Liberalism and Multiculturalism: Heterosexist Injustices within Minorities

My key question is whether granting rights to minority cultural groups can undermine the interests of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals (LGBs) within those groups. Put differently, this thesis is an investigation about whether the interests of LGBs within minorities are damaged by granting rights to minority cultural groups. I argue that LGBs have the following interests; in family life, sexual freedom, basic civil and political rights, participation in cultural and political life, bodily and psychological integrity, employment equality and equal access to welfare. In order to answer to this question, I engage with the contemporary political philosophy of multiculturalism and I approach the research by critically analysing five different accounts, which can be categorised as: multicultural citizenship, liberal feminism, negative universalism, deliberation and dialogue, and joint governance. My contribution to the debate is by making a variety of critical and positive claims. I make critical claims about the approaches taken by some authors by affirming that they may not fully protect LGBs within minorities from heterosexism. I make positive claims by suggesting innovative policy alternatives for tackling heterosexism within minorities. Three of the positive claims stand out. First, in order to tackle heterosexism it is important to eliminate stereotypes about LGBs. Second, it is possible to have a set of criteria in favour of group rights that does not imply the reinforcement and/or the facilitation of heterosexism within minorities. Third, the oppression of LGBs within minorities is not the logical extension of engaging in multicultural policies. These claims lead me to defend a model that combines aspects of associative and deliberative democracy. I defend that this model deals adequately with the potential threats of granting rights to cultural groups because it has a variety of mechanisms to prevent and tackle heterosexism.