“Looking Like a Lesbian”: The Organization of Sexual Monitoring at the United States–Mexican Border

Eithne Luibhéid’s “Looking Like a Lesbian” exemplifies how border crossings at US-Mexico ports of entry consolidate heteronormative identities. Using a Foucauldian framework, Luibhéid examines how notions of gender and sexuality came to shape both immigration policy and practices by officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Moreover she highlights the historical experiences of lesbians in order to disrupt the heteronormative logics and gendered expectations shaping these processes and state-sanctioned exclusion.