Lesbian- and Gay-Themed Children’s Picture Books: Homonormativity and the Dangers of Acceptance

• In Event: Roundtable Session 124
  In Roundtable Session: Queering Institutions and Using Queer Institutions

Abstract

The author examines the role lesbian and gay themed children’s picture books play in the deployment of a homonormative subject, how that deployment occurs, and what the consequences may be for such a deployment as it relates to children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) communities, as well as the larger society. The author, through his use of queer theory and intersectionality, finds that the homonormative subject is a project used to reaffirm a heteronormative agenda. That is, by depoliticizing and demobilizing segments of various LGBTQI communities, through nominal institutional and societal acceptance, heterosexism and other interlocking forms of oppression are allowed to remain intact.

Author

• Nathan Taylor, Robert Morris University