Queer Identities Research Articles

“I can be the weird STEM kid who is also gay”: Queer rightful presence in STEM making

ABSTRACT Background STEM participation is often associated with the disenfranchisement of historically marginalized individuals. Disrupting these standing injustices to establish rightful presence with equitable opportunity, access, and cultural standing to shape and pursue STEM endeavors in ways that are inclusive of individuals’ identities is a critical objective. However, research to understand and facilitate STEM experiences of queer youth what are also navigating their own relationships with gender- and heteronormativity is limited. Making—employing STEM to design artifacts in an informal learning environment—can disrupt conventional approaches to STEM activity in ways that support inclusive STEM engagement through crafting and personalized design. Method This social design experiment examines the ways in which the design of maker activities and spaces can support queer rightful presence within STEM spaces. Findings We found that maker communities can frame and collectively engage issues of identity formulation that are both dynamic and fluid in nature as part of bolstering STEM affinity. As participants’ multifaceted identities unfolded through making projects that deliberately invited identity into design, they established rightful presence for intertwined queer and STEM identities. Contribution This study extends the rightful presence framework to engage fluid, queer identities and illustrates making rightful presence practices that deliberately engage multifaceted identities.

For the “Briefly Gorgeous” Moment: Imagism and Queer Aesthetics in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

ABSTRACT Ocean Vuong’s epistolary novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is distinguished by its highly sensory, descriptive, and fragmented linguistic style, coupled with an anachronic, multi-line narrative strategy. These stylistic elements exemplify salient modernist aesthetics, particularly resonating with the tenets of the Imagist movement. Through the presentation of fleeting images and juxtaposed scenes across temporal and spatial boundaries, Vuong’s fiction delineates the narrator’s transient, synesthetic recollections which merge into a dynamic flow of conscious duration, constituting a notable queer racial formalist work. Moreover, Vuong’s richly sensory and affective portrayal facilitates an embodied engagement with external spaces, unraveling the complex layers of the protagonist’s Asian American queer identity. By integrating a corporeal perspective into the aesthetic process of receiving and composing, Vuong reconfigures the traditionally passive bottom role toward a more dynamic and inclusive queer performance, thus challenging the entrenched heteronormative constructions that comply with Western imperialist and masculinist discourses. Beyond empowering the “abject” bottom, Vuong’s novel also posits a shared vulnerability inherent in queer bodies, envisioning a side path for the minoritarian groups.

Dual Narratives, Shared Radiance: A Tropical Asian Queer Collaborative Autoethnography

Employing a tropical Asian queer collaborative autoethnographic approach, this article explores the unique narratives of two diasporic researchers hailing from the Philippines and Taiwan. The paper elucidates the voices, perceptions, and lived experiences of the authors and shows how these align with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory of human development, which asserts that individuals are influenced by their socio-cultural environment comprised of the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem. The relationship of these overlapping systems is explored through the lives of the two researcher-authors through personal narratives. These narratives accentuate the methodological queering aspect, employing personal vignettes as pivotal focal points. By intertwining subjective experiences within the socio-ecological systems model, the article seeks to vividly depict the knottiness of tropical Asian queer identity and experience. Through this exploration, the discourse not only enquires into the intricacies of the researcher-authors’ stories but also contributes to a broader understanding of how queer socio-cultural factors shape the diverse narratives within the queer community in tropical Asia.

“Gays in Your Living Room”: LGBTQ+ Television, Homophobia, and the Birth of Channel 4 in 1980s Britain

ABSTRACT This article examines the conflicting attitudes toward homosexuality and public-service broadcasting among British program-makers, pressure groups, newspapers, politicians, and viewers in the 1980s through the prism of Channel 4’s One in Five (1983), billed as “the first programme ever to begin to show what it means to be positively gay.” It pairs a close reading of the broadcast with wide-ranging research in the archives of broadcasters, LGBTQ+ organizations, Parliament, and the press to show why minority programming formed a major arena of contestation over the representation and rights of lesbian and gay people in late twentieth-century Britain. Straight opposition to One in Five captured the strength and characteristics of homophobia in the 1980s, while the program’s divisive effect on queer audiences illuminated divisions within the LGBTQ+ community at the cusp of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The program was dogged by difficulties in creating a cohesive queer identity capable of accommodating differences in gender and ethnicity, region and nation, lifestyle, class, sexual practices, and political orientation. The inception, production, and reception of One in Five simultaneously highlight the particularities of sexual politics in Thatcherite Britain and ongoing dilemmas about the processes and merits of achieving inclusion, diversity, and equality for marginalized groups.

Understanding the Intersection of Identity and Cancer Experience Among Racially, Ethnically, Gender and Sexual Minoritized Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer.

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs, 18-39years) with cancer identifying as racially/ethnically minoritized or 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and "+" referring to other queer identities) have been underrepresented in cancer research. This study explores the aspects of identity that hold significance for these minoritized AYAs and how these facets impact their healthcare experiences. Eligible participants comprised English-speaking AYAs who self-identified as racially/ethnically minoritized and/or 2SLGBTQIA+, were diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15-39, currently aged >18, and had received or were receiving cancer care within Canadian healthcare system. Additionally, four patient partners meeting the same criteria were recruited as research collaborators. Semi-structured one-on-one virtual interviews guided by an interview script were conducted, and qualitative analysis employed a framework approach. We recruited 23 participants from 4 Canadian provinces (mean age: 28, Range: 20-44); 17 identified as racially/ethnically minoritized, one as sexual/gender minoritized, and five as racially/ethnically and sexually/gender minoritized. Participants emphasized that their culture/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, sexuality, gender, family, career, and being an immigrant are important aspects of their identity, with only one participant recognizing their identity as a "person with cancer". A cancer diagnosis altered the aspects of identity deemed most significant by participants. Both visible and invisible aspects of identity shaped participants' experiences and influenced their level of trust in the healthcare system. Racially, ethnically, gender, or sexually minoritized AYAs with cancer place considerable importance on aspects of their identity that are shaped by their respective communities. Recognizing and respecting these identities are paramount for healthcare professionals to deliver safe and inclusive care.

Szczeliny wiejskiego pożądania – queerowa widmowość: wiśnie i mech

This article aims to analyze queer spectrality in rural areas in Zyta Oryszyn’s novel Najada (1970) and in Olga Tokarczuk’s Empuzjon (2022). In both novels, the specters of women who have experienced violence become midwives of queer identities. The haunting does not evoke an affectation of horror, but of solace – it becomes a crack in which the non-heteronormative protagonists experience respite; it is an allied haunting. Referring to the sociological imagination of Avery F. Gordon, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s queer theory and Terry Castle’s concept of the apparitional lesbian, the author distinguishes between two types of queer spectrality. Key-words: queer, rurality, spectrality, hauntology, Zyta Oryszyn, Olga Tokarczuk

‘Was I in dixie or wasn’t I:’ queer negativity and the U.S. South in Howard Cruse’s stuck rubber baby

ABSTRACT This essay examines how Howard Cruse’s graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby (1995) engages with contemporary debates on relationality and queer theory in relation to the text’s politics of the U.S. South. Drawing on theorists like Lee Edelman and Jose Esteban Munoz, the essay argues that while Cruse depicts seemingly utopic queer spaces like the Rhombus bar, these ultimately fail to achieve a true queer utopia due to the ideological constraints of the U.S. South. Instead, the novel situates its queer protagonist Toland in a suspended state of liminality, caught between heteronormativity and an unattainable queer utopia. As a response to such liminality, this essay traces how Toland attempts to assimilate into normativity by engaging with the project of reproductive futurism. However, in response to the lynching of Toland’s friend Sammy, I argue that he experiences a symbolic fragmentation, prompting him to embrace his queer identity and exist within the negative, anti-social temporality. By foregrounding the complexities of Stuck’s depiction of U.S. Southern queerness, this essay argues that the novel maintains a view of queerness as oppositional to hegemonic visions of the U.S. South while constrained by external forces of marginalisation.

Queer Experiences of Religion: How Marginalization within a Religion Affects Its Queer Members

We sought to understand how the mental state of religious queer individuals is affected by religious marginalization and queer identity. Using a multi-method approach, we analyzed data from 626 participants to assess how a queer status affected psychological distress and life satisfaction, the mediating effect of strength of faith on the relationship between the queer status and life satisfaction, and the moderating effect of experiences with marginalization on the relationship between the strength of faith, psychological distress, and life satisfaction. Queer status was found to have a significant impact on queer individuals’ psychological wellness and life satisfaction. Marginalization experiences decreased psychological wellness and life satisfaction. Our qualitative analyses add to these results, describing the weaponization of queer identity in religious settings. These results can be attributed to the strong main effects of queer status and strength of faith on psychological distress and life satisfaction rather than tertiary variables.

Neutron Star performance art workshop informed by Indigenous Knowledge, Queer Identity and quantum physics

Neutron Star performance art workshop informed by Indigenous Knowledge, Queer Identity and quantum physics

The lezurrection: lesbian identity in queer times

“Post-lesbian” discourse has posited that the increasing popularity of queer identity has challenged the endurance of lesbian identity. Using 16 in-depth interviews collected between 2019 and 2020 with people who identify as lesbian and queer, I offer empirical examples of why lesbian identity endures and the utility of the identity’s specificity. While several recent publications have also demonstrated the durability of lesbian identity, this study offers a unique portrait of this identity project in its portrayal of why some moved away from lesbian identity and why they have returned to it. I argue that there is a cultural opening for reinvigorated understandings of lesbian identity, and that it is crucial to understand this opening in order to resist the declaration that lesbian identity is in decline. To do so we must grapple with lesbian critiques of queerness, as well as the continued political relevance of lesbian. The shifts in personal identities of participants is emblematic of shifting community understandings of these identity terms over time, indicating a generational shift in perception of identities.

“I Don’t Expect the University to Support Queers”: Identity Management and Ambivalence toward Institutional Support for Queer University Students in China

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 17 participants, this study explores the experiences of Chinese queer university students in managing their queer identity on campus. A range of strategies is outlined, including passing, covering, being implicitly out, and being explicitly out. This study also presents participants’ expectations regarding institutional support, as well as their ambivalence toward it. While participants expressed various expectations of university support, they simultaneously considered institutional support difficult or impossible due to the campus climate and broader political context. Informed by queer theory and the concept of heteronormativity, this paper engages in a queer critique of Chinese higher education, examining the manifestations of heteronormativity at both institutional and interpersonal levels. Situated within the context of Xi Jinping’s presidency, which has reinforced political control over higher education in China, this study examines the impact of intensified authoritarianism on the campus experiences of queer university students. In this challenging environment, the study highlights a unique facet of contemporary China, providing empirical insights into the power dynamics among queer individuals, educational institutions, and the party-state.

‘Sex ed’ exemptions in Ontario schools

This project explores how ‘sex ed’ exemptions are being enacted in Ontario classrooms. In August 2019, the Ministry of Education issued Policy/Program Memorandum 162, requiring Ontario school boards to have a policy or procedure allowing Grade 1-8 students to be exempted from Human Development and Sexual Health curriculum expectations at their parents' request. However, rather than limiting exemptions to formal lessons in the HDSH expectations of elementary Health and Physical Education, many teachers believe that they must exempt students from any conversation, formal or not, involving 2SLGBTQ+ topics. This has the potential to further stigmatize queer identities, as well as related topics and discussions. This research is also connected the conversation of how much sway “parental rights” have in the classroom. The first stage of this project has involved collecting exemption policy documents and board exemption forms, along with tracking how findable these documents are. As of today, 56 boards appear to have responded to PPM 162, either by passing a new policy or revising an existing one. Only 41% of school boards have a description of their exemption process available through Google search, while 30% of boards do not have their process available online at all. Unfortunately, problematic organizations like Parents as First Educators and Canadian Gender Report—both of which publish ‘resources’ claiming that parents have the right to exempt their children from all content about gender and sexual diversity—have materials which appear easily on Google search, sometimes even before authorized school board pages. If school boards do not have official exemption processes and forms readily available online, it is possible that parents will turn to these problematic documents instead. These gaps in the online availability of official board information may contribute to the dangerous misunderstandings present in how ‘sex ed’ exemptions are handled in Ontario schools.

Queering Masculinities in the Middle East (SWANA) and South Asia

One of the most important shifts in gender scholarship is the attention now being paid to discourses and practices of masculinity in the Global South. This issue of Men and Masculinities contributes to this growing field in three important ways. First, we foreground scholarship on masculinities in two interconnected, but understudied regions of the world, specifically the Middle East, which is also known as South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), and its neighbor to the east, South Asia. In particular, we demonstrate the ways in which queer identities and communities are being formed across these two regions, connected as they are by historic trade routes, migration pathways, and transregional cultural flows. Second, we point to the vibrant masculinities scholarship that is emerging from these regions. But we focus specifically on non-normative masculinities—or the queer, trans, and other genderqueer masculinities—which have been historically present in these two regions, but which have been much less represented in masculinities literature. Third, we look to identity formation, or the ways in which young cis-gender, trans, and queer men come out in their communities and seek authentic lives of desire, pleasure, and participation. At the same time, we highlight the ever-present precarity within queer communities in the Middle East/SWANA and South Asia, especially given postcolonial nationalist and ethno-nationalist agendas, which promote normative heteropatriarchal masculinities and concomitant homophobia and transphobia.

Symposium: From coming out to coming in: Roundtable conversation among Southeast Asian queer theologians

Through a roundtable conversation via Zoom, teachers, pastors, and graduate students discussed the place of gender, citizenship, and faith in their identity formation and social accountability to articulate a hermeneutical lens specific to Southeast Asian contexts that shape and critique queer identities. These participants—primarily ministers, theological students, and seminary formators—engaged in organic, fluid, and multifocal turns to capture experiences that undergird the realities of women and LGBTQIQ+ people of faith in the region.

Sarah Leavitt’s <i>Tangles</i>: Teaching Queer Caregiving Memoir on Disability, and Pedagogy as Resistance

This article examines Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel <i>Tangles: A story about Alzheimer’s, my mother and me</i> (2010, 2011 UK), in relation to queer identity, feminist wilfulness (Ahmed, 2014), and critical disability studies. <i>Tangles</i> takes up themes of lesbianism, disability, and activism, and it does so through storytelling. Studies around life writing and disability, including the dementia disease Alzheimer’s, point the reader strongly toward recognition of the key importance of storytelling in the preservation of selfhood. Whose stories are told, and whose are not, and by whom? How can or does patient selfhood emerge or survive in caregiving narratives written and/or drawn by others? This article examines graphic memoir in the contexts of Comics Studies, Canadian Gender Studies and Critical Disability Studies.

Reconciliation of Indian rainbow parents: The transition of psyche from denial to pride

Despite the legal recognition of decriminalising same-sex marriages, Indian parents struggle to unlearn the constructed norm of heteronormativity. Parents often experience significant psychological distress when learning about their children’s Queer identities. The Indian cultural unconscious constantly police their psyche to reject any traces of deviation from the norm. Sudhir Kakkar, an Indian psychoanalyst extensively discusses the impact of culture on the Indian psyche, mirroring their understanding of sexuality. The present research attempted to analyse the major concerns of Indian rainbow parents, followed by examining how the cultural unconscious and the Indian self of parents operate through a lens of cultural psychology. It further enquired about possible measures to redefine their understanding of Indian sexuality. The research employs a qualitative approach in which information is collected through online descriptive questionnaires filled out by Indian rainbow parents. Later, the collected information was analysed through the lens of Sudhir Kakkar's cultural psychology to trace the transition of their psyche from denial to pride in real-time.

Post-Internet Music: Negotiating Queer Identity in the Digital Era

My paper investigates an electronic music genre that emerged in the 2010s, in conjunction with the rise of attention to identity politics on mainstream platforms. The genre does not have a definite name; however, attempts have been made by critics (see, for example, Waugh 2017) to categorise it under the umbrella term "post-internet music". Such a label encompasses different and often competing sub-genres, all of which nonetheless share an imbrication in internet discourse: these range from Hyperpop, to ‘Deconstructed Club, to ‘Conceptronica’ (Reynolds 2019). As such, the post-internet genre has three distinguishing features: a) many artists operating within it identify both themselves and their music as queer; b) on the sonic side, the genre often comprises complex sound design, loud mixes, a wide stereo field, organic drum samples, pitched-up vocals, and beats that elude conventional time-signatures, so as to sound "deconstructed"; c) the music often makes overt or subtle reference to internet culture, and the digital domain. I seek to place particular attention to the conjuncture between the genre's sonic properties and its ‘queerness’, arguing that the genre is both enabled by, but also enables, internet-mediated identity categories. In this sense, I question what it means to be queer in the contemporary neoliberal era, how this might historically differ from previous elaborations of queerness, and to what extent electronic music - a genre so entrenched in masculinist narratives of technology - can act as a vehicle for counter-normative expression. 

“My queer identity and my family identity are two very separate things”: A mixed-methods study investigating the psychological implications of family identity and support for trans and gender diverse youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My queer identity and my family identity are two very separate things”: A mixed-methods study investigating the psychological implications of family identity and support for trans and gender diverse youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paesaggi dell’interstizio. Per un Illuminismo post-coloniale

The landscape of tomorrow can be imagined today starting from events currently emerging from what Michel Foucault called “the interstice”. According to him, the interstice is the gray area that lies between the fundamental choices and exclusion’s strategies that every culture accomplishes to affirm its identity. Some of these interstices have been brought to light precisely in the context of landscape theories, notably by Gilles Clément. Others, however, are now emerging in political fields where landscape is not the object of a theory, but a reference for struggle and contestation. Thus, starting from a visit to the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, this essay outlines the intertwining between some interstitial movements of today - post-colonial studies, migrations, queer identities - and their impact on a possible landscape to come: not identitarian but fluid, inclusive and open towards a new idea of cosmopolitism.

A journey worth taking: language and migration narratives in Nigerian queer X (Twitter) discourse

ABSTRACT The demonstrative endangerment scenario of queerphobia manifests in diverse nuanced ways in Nigeria, culminating in closeting, restricted livability and, in the case of the focus of the present study, migration to queer-enabling spaces. Interests in queer-migratory trends continue to swell in existing literature, foregrounding the critical role mobilities play in queer identities, especially when situated post-2014, after the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. In this study, I interrogate digital narratives from Nigerian Twitter with focus placed on the role of language in establishing identity and ideological constructs within the context of queer migration. Two main dichotomies are established – individualized/personalized narratives and group/communal narratives. Individualized narratives provide positionality by locating the individual within the multidimensional challenges to queer livability. The group narratives, however, draw attention to institutional and governmental complicities in the structures that continue to inhibit queerness. A major identification is that the restrictions to queer livability exist in both Nigeria and in perceived queer-enabling spaces, although their manifestations differ.