Queer Politics as Movement Formation: How Activism and History Shape Law and Policy

• In Event: Teaching LGBTQ Politics

Abstract

This paper offers suggestions on how to expand the focus of traditional law and policy courses by centering LGBTQ activism, history, and the instability of movement formation. This allows each class to delve into suggested laws and policies from a variety of viewpoints while simultaneously highlighting tensions within the LGBTQ community that are at the heart of the queer liberation movement. It also enables discussions around not only how queer and trans people shape the law, but how the law shapes identity and belonging. By treating the queer liberation movement as one that is constantly forming and never formed, each section of the course features the voices of intersectionally marginalized groups within the movement whose stories are often mis-historicized in linear assemblages of law and social change. This chapter also explores the variety of interdisciplinary materials and activities used in the class to teach queer politics as movement formation, including: guest speakers, documentaries, field trips, activist writings, court cases, academic books and journal articles, and news media.

Author

• Erin Mayo-Adam, Hunter College