 3.2.4w) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Available from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/ Bachmann, Ingo. 2011. Civil partnership Gay marriage in all but name : A corpus-driven analysis of discourses of same-sex relationships in the UK Parliament. Corpora 6(1): 77-105. Baker, Paul. 2005. Public Discourses of Gay Men. London: Routledge. Baker, Paul. 2006. Using Corpora for Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum. Chirrey, Deborah 2003. I hereby come out : What sort of speech act is coming out? Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(1): 24-37 Kitzinger, Celia. 2005 Speaking as a heterosexual : (how) does sexuality matter for talk-in-interaction? Research on Language and Social Interaction 38 (3): 221 65. Mills, S. (1998) Post-feminist text analysis , Language and Literature 7(3): 235 53.
