The Trouble with Normal is Michael Warner’s influential popular press book about the politics of sexual shame and queer culture. In this context, “queer” refers not only to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people or identities, but to any sexual actions or behaviors that are outside the norm. Warner’s argument is that American culture creates a hierarchy in which non-normative sex is shamed and stigmatized, and that sometimes, gay and lesbian rights organizations actually contribute to this shaming rather than to its transformation.
In Chapter 1, Warner argues that shame is always a part of our experience of sex. You can’t get rid of sexual shame without getting rid of sex altogether. Therefore, the question becomes not how to get rid of shame, but what to do with it. In the United States, Warner argues that most people deal with their shame by shaming others, creating categories of “good” sex and “bad” sex, claiming they belong to the “good” category, and then stigmatizing everyone else. This dynamic is repeated even within stigmatized communities. For instance, Warner notes a trend of gay men dividing the gay community into “good” and “bad” as well, in order to “purify” the gay identity and make it appear more respectable to mainstream society.
In Chapter 2, Warner explores this dynamic internal to the gay community at more length. Instead of challenging the society that creates stigma, the “official” gay rights movement aims to integrate into that society. In this movement, gays and lesbians want to be seen as being “normal,” rather than critiquing society’s obsession with defining normality to begin with. In the process, gays and lesbians tend to de-sexualize themselves. They argue for a gay or lesbian identity that has nothing to do with sex. But this only further entrenches the shame and stigma attached to gay sex itself.
This desire for integration and becoming normal is behind the gay rights movement’s turn toward gay marriage as its primary political issue. Warner argues that gay marriage only became a priority for gay rights activists in the 1990s. Before then, activists were more interested in issues like job discrimination and access to healthcare during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. But gay marriage becomes attractive as in issue in the 1990s to gay rights activists who want to appear respectable and accepted by the larger straight society. The problem, Warner says, is that letting gays marry doesn’t change the more fundamental issue, which is that marriage is a gatekeeper for people to access rights and economic benefits in our society. Marriage is a form of state coercion in which people are motivated to enter into a particular kind of sexual relation in order to get legal and economic benefits. Instead of expanding marriage to include gay people, Warner argues we should be distributing the benefits marriage provides beyond marriage. For instance, people should be able to take time off work not only to care for spouses and children, but for friends and unmarried lovers as well.
Chapter 4 explores how the 1990s has seen a reduction of queer space. Warner defines queer space as places in which queer people can meet each other and access the kinds of sex they would like to have. This includes gay bars, “cruising” grounds in public parks where men look to have sex with men, and “bathhouses,” which are establishments that provide a safe space for men to have sex with men. These kinds of spaces have been shut down in many cities through zoning laws that prioritize the value of real estate over the culture of a sexual minority. This not only shuts down queer life, but also, Warner argues, is a health risk. During the AIDS crisis, queer space was also where queer men taught each other about safe sex practices and shared information about HIV prevention. Closing down these spaces shuts down an important route of promoting safe sex.
In his conclusion to The Trouble with Normal, Warner explores the relation between shame and HIV prevention at more length. Warner notes that American society has moved in the direction of punishing people with HIV instead of teaching people how to prevent HIV. Rather than invest in safe sex campaigns, the government passes laws that make it illegal for HIV-positive people to have sex with someone else unless they disclose their status. This only further shames and stigmatizes HIV, however, and stigma is a barrier for people to access the treatment they need. Instead, Warner says, we should invest in queer culture, which promotes safe sex practices in spaces where people are welcomed rather than shamed. Preventing HIV requires promoting queerness, rather than stigmatizing it.
