Disturbing Disgust: Gesturing to the Abject in Queer Cases

Discomforting politics: 1970s activism and the spectre of sex in public

“…47 As Senthorun Raj argues, ideas about the 'right' to certain kinds of sex in private can easily become 'a legal container for public disgust' rather than a disruption of its heteronormative constitution. 48 Moreover, while an argument for the liberal idea of equality in Victoria might have side-stepped the question of shame and disgust, it could not make them disappear entirely because the beat was at the edge of this campaign. Indeed, elsewhere activists noted that 'even our straight supporters' are troubled by the fact that some have sex in 'those nasty little parks and public toilets'.…”