Radical Love. Patrick S. Cheng
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+ logos [word]), then queer theology can be understood as queer talk about God. This, of course, leads to the question of what exactly is meant by the term “queer,” which is a more complicated issue. As such, we turn to a discussion of queer terminology.
This section will discuss at least three meanings of the word “queer”: first, as an umbrella term; second, as transgressive action; and third, as erasing boundaries. Since the early 1990s, LGBT scholars (that is, scholars who have self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, or allies) have reclaimed the word “queer” from its previously negative connotations.3
Historically, the term “queer” has been used in a negative way. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary Online defines “queer” as “[s]trange, odd, peculiar, eccentric” as well as “relating to homosexuals or homosexuality.” The OED Online traces the word back as far as a 1513 translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, and it speculates that the word is derived from the German word “quer,” which means “transverse, oblique, crosswise, at right angles, obstructive.”
The OED Online notes, however, that although “queer” was originally used in a derogatory sense, since the late 1980s it has been used as a “neutral or positive term,” citing a 1987 newspaper article that reported on a humorous sign at a march that said “We’re here because we’re queer.”4 As such, we now turn to a discussion of three “neutral or positive” meanings of the word “queer.”
“Queer” as Umbrella Term
One common use of the word “queer” is as an umbrella term that refers collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, intersex, questioning, and other individuals who identify with non-normative sexualities and/or gender identities. The term “queer” also can include “allies” who may not themselves identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or questioning, but stand in solidarity with their queer sisters and brothers in terms of seeking a more just world with respect to sexuality and gender identity. In other words, “queer” is a synonym for acronyms such as LGBTIQA.
It may be helpful here to review the difference between the concepts of sexuality and gender identity. Sexuality refers to the ways in which people are attracted emotionally and physically to the opposite sex, to the same sex, or to both sexes. Women who are primarily sexually attracted to other women are “lesbians,” whereas men who are primarily sexually attracted to other men are “gay.” People who are sexually attracted to both women and men are “bisexual.” People who are sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex are “straight” or “heterosexual.” In general, people within the LGBT community prefer the terms “lesbian,” “gay,” and “bisexual” to the more clinical term “homosexual.”
By contrast, gender identity refers to the ways in which people self-identify with respect to their genders (“female” or “male”), regardless of the sex that they were assigned at birth. People who identify with a gender that is different from their assigned sex at birth are “transgender.” Such people may or may not have had medical treatment (for example, hormones or surgery) to align their physical bodies with their gender identities. By contrast, people who identify with a gender that is aligned with their birth sex are “cisgender.” People who decline to identify with one gender or the other are “gender queer.” Finally, people who are born with ambiguous genitalia or geni-talia of both sexes are “intersex.”5
It is important to note that gender identity is a concept that is distinct from sexuality. In other words, the fact that a person is transgender is separate from that person’s sexuality. Thus, a trans woman (that is, a person who was assigned the male sex at birth but who is self-identified as female) may be a lesbian (that is, sexually attracted to other female-identified people), heterosexual (that is, sexually attracted to male-identified people), or bisexual (that is, sexually attracted to both female-identified and male-identified people).
To summarize, the term “queer” is often used as an umbrella or collective term to describe people with marginalized sexualities (lesbian, gay, or bisexual) as well as with marginalized gender identities (transgender) or genitalia (intersex). We see this use of the word “queer” as an umbrella or collective term in the works of LGBT theologians such as Nancy Wilson, the current moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches,6 and the late Robert Williams, one of the first openly gay priests in the Episcopal Church.7
“Queer” as Transgressive Action
In addition to the umbrella sense of the word “queer,” there is a second meaning of “queer” that is an intentional reclaiming of a word that previously had only negative connotations. In recent years, the word “queer” has been used by many LGBT people as positive label that proudly embraces all that is transgressive or opposed to societal norms, particularly with respect to sexuality and gender identity. This use parallels the reclaiming of the word “black” by African Americans during the 1960s as a positive term of pride. Prior to that time, the preferred term was “colored” or “negro,” since “black” had a negative connotation in a racial context.
The use of the word “queer” as a positive term of pride for LGBT people can be traced as far back as the late 1980s. The Oxford English Dictionary Online cites a 1989 article that describes the LGBT community as a “queer nation” that is “assertively coed, multi-racial and anti-consumerist.”8 In 1990, the radical organization Queer Nation was founded with the goal of fighting anti-LGBT violence and prejudice through activism and confrontational tactics such as outing closeted politicians and celebrities. Queer Nation has used a number of slogans including “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” and “Out of the closets and into the streets!”
Along these lines, Robert Shore-Goss, an openly gay theologian and minister with the Metropolitan Community Churches, has described queer theology as a fundamentally transgressive enterprise in his book Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up. Indeed, Shore-Goss has argued that transgression should be seen as a central metaphor for queer theologies. For Shore-Goss, the term “queer” is used to describe an action that “turns upside down, inside out” that which is seen as normative, including “heteronormative theologies.” In that sense, the act of queering traditional theological discourse has a “prophetic edge.”9
Thus, the second meaning of “queer” is a self-conscious embrace of all that is transgressive of societal norms, particularly in the context of sexuality and gender identity. In fact, this term is best understood as a verb or an action. That is, to “queer” something is to engage with a methodology that challenges and disrupts the status quo. Like the function of the court jester or the subversive traditions of Mardi Gras, to “queer” something is to turn convention and authority on its head. It is about seeing things in a different light and reclaiming voices and sources that previously had been ignored, silenced, or discarded. It is proudly asserting a worldview for which LGBT people have been historically taunted, condemned, beaten, tortured, and killed.
“Queer” as Erasing Boundaries
A third meaning of “queer” is grounded in the academic discipline known as queer theory, which arose in the early 1990s and is indebted to the work of the late French philosopher Michel Foucault. Put simply, queer theory views sexuality as something that is “continually undergoing negotiation and dissemination, rather than as a mere natural (let alone medical) fact.”10 In other words, queer theory challenges and disrupts the traditional notions that sexuality and gender identity are simply questions of scientific fact or that such concepts can be reduced to fixed binary categories such as “homosexual” vs. “heterosexual” or “female” vs. “male.” As such, this third definition of “queer” refers to the erasing or deconstructing of boundaries with respect to these categories of sexuality