Kane Race Party Animals Analysis

In Kane Race’s “Party Animals: the significance of drug practices in the materialisation of urban gay identity” (2011), aims to explore the role in which illicit drugs play in creating a community for gay people. We will explore how Race looks into drugs as an important part of one’s identification of their self with homosexuality, noting that there is a clear relationship between alcohol and drugs and a development of a homosexual culture. This essay will look at the socialisation created due to drug use and parties, the allowance of escaping from reality and oppression due to their sexuality, the discrimination from law enforcement and society alike and the importance of Mardi Grass in creating a greater urban gay community.

The emergence

In 1978 in Sydney a peaceful protest held in Kings cross occurred in demand to decriminalise homosexual acts. Thom Mitchel noted in his article “the police came in swinging… violent chaos,” (2016). One of the many instances seen during a time where police brutality and discrimination towards the gay community. Race notes that there has been some improvement by law enforcements towards the gay community often showing their support at events such as the Mardi Gras. There were, however, views that the law enforcement had taken a ‘step back in time’ as many criticised a large amount of police presence the annual event in 2009 as well as the use of sniffer dogs (Race, 2011). The police defended their actions saying they were doing their job and that drug offence is an offence. Race goes on to comment that “the community outcry revealed much about the significance of party practices in the constitution and recreation of gay and lesbian identity in Sydney”, (2011, P.48). Hence, we see that there is still continued hostility by police but perhaps more for their strong drug consumption as a common party

Following the Stonewall riots, the Mardi Gras was created which became an annual street parade and one of Australia’s most notable events within the LGBT community. The event was one which integrated successfully both political activism and pleasure. As Race notes it brought “an innovative form of public and political expression to the city’s streets that emphasised play and parodic performance. the distinction between political activism and pleasure.” (2011, P.43). as noted previously drug use was quite popular in association to dance parties and less so to the Mardi Gras, however, it's noted that drug consumption is widely known to be a component. During the time of the Mardi Gras, there was the AIDS crisis in 1983-84, which saw more stigma onto the gay community. In particular the sharing of needles, and with their association of drug use, this only worsened such views. Linking into Himmelstein’s ‘social locus’ which is stated to be “ the way the social class of the stereotypical user of a particular drug affects the popular image of that drug,” (1983, P.14). Such stigma was put onto drug use within the gay community and its links to the AIDS epidemic. The Mardi Gras, however, helped in emphasising practices of public health and made a community response to the issues at