Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Queer Theory

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methodologies

Abstract

Fundamentally, queer theory is defined by the use of the word “queer” as a noun, an adjective, and a verb. Something or someone is queer if they are not-normative (adj.); quare adds the nuance of uncontainable, excessive, or overflowing to non-normativity (Johnson, 2001). A person may use the identity label queer (noun) to indicate a way of being different, often but not exclusively in the realm of sexuality and gender. Finally, queering, the verb, is used to deconstruct that which is normative or the concept of normativity altogether.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Acosta, K. L. (2008). Lesbianas in the borderlands: Shifting identities and imagined communities. Gender & Society, 22(5), 639–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acosta, K. L. (2018). Queering family scholarship: Theorizing from the borderlands. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 10(2), 406–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R. (1995). Opening the classroom closet: Sexual orientation and self-disclosure. Family Relations, 44(2), 136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R. (2001). Feminist visions for transforming families. Journal of Family Issues, 22(6), 791–809.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R. (2007). Ambiguous Loss after lesbian couples with children break up: A case for same-gender divorce*. Family Relations, 56(2), 175–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R., & Demo, D. H. (1995). The families of lesbians and gay men: A new frontier in family research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57(1), 111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, S. H., & Mendez, S. N. (2018). Hegemonic heteronormativity: Toward a new era of queer family theory. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 10(1), 70–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (4th ed.). Aunt Lute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, S. B., Roberts, A. L., Corliss, H. L., & Molnar, B. E. (2008). Sexual violence victimization history and sexual risk indicators in a community-based urban cohort of “mostly heterosexual” and heterosexual young women. American Journal of Public Health, 98(6), 1015–1020.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bible, J., Bermea, A., van Eeden-Moorefield, B., Benson, K. E., & Few-Demo, A. L. (2017). A content analysis of the first decade of the journal of GLBT family studies. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 14(4), 337–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women, and the rest of us. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, K. (1998). My gender workbook: how to become a real man, a real woman, the real you, or something else entirely. In New York. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bos, H. H. M. W. (2010). Planned gay father families in kinship arrangements. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT), 31(4), 356–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bos, H. M. W., Van Balen, F., & Van Den Boom, D. C. (2007). Child adjustment and parenting in planned lesbian-parent families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77(1), 38–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brim, M., & Ghaziani, A. (2016). Introduction: Queer methods. Women's Studies Quarterly, 44(3/4), 14–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, S. M., Manzouri, A. H., & Savic, I. (2017). Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation. Scientific Reports, 7(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calzo, J. P., Masyn, K. E., Austin, S. B., Jun, H.-J., & Corliss, H. L. (2016). Developmental latent patterns of identification as mostly heterosexual versus lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 27(1), 246–253.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Carrigan, T., Connell, B., & Lee, J. (1985). Toward a new sociology of masculinity. Theory and Society, 14(5), 551–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, R. W., Raboy, B., & Patterson, C. J. (1998). Psychosocial adjustment among children conceived via donor insemination by lesbian and heterosexual mothers. Child Development, 69(2), 443–457.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demo, D. H., & Allen, K. R. (1996). Diversity within lesbian and gay families: Challenges and implications for family theory and research. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13(3), 415–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrensaft, D. (2011). Gender born, gender made: raising healthy gender-nonconforming children. Experiment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrensaft, D. (2016). The gender creative child: Pathways for nurturing and supporting children who live outside gender boxes. The Experiment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enos, T. (2018, September 13). 8 Things you should know about Two-Spirit people. Indian Country Today: Digital Indigenous News.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, L. (1998). Trans Liberation: Beyond pink or blue. Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Few-Demo, A. L. (2014). Intersectionality as the “new” critical approach in feminist family studies: Evolving racial/ethnic feminisms and critical race theories. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 6(2), 169–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Few-Demo, A. L., Humble, Á. M., Curran, M. A., & Lloyd, S. A. (2016). Queer Theory, Intersectionality, and LGBT-parent families: Transformative critical pedagogy in family theory. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(1), 74–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fish, J. N., & Russell, S. T. (2018). Queering methodologies to understand queer families. Family Relations, 67(1), 12–25.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality (1st American Edition ed). Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, A. E. (2019). Open adoption and diverse families: complex relationships in the digital age. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, A. E., & Allen, K. R. (Eds.). (2013). LGBT-parent families: Innovations in research and implications for practice. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, A. E., & Romero, A. P. (Eds.). (2018). LGBTQ divorce and relationship dissolution: psychological and legal perspectives and implications for practice. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gülgöz, S., DeMeules, M., Gelman, S. A., & Olson, K. R. (2019). Gender essentialism in transgender and cisgender children. PLOS ONE, 14(11), e0224321.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. P. (2001). "Quare" studies, or (almost) everything I know about queer studies I learned from my grandmother. Text and Performance Quarterly, 21(1), 1–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. P. (2016). Put a little honey in my sweet tea: Oral history as quare performance. Women's Studies Quarterly, 44(3/4), 51–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. P., & Henderson, M. (2005). Black queer studies: a critical anthology. Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kondakov, A. (2018). Crip kinship: A political strategy of people who were deemed contagious by the shirtless Putin. Feminist Formations, 30(1), 71–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuvalanka, K. A., Leslie, L. A., & Radina, R. (2014). Coping with sexual stigma: Emerging adults with lesbian parents reflect on the impact of heterosexism and homophobia during their adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 29(2), 241–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuvalanka, K. A., Weiner, J. L., & Mahan, D. (2014). Child, family, and community transformations: Findings from interviews with mothers of transgender girls. Journal of GLBT family studies, 10(4), 354–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon, P. (2013). Resilience in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17(4), 371–383.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, S. A., Few, A. L., & Allen, K. R. (2009). Handbook of feminist family studies. Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, J. K., Beek, T. F., Catalpa, J. M., & Steensma, T. D. (2019). The genderqueer identity (GQI) scale: Measurement and validation of four distinct subscales with trans and LGBQ clinical and community samples in two countries. International Journal of Transgenderism, 20(2-3), 289–304.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, J. K., Catalpa, J. M., Lacey, V., & Kuvalanka, K. A. (2016). Ambiguous loss as a framework for interpreting gender transitions in families. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(3), 373–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, J. K., Kuvalanka, K. A., Catalpa, J. M., & Toomey, R. B. (2016). Transfamily theory: How the presence of trans* family members informs gender development in families. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(1), 60–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, J. K., & Morrow, Q. J. (2020). Pathways of gender development. In M. Forcier, G. Van Schalkwyk, & J. L. Turban (Eds.), Pediatric gender identity: Gender-affirming care for transgender & gender diverse youth (pp. 33–46). Springer International Publishing.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674–697.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M. R. (2011). Invisible families: Gay identities, relationships, and motherhood among black women. University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moraga, C. E., & Anzaldúa, G. (1981). This bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color (2nd ed.). Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagoshi, J. L., & Brzuzy, S. I. (2010). Transgender theory: Embodying research and practice. Affilia, 25(4), 431–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagoshi, J. L., Brzuzy, S. I., & Terrell, H. K. (2012). Deconstructing the complex perceptions of gender roles, gender identity, and sexual orientation among transgender individuals. Feminism & Psychology, 22(4), 405–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, C. J. (2010). In K. Browne (Ed.), Queer methods and methodologies: Intersecting queer theories and social science research (1st ed.). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities. Pediatrics, 137(3), e20153223.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Oswald, R. F., Acock, A. C., Allen, K. R., Dilworth-Anderson, P., & Klein, D. M. (2005). Decentering heteronormativity: A model for family studies. In V. L. Bengston, A. C. Acock, K. R. Allen, P. Dilworth-Anderson, & D. M. Klein (Eds.), Sourcebook of family theory and research (pp. 143–165). SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, C. J. (1992). Children of lesbian and gay parents. Child Development, 63(5), 1025–1042.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peper, J. S., Burke, S. M., & Wierenga, L. M. (2020). Sex differences and brain development during puberty and adolescence. Handbook of clinical neurology, 175, 25–54.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pfeffer, C. A. (2008). Bodies in relation-bodies in transition: Lesbian partners of trans men and body image. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 12(4), 325–345.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, A. (1993). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. In H. Abelove, M. A. Barale, & D. M. Halperin (Eds.), The lesbian and gay studies reader. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, B. A. (2018). Conditional families and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth homelessness: Gender, sexuality, family instability, and rejection. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(2), 383–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, T. (2008). Locally queer. A note on the feminist genealogy of queer theory. Graduate journal of social science, 5(2), 5–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, F. J., & Pankey, T. (2017). Essentialist views on sexual orientation and gender identity. In K. A. DeBord, A. R. Fisher, K. J. Bieschke, & R. M. Perez (Eds.), Handbook of sexual orientation and gender diversity in counseling and psychotherapy. (1 ed., pp. 51-74). American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sedgwick, E. K. (1990). Epistemology of the closet. University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A. A., Meng, S. E., & Hansen, A. W. (2014). “I am my own gender”: Resilience strategies of trans youth. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 208–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stryker, S. (2008). Transgender history, homonormativity, and disciplinarity. Radical History Review, 2008(100), 145–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Testa, R. J., Habarth, J., Peta, J., Balsam, K., & Bockting, W. (2015). Development of the gender minority stress and resilience measure. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2(1), 65–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toomey, R. B., Ryan, C., Diaz, R. M., & Russell, S. T. (2018). Coping with sexual orientation–related minority stress. Journal of Homosexuality, 65(4), 484–500.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Eeden-Moorefield, B. (2018). Introduction to the special issue: Intersectional variations in the experiences of queer families. Family Relations, 67(1), 7–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Social Science, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Jenifer McGuire

Authors
  1. Jenifer McGuire
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jenifer McGuire .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Kari Adamsons

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    April L. Few-Demo

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, College of Education and Human Development University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Christine Proulx

  4. Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Kevin Roy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

McGuire, J. (2022). Queer Theory. In: Adamsons, K., Few-Demo, A.L., Proulx, C., Roy, K. (eds) Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methodologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92002-9_33

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation