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Winner of the 2007 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, given by the GL/Q Caucus of the MLA

aThe members of the Committee were especially impressed by McRuer's original intervention in the area of queer studies, one that not only sheds light on the important new area of disability studies, but brings it into conversation with a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from composition studies to performance art. McRuer's book combines the public and the private work of queer studies in surprisingly new ways.a
--Ed Madden, Gay and Lesbian Caucus for the MLA

aA wonderful combination of humor, theory, intellectual, and personal insights... A valuable and well-written study.a
--Disability Studies Quarterly

"A compelling case that queer and disabled identities, politics, and cultural logics are inexorably intertwined, and that queer and disability theory need one anothera]. Makes clear that no cultural analysis is complete without attention to the politics of bodily ability and alternative corporealities."
--Elizabeth Freeman, author of "The Wedding Complex"

"Important and significant for its attempt to find the common ground between disability studies and queer studies. This deftly written and very readable book will appeal to a wide range of readers who are increasingly fascinated by the biocultural interplay between the body, sexuality, gender, and social identity."
--Lennard Davis, author of "Bending Over Backwards"

Crip Theory attends to the contemporary cultures of disability and queerness that are coming out all over. Both disability studies and queer theory are centrally concerned with how bodies, pleasures, andidentities are represented as "normal" or as abject, but Crip Theory is the first book to analyze thoroughly the ways in which these interdisciplinary fields inform each other.

Drawing on feminist theory, African American and Latino/a cultural theories, composition studies, film and television studies, and theories of globalization and counter-globalization, Robert McRuer articulates the central concerns of crip theory and considers how such a critical perspective might impact cultural and historical inquiry in the humanities. Crip Theory puts forward readings of the Sharon Kowalski story, the performance art of Bob Flanagan, and the journals of Gary Fisher, as well as critiques of the domesticated queerness and disability marketed by the Millennium March, or Bravo TV's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." McRuer examines how dominant and marginal bodily and sexual identities are composed, and considers the vibrant ways that disability and queerness unsettle and re-write those identities in order to insist that another world is possible.

Significant historic and archaeological sites affiliated with two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history in the United States are examined in this unique volume. The importance of the preservation process in documenting and interpreting the lives and experiences of queer Americans is emphasized. The book features chapters on archaeology and interpretation, as well as several case studies focusing on queer preservation projects. The accessible text and associated activities create an interactive and collaborative process that encourages readers to apply the material in a hands-on setting.

This book addresses the 'three moments' in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers' and refugees' efforts to secure protection: The reasons for their flight, the Refugee Status Determination process, and their integration into the host community once they are recognized refugee status.The first part discusses one of the most under-researched areas within the literature devoted to asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity, namely the reasons behind LGBTI persons' flight. It investigates the motives that drive LGBTI persons to leave their countries of origin and seek sanctuary elsewhere, the actors of persecution, and the status quo of LGBTI rights. Accordingly, an intersectional approach is employed so as to offer a comprehensive picture of how a host of factors beyond sexual orientation/gender identity impact this crucial first stage of LGBTI asylum seekers' journey.In turn, the second part explores the challenges that LGBTI asylum seekers face during the RSD process in countries of asylum. It first examines these countries' interpretations and applications of the process in relation to the relevant UNHCR guidelines and questions the challenges including the dominance of Western conceptions and narratives of sexual identity in the asylum procedure, heterogeneous treatment concerning the definition of a particular social group, and the difficulties related to assessing one's sexual orientation within the asylum procedure. It subsequently addresses the reasons for and potential solutions to these challenges.The last part of the book focuses on the integration of LGBTI refugees into the countries of asylum. It first seeks to identify and describe the protection gaps that LGBTI refugees are currently experiencing, before turning to the reasons and potential remedies for them.

Through focusing on the sexual politics that have emerged out of post-apartheid South Africa, Spurlin investigates textual and cultural representations of same-sex desire outside of the Euroamerican axes of queer culture and politics, and considers the ways in which queer cultural productions in southern Africa do not merely intersect with western queer identity politics and cultural representations but also resist them. "Imperialism Within the Margins" therefore provides an engaged and much-needed critique of the long-present "heterosexist" biases of postcolonial studies and the "western" biases of academic queer theory.

The Safety Trap: Why We Need Diverse and Brave Spaces explains how the histories and currency of safe spaces are determined by those with privilege and power; those who choose to invite us in or leave us out. Whether we encounter boundaries at national borders, bathrooms, or birth certificates, our personal safety and wellbeing is at stake. Gender-diverse and queer non-binary people, have bodies, brains, and hearts that challenge traditional ways of being male, female, gay, straight, Black, white, good, and bad. These practitioners-at the interfaces of government policy, architecture, queer art curation, group work, sex work, and tattooing-explore cancel culture and free speech, considering what it takes to be brave. In our current times of global conflict and binary oppositions, they address the urgent need for accessible and inclusive spaces everywhere. To listen and speak across the ideological voids that divide us, we must understand the differences that underpin our feelings of safety and discomfort.

An invaluable resource examining LGBTQIA+ portrayals in contemporary American film. The depictions of LGBTQIA+ characters in film have always varied immensely. However, the negative depictions often seem to outweigh the positive, perhaps because of the hurt they inspire or perhaps because they regrettably outnumber the positive films. The Encyclopedia of LGBTQIA+ Portrayals in American Film explores works from the past fifty years in order to not only discuss how LGBTQIA+ characters are portrayed in American film, but also how these portrayals affect viewers. Contributors to this valuable reference include film and media scholars, gender studies scholars, journalists, LGBTQIA+ advocates, and more, representing countries from around the world. This rich array of perspectives provide careful and critical examinations of more than 100 films, ranging from the ethical and compassionate to the deliberately cruel and destructive. Featuring films such as American Beauty, Batman v Superman, Fight Club, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Little Miss Sunshine, and Venom, this extensive volume informs and educates scholars and general readers alike, guiding them to see injustice more clearly and inspiring future generations to create art that is both inclusive and thoughtful.

With contributions from established and emerging scholars, this collection draws on original research to consider recent theoretical and methodological debates, shifts in law and policy, and social and cultural changes around sexuality. The book bridges identified gaps between theory, research methods and practice, and lived experiences across time and place. It reflects on the current wave of interdisciplinary work, setting out new ways of conceptualizing and researching sexuality and explores persistently marginalized, re-traditionalized and normative sexual practices, subjectivities and identities. This distinctive consideration of innovative contributions from across the humanities and social sciences places emergent debates, enduring legacies and new queries within its 'reflections' and 'futures'.

Does a post-vaginoplasty vagina have a G-spot? Why do some trans people find they enjoy anal sex more after testosterone? And can people with post-surgical vaginas experience vaginismus? Written by renowned sex blogger and educator Kelvin Sparks, Trans Sex is the essential guide to sex and bodies for all trans, non-binary and intersex people. Covering everything from post-surgical anatomy and hormone replacement therapy to sex toys, kink and safe sex, this empowering and practical guide also explores desire, pleasure and arousal (and why these aren't the same thing), how to navigate sex and consent with other people, as well as the difficulties many trans people experience in relation to sex, such as dysphoria and violence. Raw, honest and nothing like the sex education you received at school, this guide is here to help you on your journey to sexual discovery and fulfilment.

Restores queer suffragists to their rightful place in the history of the struggle for women's right to vote The women's suffrage movement, much like many other civil rights movements, has an important and often unrecognized queer history. In Public Faces, Secret Lives Wendy L. Rouse reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the suffrage movement included a variety of individuals who represented a range of genders and sexualities. However, owing to the constant pressure to present a "respectable" public image, suffrage leaders publicly conformed to gendered views of ideal womanhood in order to make women's suffrage more palatable to the public. Rouse argues that queer suffragists did take meaningful action to assert their identities and legacies by challenging traditional concepts of domesticity, family, space, and death in both subtly subversive and radically transformative ways. Queer suffragists also built lasting alliances and developed innovative strategies in order to protect their most intimate relationships, ones that were ultimately crucial to the success of the suffrage movement. Public Faces, Secret Lives is the first work to truly recenter queer figures in the women's suffrage movement, highlighting their immense contributions as well as their numerous sacrifices.

The volume takes a field which has become established over the past 40 years, and applies it to a marginalized sector of society, enabling students of oral history, and history more generally to engage with, question and develop new conversations around the field. Oral history is increasingly becoming an established part of the modern history canon and more and more developments within its parameters are being raised and studied - this book represents a key up-coming area. The only book to look specifically at LGBTQ positions and the specific issues it raises within oral history.

Why LGBTQ+ people must resist the seduction of dignity In 2015, when the Supreme Court declared that gay and lesbian couples were entitled to the "equal dignity" of marriage recognition, the concept of dignity became a cornerstone for gay rights victories. In Disrupting Dignity, Stephen M. Engel and Timothy S. Lyle explore the darker side of dignity, tracing its invocation across public health politics, popular culture, and law from the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis to our current moment. With a compassionate eye, Engel and Lyle detail how politicians, policymakers, media leaders, and even some within LGBTQ+ communities have used the concept of dignity to shame and disempower members of those communities. They convincingly show how dignity-and the subsequent chase to be defined by its terms-became a tool of the state and the marketplace thereby limiting its more radical potential. Ultimately, Engel and Lyle challenge our understanding of dignity as an unquestioned good. They expose the constraining work it accomplishes and the exclusionary ideas about respectability that it promotes. To restore a lost past and point to a more inclusive future, they assert the worthiness of queer lives beyond dignity's limits.

Some of the roots of the characteristic negative attitude to homosexuality can be found in Peter Damian's appeal to Pope Leo IX. Though written 900 years ago by an Italian monk in a remote corner of Italy, The Book of Gomorrah is relevant to contemporary discussion of homosexuality. The Book of Gomorrah asks the Pope to take steps to halt the spread of homosexual practices among the clergy. The first part outlines the various forms of homosexual practice, the specific abuses, and the inadequacy of traditional penitential penances, and demands that offenders be removed form their ecclesiastical positions. The second part is an impassioned plea to the offenders to repent of their ways, accept due penance, and cease from homosexual activity. Payer's is the first translation of the full tract into any language from the original Latin. In his introduction to the tract Payer places The Book of Gomorrah in its context as the first major systematic treatise in the medieval West against various homosexual acts, provides a critique of Peter Damian's arguments, and outlines his life. The annotated translation is followed by a translation of the letter of Pope Leo IX in reply to Damian's Treatise, an extensive bibliography, and indexes. The book will be of interest to students of medieval history and religion, to ethicists and students of social mores, and to persons generally concerned with the historical roots of present-day attitudes to homosexuality.

In States of Passion: Law, Identity and the Social Construction of Desire, Professor Yvonne Zylan explores the role of legal discourse in shaping sexual experience, sexual expression, and sexual identity. The book focuses on three topics: anti-gay hate crime laws, same-sex sexual harassment, and same-sex marriage, examining how sexuality is socially constructed through the institutionally-specific production of legal discourse.
States of Passion argues that law's power to authorize specific discourses and practices of love, desire, hatred, fear, and vulnerability remain grounded in the powerful discourses and institutional practices that mark law as dispassionate, cerebral, and fundamentally procedural. States of Passion contends that those states of passion we experience in our daily lives as particularly significant-to our sense of self, to our collective and social identities, and to our ideas about the body and its dictates-increasingly have as much to do with the state as they do with passion.

This is the definitive visual account of the gay liberation movement in New York, following the Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village in 1969, an event that marked the coming-out of New York's gay community. As a direct outcome of Stonewall, gay pride marches were held in 1970 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Fifty years later Pride will be celebrated in thousands of cities across the world. Including more than 190 photographs by Fred W. McDarrah chronicling the movement in all its glory, the book includes reflective essays by major figures such as Alan Ginsbery, Hilton Als and Sir Ian McKellan.

The Desiring-Image yields new models of queer cinema produced since the late 1980s, based on close formal analysis of diverse films as well as innovative contributions to current film theory. The book defines "queer cinema" less as a specific genre or in terms of gay and lesbian identity, but more broadly as a kind of filmmaking that conveys sexual desire and orientation as potentially fluid within any individual's experience, and as forces that can therefore unite unlikely groups of people along new lines, socially, sexually, or politically. The films driving this analysis range from celebrated fixtures of the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s (including Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman and Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine) to sexually provocative films of the same era that are rarely classified as queer (David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers and Naked Lunch) to breakout films by 21st-century directors (Rodney Evans's Brother to Brother, John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus). To frame these readings and to avoid heterosexist assumptions in other forms of film analysis, The Desiring-Image revisits the work of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, whose two major works on cinema somehow never address the radical ideas about desire he expresses in other texts. This book brings those notions together in innovative ways, making them clear and accessible to newcomers and field specialists alike, with clear, illustrated examples drawn from a wide range of movies extending beyond the central case studies. Thus, The Desiring-Image speaks to readers interested in queer and gay/lesbian studies, in film theory, in feminist and sexuality scholarship, and in theory and philosophy, putting those discourses into rich, surprising conversations with popular cinema of the last 30 years.

Bold, bright and fabulous just like you! This vibrant sticker book includes 200+ Pride themed stickers, featuring rainbows, Pride flags, pronouns and empowering slogans, all beautifully illustrated to be a source of inspiration, whether you're gay, bi, queer, intersex, trans, non-binary or an ally. Stick a rainbow on your laptop, a slogan on your water bottle or a Pride symbol in your journal, these stickers are a colourful and powerful reminder to take pride in yourself and the LGBTQIA+ community. Technical Information: 200+ Stickers Small, medium and large Durable and glossy Not suitable for children under three years due to small parts.

From hip performance spaces in New York and Los Angeles to the heart of Middle America, the last twenty years have seen a rich proliferation of gay and lesbian performance art In O Solo Homo, Holly Hughes, the First Lady of queer performance, and theater critic and professor David Roman have brought together the best solo work from some of the most acclaimed and influential artists in the field.

The pieces in O Solo Homo touch nerves that run deep -- racism and misogyny, AIDS and breast cancer, the struggles and joys of family and the complicated transcendence of desire. Peggy Shaw, of the Obie Award-winning trio Split Britches, looks at butch/femme identity and describes how she learned to be a man. The acclaimed author, performer, and "gender outlaw" Kate Bornstein takes apart gender, from the street to the bedroom to Geraldo. The late Ron Vawter, of the Wooster Group, conjures two very different men who died of AIDS: diva filmmaker Jack Smith and Nixon crony Roy Cohn. And Carmelita Tropicana, the "national songbird of Cuba", makes an unforgettable, hilarious return to Havana. O Solo Homo will move and provoke you, make you laugh, and make you think.