Winning Battles and Losing the War: The Insidious Nature of Homonormativity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: From Margins to Centers: Critical Pedagogies Across Contexts

Abstract

Through the exploration of homonormativity, the author suggests that nominal acceptance of LGBTQI students may occur at some schools; however, educators should problematize this practice of acceptance. Nominal acceptance fails to address the intersectional and interlocking aspects of identities and systems of oppression. It also fails to address the historical and structural practices of inequality in the U.S. This results in schools enveloping some LGBTQI students into a neoliberal project of citizenry (homonormativity), while “other” LGBTQI students remain on the margins of society. Through the author’s analysis of popular gay media over time, the author engages the demarcations of the homonormative subject, how the homonormative subject is deployed and what dangers may be associated with its deployment.

Author

• Nathan Taylor, Robert Morris University