A Group Interview with the Editors of Queering Christianity - Part II

Part II of yesterday's interview:

What do you want readers to learn from your book?

R. Shore-Goss (RS): As non-LGBTQI readers read the book, they will see how queer Christians share some of the similar experiences of Christianity with unique differences as well. There is a place for all of us at the table. The mission of the open and inclusive table, that repeats the historical Jesus, is a powerful symbol of God’s wild grace.

Cheng (PC): My hope is that the readers of our book will recognize the diversity of perspectives that exist within queer theology, and that the book can help others to find their own theological voices.

Bohache (TB):That God’s table has always been open. It is the gatekeepers who have restricted it.

Thomas (NT): I would like readers to hear both an alternative voice and the liberation that the book offers to our Sacred Text. Many will, I hope, give God a second, third or  . . . chance to discover a liberating, loving and inclusive God.

J. Shore-Goss (JSG): My chapters were about allowing space for deep listening, yet throughout the book there is the challenge to open up, allow light into the places that were once dark and know—truly know—that all are welcome to the table . . . that in the Creator's eyes we are all one, all worthy, and all loved.

More (MM): I hope they think, and question what they thought they knew, and become aware of a greater expanse of God’s grace in the world.

Saniuk (JS):To give themselves permission to see Jesus in the light of their own experiences, not just in what they have been taught to believe; to see him as a companion who encountered incredible brutality . . . and then rose again.

If your book inspired one change in the world, what would you want it to be?

RS: Greater inclusiveness of the Christian denominations of queer theologies and voices and more “green” churches.

PC: I would love to see religious discussions about LGBTQI issues move from polarized debates to polyvalent conversations in which multiple perspectives are held together in creative tension.

TB:More inclusivity and greater discussion of queer issues in the church and more interest in theology within the queer community(ies).

NT: The ultimate and radical full inclusion of God’s people regardless of gender, gender identity, race, color, faith experience, age, or other “ism” that excludes and separates people into an “in” or “out” group!

JSG: My wish would be that all churches and religions find a place for LGBTQI persons at their tables. Once our faith communities find a way of seeing all as equal, so will the rest of our societies.

MM: The one change I would pray for is that people come to openly accept transgenders as they wish to be—normalized in society without the stigma of hate and marginalization, and without being abused by fundamentalist misuse of the Bible as a weapon against them.

JS:For churches to stop demonizing LGBTQI people (among others) in the name of God.

Where might others focus their energies in following on your work in this area?

RS: The development of heterosexual queer theologies, more reflections on transgendered and intersexed theologies, a theology of sexuality (inclusive of married, single, and alternative configurations) that pushes the exploration of the interconnections of sexuality and spirituality.

PC: My hope is that more LGBTQI theologians will write about the intersections of race and sexuality and, in particular, about the significant contributions that LGBTQI people of color have made to queer theology.

TB:Sexual minorities within the LGBTQI community(ies)

NT: I hope that a Theology of Inclusion might one day be developed.

JSG: This is a Christianity-based book coming out of the Metropolitan Community Churches experience of the open table. I would love to see other people of faith start to explore and see what something similar may look like in their context, Christian and non-Christian alike.

JS:I would love to see even more “queered” worship forms! We have an incredible freedom in MCC to re-make our collective spiritual practice. The open Communion table is just the beginning.

What are you working on now?

RS: I have the copyright for Jesus ACTED UP: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto. It appeared in 1993 and was a classic in starting queer theology. I was just introduced as the “father of queer theology” at the UCC General Synod by a queer clergy. I intend to publish this classic in Kindle form: Jesus ACTED UP: Then and Now. I will re-publish the original book, and I have asked several scholars to talk about the then and the now (where are we going). I am also enmeshed in a Christian green theology and hope to have completed it in the fall of 2014.

PC: I am currently writing about what theologians need to know about queer theory for a forthcoming work on theology, sexuality, and gender.

TB: A book on “queering the Body of Christ” – expanding the disreputable ecclesiology touched on in my chapter “Unzipping Church” in Queering Christianity.

NT: Continue to work on marriage equality, immigration, the environment, equal access to health care, HIV/AIDS, poverty. Future book: "A Theology of Inclusion: The Emerging Church in the 21st Century."

JSG: I am currently studying and researching for my Ph.D. through the Graduate Theological Foundation. I am looking at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as an international queer pluralistic spiritual community for the 21^stcentury.

JS: There is really interesting work on shame in congregations that is just coming out. I also am looking more deeply into the particularities of the “T” side of LGBTQI, and intersections with race and gender that I haven’t yet been able to explore.

A Group Interview with the Editors of Queering Christianity - Part I

Why is the publication of Queering Christianity important at this moment in history—that is, how does it relate to today's news headlines or connect to contemporary questions or issues?

Robert Shore-Goss (RS): As the ghettoized church is drawing to an end, except for some geographic areas, it brings LGBTQI experience into dialogue with mainstream Christian denominations. At the recent UCC General Synod, the head of the Open and Affirming Churches(some 1,200 churches) indicated plans to recommend the book. There is a strong parallel between marriage equality and churches opening up to include LGBTQI people into their churches, ordaining them and marrying them. This has led an upsurge of gay/lesbian students in the seminaries.

Patrick Cheng (PC): LGBTQI issues have been in the headlines recently with the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California Proposition 8. Religious debates over LGBTQI issues remain hotly contested, however, and I believe that books such as Queering Christianity are important contributions to the broader conversations about LGBTQI issues.

Thomas Bohache (TB): In the public/civil/secular sphere we see more and more progress in rights for LGBTQI people. However, we do not see the same sort of progress in the religious sphere. This book I believe will open non-queer people to some points of view foreign to them; for queer people, the book will make them realize that they do indeed have a place at the table, even if they have not yet found it.

Neil Thomas (NT): In the changing religious and political scene, with the growing acceptance of LGBTQI peoples in mainline religious organizations, this book is both vital and timely in the ongoing understanding and evolution of God’s revealed Word.

Joseph Shore-Goss (JSG): As the marriage equality movement moves forward in the United States and in other countries there are still places where the LGBTQI community are still persecuted and even killed for being who they are…created and loved in God’s image. This book helps move that conversation forward…but more importantly, move it forward in a Christian context.

Megan More (MM): With the increased focus on the LGBTQI community regarding marriage equality and job protections, removing the stigma and dispelling the ignorance is more important than ever, especially when it comes to religion and dogma.

Joan Saniuk (JS): We are in the midst of an incredible sea change in the culture. The overturning of DOMA is a legal acknowledgment that LGBTQI people, and the families we form (or not), are for real. Queering Christianitygives voice to the experience, and wisdom, that this community has learned in the past half-century. It’s a perfect time to bring that wisdom out into the open.

What drew you to the topic of Queering Christianity? How does the topic relate to you personally?

PC: As an openly gay seminary professor and a queer theologian, I have written extensively about the intersections of theology, pastoral care, and the spiritual lives of LGBTQI people.

TB: Inclusivity is extremely important to me for it is the central message of Jesus. We cannot call ourselves followers of Christ if we do not embrace and encourage inclusivity across all boundaries. I am a gay man who was ejected from the table and told not to make a reservation again, so this topic is very dear to my heart. After 25 years of ministry to the LGBTQI community(ies), I see that it is still just as important as it was in my youth.

NT: As a pastor in Metropolitan Community Churches for the past 24 years, this is both my journey and my story to understand that God’s Word is queer, subversive, and includes me.

JSG: I have to admit my husband is an editor so I am close to the context to begin with. I had just finished my M.A. thesis on pastoral care and counseling with transgendered youth and that is what actually led to the invite to write for the book. I have been openly gay and active in the LGBTQI community since I was 22. I have always been involved deeply in my community, and this book allowed me to engage some topics in a deep spiritual context where my passion for my faith and my community can come together.

MM: As a transwoman and ordained minister, I feel that a legitimate "trans" voice must be heard.

JS: I joined MCC in the 1990s –a time of horrific stress in the queer and HIV-affected communities. It was both baffling, and alarming, to see many organizations disintegrate, whether through exhaustion or with bizarre infighting, as Eric Rofes and Urvashi Vaid among others have chronicled. I needed to understand how I—how we as MCC—could maintain a ministry of hope amid all that chaos.

What did you learn in the course of your research; what discovery surprised you the most?

TB: That the diverse types of discrimination are all located in the concept of power—who has it, who wants it, and what people do to keep it.

Thomas: I discovered much more about God’s radical inclusion and the misinterpretation of God’s Word as revealed through evangelical Christianity, which has dominated the religious discourse in this past century. This dominant culture is shifting and changing, and a more progressive voice is emerging.

JSG: What truly astounded me in my research was that no one--I mean no one--had addressed pastoral care for transgendered youth. This is one of the most underserved populations within the queer community and a group at the highest risk as often they are kicked out of homes, living on the streets, susceptible to drug abuse, prostitution, and/or rape.

MM: Little surprised me in relation to my own writing, since these are issues that have been dear to my heart for some time. Realizing how this has affected other theologians and authors was my own pleasant surprise.

JS: I discovered Leanne McCall Tigert’s work on trauma theory at the same time that I was studying congregations where there had been abuse. Suddenly, all the drama I’d observed began to fit into a larger pattern.

What challenges did you face in your research or writing?

JSG: The most difficult thing was taking old concepts or hetero-normative language and seeking out the expression of thought that I believed would be more accessible to the LGBTQI community.

MM: My only real challenges is the lack of writing on this issue overall. Transgenders in religion is not a very expansive subject, yet.

JS: I really struggled with how to apply the information from trauma theory, to talk about some very real psychological challenges without pathologizing. 

Another Reason You Should Want Gay/Lesbian Marriage (Hint: Because It’s Wonderful)

By: Martin Kantor, MD

Gay Pride Week is among the best of times to contemplate the political realities of gay marriage. It is crucial that marriage be an option for those gay men, as well as lesbians, who strongly believe that being officially married feels right, and should be available to them without their having to beg for it, or having to spend too many hours away from home trying to alter the political scene just to get something they should by rights already have.

But the issue of “is it desirable for you?” is as important as the issue of “should it be legal for everyone?” For gay men and lesbians need to see marriage not only in terms of its practical benefits, but also in terms of “what are its joys as well as its challenges?” Will you be contented if you enter into a permanent gay or lesbian partnership? Is gay/lesbian marriage the royal road to your happiness?

Gay and lesbian marriage, like anything else, has its downsides. It’s squarer, more establishment, more routine, and more predictable than any of the alternatives. You lose some freedom, you have to make some compromises, and you have to think of someone besides yourself. You take on some financial risk and you take on emotional risk too just by getting involved with and trusting another person. But in my opinion being single is even harder, and far less fun. Being married is a sanctuary; it keeps you healthy and stabilizes you emotionally; it keeps you from needing to depend on the kindnesses of strangers; it helps you build a life by giving you something to do and someone to do it with. Professionally you will be better able to concentrate on your job instead of expending all your energy searching. And it helps you be happy forever, not just when you are young. Should you get sick you will have a caring hand to help make you well, and when you die you will have something to leave behind, and someone to leave it to.

So my message at this time is this: work not only to make such marriage a political reality, also work at making a permanent partnership your personal goal.

Make that happen for you as it happened to me. Discover the happiness, joy, peace, and harmony of a wonderful marital relationship. Help others partake of this particular blessing. Be also blessed on your own by what you have helped create. 

Now That You're Out: The Challenges and Joys of Living as a Gay Man

Martin Kantor, MD

This book is an invaluable resource manual and survival guide for gay men who often turn to peers, parents, educators, or the media for direction, only to encounter misleading myths about gay life, such as the notion that "coming out solves everything."

The Debate Over Same-sex Marriage, 1953-1959—and Sixty Years Later

By: Jim Elledge

On Sunday morning, May 6, Vice-President Joe Biden looked Meet the Press host David Gregory straight in the eye and announced his support of same-sex marriage. While not quite the second “shot heard round the world,” it nevertheless heralded a new, and long overdue, support of equality for all Americans. Within days, President Barack Obama made his own stance public. His views had evolved, and now he, too, would support equality in marriage. Had it not been for the unblinking eye of TV, Gregory’s moxie, and Biden’s honesty, we’d probably still be in the dark about Obama and what may very well be a deciding factor in the next election among right-wing Christians—and right-wing others.

Many of us believe that the debate over what is usually called “gay marriage” is a relatively new phenomenon in this country. We typically believe it’s a product of the push for human rights by various political ideologies at the end of the twentieth century, a consequence of TV’s inclusivity (from its Uncle Tom-ish—or would be Auntie Mame-ish?—Three’s Company to the much more with-it Modern Life), and the result of the liberalism of many icons of popular culture, from Brangelina to Lady Gaga. But that’s not the case. The debate originated in the 1950s.

While I was compiling the essays in the three-volume Queers in American Popular Culture that I edited for Praeger/ABC-Clio (2010), C. Todd White submitted an eye-opening essay that he’d written entitled “Marry, Mary! (Quite Contrary): Homosexual Marriage in ONE Magazine, 1953-1959” to me. In it, White shines the spotlight on the debate among queer people—not between liberals and conservatives—about same-sex marriage as it played out in L.A.’s leading magazine for gay men and women. Appearing in its August 1953 issue, E.B. Saunders’ “Reformer’s Choice: Marriage License or Just License?” was the first published article to explore that debate, often tongue-in-cheek, and caused a stir.

Saunders succinctly revealed the complexity of the concept of gay marriage in Cold War America when he announced that the debate was premature: “Is it not a bit crazy to talk of homosexual marriage when homosexual sex is still forbidden?” In every state in the Union, same-sex sexual activities were illegal, and those caught engaged in them were subject to fines and/or prison terms. Premature or not, “homosexual marriage” became a hot topic in ONE’s Letters to the Editor column in subsequent issues. Interestingly, many gays pooh-poohed the idea because they were against aping heterosexual conventions. Eventually, the hubbub died down, ONE published other pieces, subscribers wrote other letters, and in June 1969, the world of gay men and women changed forever because of the riot at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

Almost sixty years ago, the first debate of same-sex marriage was noted in an obscure magazine with a tiny subscription base and quickly forgotten. Then as now, popular culture played an important role in the debate. Then as now, it was a complicated issue. 

Christianity is a Queer Thing

By: Jay Emerson Johnson

Religion is by far the biggest roadblock on the journey toward full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. For that fact alone, secular activists ignore religion at their own peril. This is especially true in the United States, a country that supposedly separates “church” from “state” in its social policy deliberations. But of course, voters rarely if ever leave their religious convictions behind when they enter the voting booth. Unless and until people of faith and religious institutions come on board with LGBT social justice, the movement will stall.

So I am committed to changing religious discourse on sexuality and gender for the sake of social justice, and great strides have been made in that regard over the last fifteen years. I am just as passionate about changing that discourse for the sake of religion, for religious practice, for spirituality. LGBT-identified people, both today and historically, offer profound insights for that work – not for themselves alone, but for everyone.

As a priest in the Episcopal Church and a Christian theologian, I no longer worry about how to justify the presence of “homosexuals” in Christian churches. That argument has been made repeatedly and persuasively for decades now. I am much more interested in and passionate about the potential of LGBT sensibilities to transform religion itself; and indeed, those sensibilities have already been doing that kind of work for many decades. Some would argue that such work has been going on for centuries.

In both my academic and pastoral work, I find the insights of “queer theorists” to be particularly helpful in transforming contemporary religion, and especially for me, Christianity.

“Queer” means different things to different people, of course. Prior to the twentieth century, “queer” was a somewhat benign synonym for whatever was unusual, rather odd, or a bit peculiar. It eventually attached to those who were perceived to be “homosexual” or those who didn’t quite conform to standard ways of acting like a man or a woman.

In the 1990s, some individuals and communities, especially in the United States, retrieved “queer” in a more positive yet intentionally counter-cultural fashion. At roughly the same time, “queer theory” also emerged as a burgeoning academic discipline which has, in some locations, eclipsed “gay and lesbian studies” as the preferred mode of analyzing, interrogating, and reflecting on the spectrum of diverse sexualities and genders.

I understand queer theorizing to be rooted in a deep suspicion of fixed and stable gender identities, which also extends that critical analysis toward similar complexities regarding race and ethnicity, and class and economics, and how these intersect with political policies and ideologies.

I am particularly fond of William Turner’s musings about whether everyone might in some sense, and at various times, be “queer,” since queerness refers to the experience of not fitting in to established and assumed categories of experience or patterns of relation. I believe that adopting this rather “queer” posture in Christianity offers enormous potential. Beyond apologetic or assimilationist arguments, in other words, one can find queer insights in the history of Christianity that carry the potential to revitalize and transform not only the academic discipline of theology, but also the practice of Christian faith and ministry, and not only for the benefit of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people but for the whole people of God. As Elizabeth Stuart has argued, “Christianity itself is a queer thing.”


I am so proud to have worked with my friend and colleague Donald Boisvert in collecting and editing the essays in the two-volume anthology, QueerReligion. The breadth and depth of these essays, spanning both historical eras and religious traditions, bear ample witness to the queer transformation of religion. Working on that project renewed my hope, not only for LGBT-identified people, but for everyone who cares to ponder the significance of religion in the project of human and, indeed, planetary thriving.

Queer Religion: An Interview with Co-editor Donald L. Boisvert

What prompted you to co-edit Queer Religion?  What “message” did you want to convey?

When Jay and I started thinking about Queer Religion, our intent was to make it an all-purpose 3-volume reference collection looking at religion and same-sex desire.  There’s lots of material out there on religion and homosexuality, but no one had really attempted to bring it all together in an accessible yet scholarly manner.  That was our challenge.  We eventually whittled the collection down to 2 volumes, with the first providing a general historical survey and the second focusing on more contemporary manifestations of “queer” religious writing.  Actually, the two volumes follow the general arc of the historical development of the LGBT movement.  We also wanted to be as inclusive as we could of non-Christian voices and perspectives, though that is always a challenge.  We didn’t necessarily have a particular “message” to convey, though we did want to demonstrate that religion and same-sex desire are not mutually exclusive.  We were fairly insistent on including the word Queer in the title, so as to be quite clear about the overall inclusiveness of the volumes.

What was the highlight of your research?  In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?  What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

The three introductions that we wrote for the collection provide the reader, I think, with a really good summary of the issues and challenges of studying and writing about religion and same-sex desire—and, of course, of actually living as an LGBTQ religious or spiritual person.  There aren’t any really big discoveries to be made, if only to be pleasantly surprised about the fact that religious thought is not totally negative when it comes to queer desire.  Queer Religion provides an eclectic mix of essays written by veteran and new voices, but it also brings together different styles of writing, from the scholarly to the autobiographical.  That was important for us.  We wanted to show that this was not just an academic enterprise, but an intensely personal one, and that, for queer people, religion is so much more than something distant and oppressive.

How did your research change your outlook on religion and same-sex desire?

Speaking for myself, it didn’t fundamentally change my outlook.  Both Jay and I have written extensively about these issues.  But what editing Queer Religion did do for me was to reaffirm my hope and my genuine joy at reading and hearing, once again, the beauty and wonder of the queer religious voice, as well as its amazing variance.

How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas set forth?  Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?

It’s always a bit difficult to gauge people’s reactions.  Reviews have been positive, and some have remarked on the attractive design of the collection.  Content-wise, it’s still making its way, but I think it will become one of those unavoidable reference works on religion and same-sex desire.  And that’s really all we could ask for.  There’s always more to be done.  A collection of essays written by young religious queers would really be important.  Maybe someone out there will take up the challenge.  

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a new book looking at masculinities in Catholic cultures. 

Transgender In The Workplace: An Idea Whose Time Is Now

It’s a remarkable moment to be openly transgender and working for a living.  Extraordinary progress has occurred in this timely area of business interest over the last dozen years or so.  For example, in the year 2000 there were only three Fortune500 companies with anti-discrimination protection for transgender employees.  Today, nearly half of the Fortune 500 organizations have adopted policies that protect transgender employees from discrimination.

Despite various political efforts to pass a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), there is still no federal statute that protects transgender workers.  However, in an amazing turn of events, in April of 2012, the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects transgender workers from on-the-job discrimination. The ruling formally took effect on May 23, 2012, and the nation's employers have now officially been put on notice that transgender discrimination won't be tolerated in the workplace.

With all this activity swirling around the transgender phenomenon, factual resources are sorely needed to help organizations deal with the many ramifications.  However, until ABC-CLIO chose to publish my book, The Complete Guide to Transgender in the Workplace, there had never been a full-length, hardcover volume on this leading-edge business topic.  I am pleased to report that many people and organizations throughout the country and around the world have found the book to be a useful tool.

The goal was always to help people.  That’s why I wrote my book.  If the book didn’t make a difference, then the entire exercise was a waste of time and energy.  However, I’m pleased to say that my book is helping organizations to evolve and people to learn and grow.

One of the most gratifying responses I have received was from Europe.  Let me share it with you:

I’m a 47-year-old transsexual woman that recently transitioned successfully at work at Telefónica R&D, in Spain.  Your book, “The Complete Guide to Transgender in the Workplace,” has been vital in the success of my transition at work.  I am eternally grateful to you for having written it.

--Amanda Azañón

It’s a humbling thing to know that someone half a world away found my book useful in her successful transition on the job.  I take no credit for her success, but I’m glad I was able to help in some small way.  I’ll probably never meet Amanda Azañón in person, but I know that her life is now a little better because of something I did.  How can you put a price on something like that?  All I can say it that it feels very, very good.

I’m going to share a secret with you: my book was rejected 116 times by literary agents and other publishing houses before ABC-CLIO agreed to publish it.  I’m not sure what that says about the book, but I think it says something about the lack of insight and/or courage demonstrated by those who turned it down.  ABC-CLIO recognized that transgender in the workplace is a viable, relevant area of business interest, and I’m grateful to the company for making the choice to publish my book.  Organizations have been positively impacted and people’s lives have been changed because of that forward-thinking--and historic--decision by this publishing company.

As we celebrate LGBT pride, let’s remember that progress really is being made, hearts and minds are being touched, and transgender inclusion is more of a reality today than ever before.  I’m honored to be one of many who are working to make a difference in this area.  Thank you, ABC-CLIO, for doing your part.

Vanessa Sheridan’s website:

www.vanessasheridan.com

Vanessa Sheridan’s Twitter page:

@transconsultant

An Introduction to Pride Month

Glorious June, the beginning of summer and the month when gay pride parades crisscross the globe commemorating the1969 Stonewall Riots; the month when ordinary looking men and women join their stunningly handsome and beautiful and their exotic and eccentric brothers and sisters on floats, at times showing more skin than anyone across America really needs to see on television. Of course, the heterosexual girls strutting their wares on spring break are doing much the same thing.

June is one of the two times of the year when the GLBTQ community traditionally pauses to celebrate our major and modest successes in securing what ought to be our unchallenged liberties, and to protest those who would impede our march to freedom.

Twenty-five years ago, it was also the month when Americans would get their annual exposure to the term “gay rights” blasted across the airwaves.  Not so anymore, as the battles for and against these rights are mentioned daily in the national and international media.

This year, men and women in the U.S. military will openly march in these parades. We will celebrate a growing support for marriage equality, including that of our President who dragged his feet and used his vice president as a test balloon before coming out in favor – while we try to make sense of this support contrasted against state electorates that are adding constitutional bans against such unions. And for those of us who are research wonks, we will pause to acknowledge Richard Spitzer’s long over due, but nonetheless much welcomed recanting of his terribly flawed study that has been touted for over a decade as proof that reparative therapy and other forms of interventions can cure homosexuality.

As these parades move through the streets of America and well beyond, in Jacksonville Florida our focus will be on an extraordinary coalition of GLBTQ community, titans of local and national businesses, leaders of faith communities and former and current political figures from across the aisles that have come together to nudge our city into the twenty-first century with the passage of amendments to our local human rights ordinances – amendments that would prohibit discrimination against members of the GLBTQ community in the workplace, housing and public accommodations. For many within our community, as is true across the land of the brave, the question of employment rights has already been settled by corporate policies. But now in Jacksonville we seek to codify these rights into law so that all of the citizens of this the largest city by land mass can join the 50% or more of you out there in the blogosphere who take these rights for granted. 

As I sit dead center in the middle of this local struggle, I am keenly aware that our conversation is but a reflection of the larger conversations that continue across America.  Reaffirmed by the allies who have jumped on the train with us and completely unsurprised by those who would throw obstructions onto the tracks in an effort to derail us, I am burdened by the question of how many of the GLBTQ community can remain on this train.  We have our Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic Bishop supporting the measure for gays, lesbians and bisexuals, but stopping short of mentioning the Ts and some of the Qs.  And we have women and men who sit on the City Council questioning the inclusion of the words “gender identity” and “gender expression” in our local amendments, pointing to some of the earliest amendments in the state that still don’t carry this nomenclature.

The solid support for sexual orientation contrasted against the silent and open resistance to mention of gender Identity and gender expression is causing me great angst.  I feel torn between playing the roles of U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin versus Congressman Barney Frank during the 2007 House of Representatives fight over ENDA, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act that would have ended GLB discrimination across the country. In this debate, Ms. Baldwin demanded that transgender people be included in the legislation at any and all costs. Mr. Frank certainly supported this inclusion, but not at the expense of the bill dying in the legislature.

In writing Queer Questions, Clear Answers, I focused on questions about issues surrounding sexual orientation, only occasionally commenting on transgender members of our community.  And when I did speak of these sisters and brothers I was forced to note my lack of knowledge and understanding about the issues that they faced, and to confess my own very early history of discomfort.  A discomfort remedied by personal friendships with transgender and gender-queer individuals – the kinds of friendships that occur when honest intimacy replaces cordial or forced banter.  If it took me time to learn to love and respect these, the “untouchables” of our day, how can I now expect my straight allies to understand why these men and women are in most need of these protections?  How do I make real the message that until we are all free, none of us is truly free?

As gays and lesbians, we self-inflicted at least some of the wounds we have suffered by hiding in our closets, socializing on the margins, and denying our existence even to ourselves.  You just have to compare 13^th and 14^th century Japan where homosexuality was openly admitted and spoken of to Europe of the same era, where it was most often hidden in the shadows, to understand this. In the early 20^th century no one had to know that the person working in the office next to him was gay. This ignorance made it easy for the heterosexual to remain fearful, suspicious and ill informed about who we are.  Then starting slowly in 1969 but later going full steam ahead, we openly declared our presence. And our families and friends began to recognize our humanity and work with us to secure our rights, often urging us not to move too quickly or expect too much.

But how does the transgender person accomplish the same thing – getting the job and then coming out of the closet, without these protections? With low numbers of transgender individuals, most Americans have little to no opportunity to meet them and to learn the incredible stories behind their metamorphoses and the pains they suffer with their new identity contrasted against the pains that ravaged them before their acceptance of self. Nor do we Americans understand that these women and men pose no more and, based on crime data, most likely much less threat to our children than the heterosexual living next door.  Yes, we are uncomfortable with looking at them because of their differences, but differences always make us uncomfortable. We are also troubled looking at the extreme burn patient and we feel awkward talking to the individual with extreme cerebral palsy until we meet them as a friend.  Our discomfort can not be equated with threat or allow for rejection.

So what do I do this June as much of the world celebrates gay pride?  Do I accept a vote that gives gays and lesbians in Jacksonville Florida rights in the workplace, housing and public accommodation that should have been theirs all along and then continue to work for the rights of people equally deserving and in greater need?  Or do I say “no, it’s all or nothing?”  To further complicate this decision is the ironic fact that a little less than a month ago the EEOC passed a ruling that would protect gender identity and gender expression but not sexual orientation in employment.  But even with this, these groups remain unprotected in housing and public accommodation.   And, because they’re based on an EEOC ruling, these protections are open to challenge in the federal court.  One decision makes a great politician; one makes a great humanitarian. What if I want to be both? Stay tuned….

Interview with Jim Elledge, Author of Queers in American Popular Culture

Q: What prompted you to write Queers in American Popular Culture? What "message" do you want to communicate?


I’ve always been interested in the evolution of how U.S. culture in general perceives the GLBT community, and one of the best ways to track that (I believe) is through the larger culture’s depiction of GLBTs in the popular culture. Interestingly, LGBT persons have been portrayed in popular literature, popular art, and in the various forms of everyday media for many, many decades. That’s why I edited the 3-volume set, Queers in American Popular Culture.


Q: What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?


One of the most interesting moments of gathering together the essays—and there’s a lot of them!—is discovering that the issue of same-sex “marriage” has been around since the 1950s. It was a hot topic among gay men and women in those days, although it was never an issue among members of the larger community until quite recently. Readers have commented to me about any number of essays in the book that explore very unexpected topics, among them: the man considered to be the father of body building, Eugen Sandow, had a boy friend; blaxploitation films of the 1970s depicted gay and lesbian characters; and over the years, a series of cookbooks aimed at lesbians have been published.

Q: How did your research change your outlook on queers and popular culture?


I’m not sure it changed my outlook per se. It certainly broadened my own perception of how the portrayals of the LGBT community have evolved from the 1880s or so until now.


Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?


There’s always more work to be done because the LBGT community evolves continually and, with it, how it’s depicted in popular culture. I believe Queers in American Popular Culture has done an excellent job accomplishing what I set out to do and in opening the doors for more work.


Q: What's next for you?


My next collection of poetry, entitled H, is due out June or July 2012 from Lethe Press, and I’m finishing up a biography, tentatively entitled Throw-Away Boy: A Life of Henry Darger, which I’ve been at work on for ten years. It’s forthcoming from Overlook Press probably in Fall 2014.