Rainbow Theology. Patrick S. Cheng
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I write from my own social location as an openly-gay, cisgender (that is, non-transgender), Gen X, and able-bodied Chinese American man in academia. I realize that within the hierarchy of power within communities of color, I occupy a relatively privileged position with respect to my sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, age, ability, ethnicity, class, and occupation. Although I have tried my best to step outside of my own social location and include perspectives other than my own in this book, I will inevitably fall short in terms of my sources and examples. For that I ask for your patience and understanding, and I invite you to contact me with comments and additional perspectives that I may have overlooked.
Third, the examples in this book will focus primarily on communities of color within the United States. One of the reasons for this focus is that most of the writings by LGBTIQ theologians of color have been produced within the United States. Another reason for this focus is that I have spent virtually all of my life living within the United States, and thus my own experiences are limited with respect to transnational issues. That being said, Part II of this book discusses the importance of cross-border issues for queer theologians of color. It also acknowledges that the United States vs. international divide is not so easy to draw, particularly in the case of queer Asian American and Latina/o theologians.
Having addressed a number of theoretical issues, definitions, and limitations of this book, particularly relating to LGBTIQ people of color, we now turn to a survey of queer of color theologies. In the remaining four chapters of Part I of this book, we will explore queer Black, queer Asian American, queer Latina/o, and Two-Spirit Indigenous theologies and religious scholarship.30
Study Questions
1. What are your reasons for reading this book? What do you hope to learn from queer of color theologies?
2. It might be argued that the concept of “queer of color” is not a valid conceptual category. Do you agree or disagree? What are some reasons in favor of using this category?
3. Name some key scholarly works relating to the experiences of LGBTIQ people of color. Which of these works, if any, have you read in the past?
4. Explain, in your own words, how the terms “race,” “sexuality,” and “spirituality” are used in this book.
5. What are some limitations of this book as described by the author? Which of these limitations concern you the most?
For Further Study
Queer Theology and Religious Studies
• Cheng, Radical Love, 9–11
• Lowe, “Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Theologies”
• Schippert, “Implications of Queer Theory for the Study of Religion and Gender”
• Schippert, “Queer Theory and the Study of Religion”
• Schneider, “Queer Theory”
• Wilcox, “Queer Theory and the Study of Religion”
Queer of Color Scholarship
• Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera
• Constantine-Simms, The Greatest Taboo
• Driskill et al., Queer Indigenous Studies
• Eng, Halberstam, and Muñoz, “What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now?”
• Eng and Hom, Q&A
• Hames-García, “Queer Theory Revisited,” 26–27
• Hames-García and Martínez, Gay Latino Studies
• Lorde, Sister Outsider
• Smith, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism”
Race
• Gregory and Sanjek, Race
• HoSang, LaBennett, and Pulido, Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century
• Omni and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States
• Sanjek, “The Enduring Inequalities of Race”
Sexuality
• Cheng, From Sin to Amazing Grace, xvi–xviii
• Cheng, Radical Love, 2–8
• Farajaje-Jones, “Loving ‘Queer’”
• Palmer and Haffner, A Time to Seek
• Weeks, “The Social Construction of Sexuality”
1 As I have written elsewhere, “queer theology” can be defined in a number of different ways. First, queer theology is LGBTIQ people “talking about God.” Second, queer theology is talking about God in a “self-consciously transgressive manner, especially in terms of challenging societal norms about sexuality and gender.” Third, queer theology is talking about God in a way that “challenges and deconstructs the natural binary categories of sexual and gender identity.” Cheng, Radical Love, 9–11. For overviews of queer theology and/or queer religious studies, see Mary Elise Lowe, “Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Theologies: Origins, Contributions, and Challenges,” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 48, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 49–61; Claudia Schippert, “Implications of Queer Theory for the Study of Religion and Gender: Entering the Third Decade,” Religion and Gender 1, no. 1 (2011): 66–84; Claudia Schippert, “Queer Theory and the Study of Religion,” Rever: Revista de Estudios da Religião 5, no. 4 (2005): 90–99; Melissa M. Wilcox, “Queer Theory and the Study of Religion,” in Boisvert and Johnson, Queer Religion II, 227–51.
2 Laurel C. Schneider, “Queer Theory,” in Handbook of Postmodern Biblical Interpretation, ed. A. K. M. Adam (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2000), 206.
3 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, eds., Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2000), 79. See also Serene Jones, Feminist Theory and Christian Theology: Cartographies of Grace (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 42–48.
4 Melissa Dunn and Aisha Moodie-Mills, “The State of Gay and Transgender Communities of Color in 2012” (April 13, 2012), Center for American Progress, accessed January 3, 2013, http://bit.ly/IhiwY6.
5 According to Wittgenstein, linguistic concepts need not, in general, have an essence. For example, there are many activities that fit within the concept of a “game,” but there is no “one, essential characteristic” that ties all of such activities together beyond that of “family resemblance.” See Chon Tejedor, Starting with Wittgenstein (London: Continuum, 2011), 111–14.
6 See Grace Kyungwon Hong and Roderick A. Ferguson, “Introduction,” in Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization, ed. Grace Kyungwon Hong and Roderick A. Ferguson (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), 1–22.
7 Barbara Smith, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” in The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature, and Theory, ed. Elaine Showalter (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 168.
8 Ibid., 183.
9 David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom, Q&A: Queer in Asian America (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1998).