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

• In Event: Identity, Resistance, and Movement-Building

Abstract

For years, sexuality, law, and policy classes have focused on law and social change through the lens of mostly white gay and lesbian civil rights cases, sidelining queer and trans people of color and the enormous contributions they have made in the struggle for queer justice. This chapter will examine how to expand this narrow emphasis in traditional law and policy courses by centering activism, history, and the instability of movement formation. Rather than teaching law and policy by focusing on key Supreme Court cases alone, my courses center the following questions: what is a social movement? how does the law constitute identity? 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 will also explore 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