Rainbow Theology. Patrick S. Cheng
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examples of the diverse ways in which Black gay masculinities are performed. The divine is found in the totality of Black gay life. In sum, Sneed’s work breaks from the traditional models that have largely defined the theological conversation about LGBTIQ African Americans to date.57
Other critiques of the traditional Black theology paradigm involve expanding the notion of Black religiosity beyond that of Christianity. In his essay “Feeling the Spirit in the Dark: Expanding Notions of the Sacred in the African American Gay Community,” E. Patrick Johnson writes about finding the sacred in secular places like the nightclub as well as practices such as “house/club music, vogueing, dragging, snapping.” According to Johnson, gay Black men “create new ways of understanding the linking of body and soul or sexuality and spirituality.” By connecting sexuality with spirituality, such men transform a “supposedly solely secular, solely sexual, wholly sinful, utterly perverse club” into a spiritual space in which “the identities of African American, homosexual, and Christian no longer compete.”58
Finally, a number of LGBTIQ African American theologians have written about the importance of reclaiming non-Christian faith traditions. For example, Renée Hill writes in her essay “Disrupted/Disruptive Movements: Black Theology and Black Power 1969/1999” that “Black Christian theologies cannot afford not to be in dialogue with other religious traditions.”59 She argues that Black theology must recognize the history of “Christian dominance” in relation with other faith traditions and be open in terms of learning from other traditions, including “African-derived traditional religions” such as Santeria, Akan, Yoruba, and Vodun.60 Similarly, Monica Coleman in her 2006 roundtable essay argues that Black female religious scholars should be able to identify themselves not just as Christians, but also as “Muslim, pagan, new-thought, Buddhist, and Ifa.”61
3. Conclusion
In sum, LGBTIQ theologians of color have been writing about the queer Black experience since at least the early 1990s. These writings can be organized into three thematic strands of (1) Black Church exclusion, (2) reclaiming Black lesbian voices, and (3) challenging Black liberation theologies. Additional work still needs to be done, however, with respect to developing these writings in a systematic manner. Queer Black theologies also need to address transgender and intersex issues within the African American community. As the recent report “Injustice at Every Turn” shows, Black transgender people face “particularly devastating levels of discrimination,” including high rates of poverty, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and attempted suicide.62 Nevertheless, queer Black theologies provide an important perspective that is largely missing in mainstream queer theological reflection.
Study Questions
1. Which events from the history of queer African Americans surprised you the most? Troubled you the most? What would like to learn more about in terms of queer Black history?
2. What are some key writings by queer Black theologians about the exclusion of LGBTIQ African Americans from the Black Church?
3. What are some key writings by queer Black theologians about reclaiming the voices of Black lesbians and bisexual women in womanist theologies?
4. What are some key writings by queer Black theologians that challenge the traditional liberation theology paradigm?
5. How might you use nontraditional theological sources such as literature, online personal ads, or interfaith writings to enrich your own theological reflection and work?
For Further Study
Queer Black Experience
• Anderson, “Desiring to Be Together”
• Anderson, “Deadly Silence”
• Boykin, For Colored Boys
• Boykin, One More River to Cross
• Constantine-Simms, The Greatest Taboo
Black Church Exclusion
• Anderson, “African American Church Traditions”
• Comstock, A Whosoever Church
• Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom
• Crawley, “Circum-Religious Performance”
• Douglas, Sexuality and the Black Church
• Farajaje-Jones, “Breaking Silence”
• Griffin, Their Own Receive Them Not
• James and Moore, Spirited
• Monroe, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”
• Stringfellow, “Soul Work”
Reclaiming Black Lesbian Voices
• Coleman, Making a Way Out of No Way, 147–67
• Coleman, “Must I Be Womanist?”
• Hill, “Who Are We for Each Other?”
• Lightsey, “The Eddie Long Scandal”
• Lightsey, “Methodist Clergy Pledge to Defy Church”
• Martin, “What I Don’t Know About Britney Griner”
• Martin, “Yes, There Is a God!”
• Monroe, “Must I Be Womanist?”
• Townes, “The Dancing Mind”
• Townes, “Marcella Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology”
• Townes, “Same-Sex Marriage”
• Townes, “Washed in the Grace of God”
• West, Disruptive Christian Ethics, 141–79
• West, “Must I Be Womanist?”
• Young, “De-centering Religion as Queer Pedagogical Practice”
• Young, “Queering ‘The Human Situation’”
• Young, “‘Uses of the Erotic’ for Teaching Queer Studies”
Challenging Black Liberation Theologies
• Anderson, “The Black Church and the Curious Body of the Black Homosexual”
• Coleman, “Must I Be Womanist?”
• Garner, “A Sample Service of Holy Union”
• Griffin, “Toward a True Black Liberation Theology”
• Hill, “Disrupted/Disruptive Movements”
• Johnson, “Feeling the Spirit in the Dark”
• Jojo, “Searching for Gender-Variant East African Spiritual Leaders”
• Monroe, “When and Where I Enter”
• Sneed, “Dark Matter”
• Sneed, “Like Fire Shut Up in Our Bones”
• Sneed, Representations of Homosexuality
• Strongman, “Syncretic Religion and Dissident Sexualities”
Other Resources
• Baldwin, “To Crush a Serpent”
• Beckford, “Does Jesus Have a Penis?”
• farajajé-jones, “Holy Fuck”
• Hamilton,