Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

Keep Claiming Space!, Koritha Mitchell

Koritha Mitchell

Substantial foreword to the "Hands Up. Don't Shoot!" special issue of CLAJ.

El Puto Que Busca Donde No Debe Encuentra Lo Que No Quiere: La Búsqueda De La Autorrealización En Los Inestables (1968) De Alberto X. Teruel, Juan Carlos Rocha Osornio

Juan Carlos Rocha Osornio, Ph.D

No abstract provided.

Queer Decolonial: Quando As Teorias Viajam, Pedro Paulo Gomes Pereira

Pedro Paulo Gomes Pereira

Este artigo busca acompanhar viagens de teorias para delinear os contornos principais do encontro entre teoria queer e pensamento decolonial. A tentativa é, de forma inicial e provisória e sem qualquer pretensão de responder definitivamente às questões, formular perguntas como: o encontro entre pensamento decolonial e teoria queer poderia produzir algo mais para que se pudesse falar, como enunciado no título deste artigo, em um “queer decolonial”? Ou seriam teorias incompatíveis, já que o próprio fato de o termo queer estar em inglês sinalizaria uma geopolítica a que o pensamento decolonial buscaria exatamente se contrapor? Haveria algo em comum nessas …

The New 'Porn Wars': Representing Gay Male Sexuality In The Middle East, Evangelos Tziallas

Evangelos Tziallas

This article argues that Michael Lucas’ Men of Israel was made in response to the rising popularity of Arab themes, performers and locations in recent gay male pornography, particularly American studio-based productions. The article explores how recent representations of Arab society, culture and men in gay male pornography employ varying degrees of performativity and authenticity in an attempt to break down differences, and bridge connections, between East and West, while Lucas and his film attempt to maintain that rigid imaginary border. I argue that the texts are a microcosm of the contentious and ongoing debates about homosexuality in the East …

A Rare Species In The Midwest, Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada

No abstract provided.

"Purple People": "Sexed" Linguistics, Pleasure, And The "Feminine" Body In The Lyrics Of Tori Amos, Megim A. Parks

Megim A Parks

The notion of a “feminine” style has been staunchly resisted by third-wave feminists who argue that to posit a “feminine” style is essentialist. Yet, linguists such as Norma Mendoza-Denton and Elinor Ochs discuss indexicality and shifting through salient variables, a process called entextualization. Further, French feminists such as Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva use the linguistic concept of intertextuality to explain certain poetic uses of language that might cause what Luce Irigaray calls “irruption of the semiotic chora”—moments within language where boundaries in the semiotic chain of signification are “blurred.” Thus, while current feminism has moved strictly away from the …

The Reactionary Road To Free Love: How Doma, State Marriage Amendments And Social Conservatives Undermine Traditional Marriage, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

Much has been written about the possible effects on different-sex marriage of legally recognizing same-sex marriage. This article looks at the defense of marriage from a different angle: It shows how rejecting same-sex marriage results in political compromise and the proliferation of “marriage light” alternatives (e.g., civil unions, domestic partnerships, or reciprocal beneficiaries) that undermine the unique status of marriage for everyone. In the process, it examines several aspects of the marriage debate in detail. After describing the flexibility of marriage as it has evolved over time, the article focuses on recent state constitutional amendments attempting to stop further development. …

Queer Love And Urban Intimacies In Martial Law Manila, Robert Diaz

Robert Diaz

This article examines certain representations of Metropolitan Manila and the city’s queer intimacies during Martial Law. In particular, it analyzes Ishmael Bernal’s film Manila By Night (1980) and Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters (1990). Released during a time when the Marcoses secured rule through an over-production of their “love team,” and by IMF supported justifications for molding a “beautiful and efficient” Manila, Manila By Night challenges disciplinary plans for the city and its populace through the presence of queer characters that unabashedly love the dirty, dysfunctional and impoverished city. In a similar vein, Dogeaters incorporates characters that practice queer love as …

La Agresión Verbal En La Novela Mexicana De Temática Homosexual, Juan Carlos Rocha Osornio

Juan Carlos Rocha Osornio, Ph.D

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Homoerotic, Lesbian, And Gay Ethnic And Immigrant Histories, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dr.

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

This essay introduces a special journal issue bringing together the well-established field of racial-ethnic and immigration history in the U.S. with the less visible but just as strong and growing field of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and “queer” history and culture, essays exploring race and ethnicity, immigration and nation, and gender, sex, and sexuality as they inform one another, as well as the making of identities, historical subjects, communities, and policy. The contributors challenge the assumption that the history of immigration and racial-ethnic immigrant settlement take form only along heterosexual or heteronormative lines, whether people’s movements across bodies …

Gay And Lesbian Elders: Estate Planning And End-Of-Life Decisionmaking, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

This Article addresses the three areas of core concern for gay and lesbian elders -- chosen family, financial insecurity, and anti-gay bias in the context of estate planning. The first section provides an overview of the current generation of gay and lesbian elders, including a summary of pre-Stonewall history and existing demographic information. The second section outlines the challenges associated with drafting an estate plan that favors chosen family over next of kin. The third section engages the topic of financial insecurity, discussing various benefits and government programs, such as social security and Medicaid planning. The fourth and final section …

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.

Gender Matters: Making The Case For Trans Inclusion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The transgender communities are producing an important and nuanced critique of our gender system. For community members, the project is self-constitutive and, therefore, has an immediacy that also marks the efforts of other marginalized groups who have attempted to make sense of the world through description, interrogation, and, ultimately, a program for transformation. The transgender project also has universalizing elements because, existing within the gender system, each one of us embodies a particular gender articulation. It is through this articulation that we define ourselves in relation to the gender we were assigned at birth, the gender we choose, the gender …

A Living Archive Of Desire: Teresita La Campesina And The Embodiment Of Queer Latino Community Histories, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dr.

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

Centering the life and death of a male-to-female (MTF) transgender mexicana live ranchera singer, the essay explores the importance of oral history as a method and theory to interrogate LGBT archival practices, questioning what “counts” as both documents and evidence in history. Using sociological, Foucauldian, cultural studies, and oral historical interventions, I ground the late singer’s life story and cultural and political contributions in larger debates about community documentation, archival research, and LGBT and Latina/o historiography.

"Claiming Queer Cultural Citizenship: Gay Latino (Im)Migrant Acts In San Francisco", Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dr.

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

The essay foregrounds the social and political histories of four gay Chicano and mexicano activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, demonstrating how their cultural and political organizing labor challenges the historical presumption that all queers are legal citizens or that all immigrants are heterosexual. Drawing on Renato Rosaldo’s conception of cultural citizenship and Lisa Lowe's notion of "immigrant acts," the essay traces these activists’ negotiation of social membership and citizenship through their cultural work, making racial ethnic and sexualized political claims in historical periods wrought by AIDS, gentrification, racism, and anti-immigrant legislations.

Troubling The Definition Of Pornography: Little Sisters, A New Defining Moment In Feminists' Engagement With The Law?, Lara Karaian

Lara Karaian

This article explores feminism’s relationship to the legal regulation of pornography. Of particular interest to the author is how the defining moment of the Butler decision has been opened up to contestation and complication by Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium et. al. v. Minister of Justice et al., a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision regarding Canada Customs violations of the free expression and equality rights of a Vancouver-based gay and lesbian bookstore. The focus of the article is on the role that the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) played in both Butler and Little Sisters. The …

September 11 Relief Efforts And Surviving Same-Sex Partners: Reflections On Relationships In The Absence Of Legal Recognition, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The criteria established by federal, state, and private relief efforts to assist the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks present a unique opportunity to examine the status of same-sex relationships in the United States. In the absence of uniform relationship recognition, surviving same-sex partners continue to struggle with a loss that legally is not cognizable. The stories from the September 11 survivors illustrate that a surviving partner is a legal stranger, who often must reconfigure her relationship with her partner to fit within the various legal categories where relief or compensation might be forthcoming. These legal categories …

"'That's My Place!': Negotiating Gender, Racial, And Sexual Politics In San Francisco's Gay Latino Alliance, 1975~1983", Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Dr.

Horacio N Roque Ramirez, Ph.D.

This essay considers the founding, development, and dissolution in San Francisco of the Gay Latino Alliance, one of the first organizations of its kind in the nation, and examines how its members negotiated the racial, gender, and sexual politics of the period. It discusses specifically the coming together of GALA’s founders, GALA’s negotiation between the “Latino” and “gay” social and political cultures, and GALA’s dissolution in the midst of gender and sex conflicts. To explore the intersectional dynamics of their racial, sexual, and gendered work and leisure, the essay relies partly upon surviving documents and heavily upon the memories of …

Science, Identity, And The Construction Of The Gay Political Narrative, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

This Article contends that the current debate over gay civil rights is, at base, a dispute over the nature of same-sex desire. Pro-gay forces advocate an ethnic or identity model of homosexuality based on the conviction that sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. The assertion that, in essence, gays are "born that way," has produced a gay political narrative that rests on claims of shared identity (i.e., homosexuals are a blameless minority) and arguments of equivalence (i.e., as a blameless minority, homosexuals deserve equal treatment and protection against discrimination). The pro-family counter-narrative is based on a behavioral …

Social Geography Of Lgbt Dc, Mark W. Meinke

Mark W Meinke

No abstract provided.

"Simply So Different": The Uniquely Expressive Character Of The Openly Gay Individual After Boy Scouts V. Dale, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

Boy Scouts v. Dale was uniformly considered a set back for gay rights. Undeniably, it was not a good result for James Dale or other openly gay individuals who would like to participate in the largest youth organization in the U.S. This Article views Boy Scouts v. Dale in a different light and suggests that the expressive character of the openly gay individual endorsed by the majority may signal an opportunity to argue for greater First Amendment protections. The majority recognized that a single avowal of homosexuality imbues the openly gay individual with a uniquely expressive character. Wherever he goes, …

Homosexuality As Contagion: From The Well Of Loneliness To The Boy Scouts, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

In the political arena, there are currently two central and competing views of homosexuality. Pro-family organizations, working from a contagion model of homosexuality, contend that homosexuality is an immoral, unhealthy, and freely chosen vice. Many pro-gay organizations espouse an identity model of homosexuality under which sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. Both pro-family and pro-gay organizations believe that to define homosexuality is to control its legal and political status. This sometimes bitter debate regarding the nature of same-sex desire might seem like an exceedingly contemporary development. However, the ex-gay media blitz of 2000 represents only the latest …

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …