Is Nonce the New Queer?

Changes in sexual tolerance move slowly and the publicly expressed acceptance of homosexuality is so recent that it is unclear what private attitudes underpin it. It is also unclear what confusion there is in the minds of the public that may be at odds with reality and legality. This paper draws on the history of the pathologisation of homosexuality to show how the public vilification of the “queer” has moved to expression of disgust about the “nonce”*, but that the private attitude is one where the two terms are interchangeable.

*Nonce – English (UK) prison slang, also used in the general population, to denote a child sex offender, and refers to the segregation of paedophilic offenders from other prison inmates (Not On Normal Communal Exercise).