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Intersectional Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Issues in Modern Language Teaching and Learning pp 153–182Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

L/G/B and T: Queer Excisions, Entailments, and Intersections

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality ((PSLGS))

Abstract

Narratives about LGBTQ+ lives and concerns in our field have not historically attended equally to all segments of the acronym. The simultaneous uniting of articulations of queerness (under LGBTQ+) and the excision of gender from sexuality is due, in part, to tenuous historical alliances that have existed among LGB and trans communities. As a field, we rarely ask what it means to be a language teacher or learner who is gay and trans, lesbian and trans, queer and trans, or any such intersections. This lack of intersectional awareness leaves blind spots in how we think about treating both the representation and inclusion of queerness in language classrooms. This chapter explores both what is lost when gender and sexuality are considered separately from one another and what is risked when the LGBTQ+ acronym is treated holistically, drawing on the idea of third spaces, to advance new approaches to queering language teaching/learning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a lack of more precise and expansive terminology, trans is used in this chapter in its broadest sense to denote numerous gendered possibilities including, but not limited to those often labeled trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or other culturally specific terms.

  2. 2.

    These tend to be the experiences of affluent White men who are perceived as “just like” heterosexual individuals, typically through an investment in heterosexual norms (e.g., marriage, monogamy).

  3. 3.

    This critique is not of Hawkins and Mori directly, nor it is a suggestion that a volume cannot focus on transnationality, transculturality, and translanguaging. Although I assume no malice, it is a poignant example of how transgender knowledges have not been brought to bear in the way that the field and myriad individuals therein think about the very notion of ‘trans-,’ given the fact that no mention of this exclusion appeared necessary to those involved in articulating the scope of this special issue.

  4. 4.

    Although a homo/hetero dichotomy is not necessarily exclusionary to non-binary individuals, owing to a same/different and not a man/woman paradigm, the way that these terms are operationalized tends to reproduce such interdependencies. For example, lesbian or gay could be made to mean someone who at least partially claims femininity or masculinity, respectively, who is attracted to people who at least partially claim femininity or masculinity, respectively. Bi, someone who is attracted to people who occupy at least one of two or more possible gendered categories or—as is a growing understanding among bi people—someone who is attracted to both people who are similarly and differently gendered from oneself. In fact, there are many people advocating for and using such definitions. However, these inclusive definitions remain far more malleable than the problematic operational definitions that are held by many, wherein a lesbian is a woman attracted to women, a gay person is a man attracted to men (via androcentric normativities this is often extended to describe all LGBQ+ people), and a bi person is someone attracted to men and women.

  5. 5.

    Trans and queer cultures are characterized by fluidity, flexibility, and the flouting of normativities. Moreover, recall that non-binary is not a third category that is equally as stable and entirely separable from the categories of woman and man. In many ways, non-binary is a catch-all term for a wide array of gendered existences. In this way, if some may see their gender as entirely outside of binary categories, it is equally possible for individuals to identify partially with womanhood, with manhood, or with a combination thereof.

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  1. The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Kris Aric Knisely

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  1. Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Joshua M. Paiz

  2. Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    James E. Coda

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Knisely, K.A. (2021). L/G/B and T: Queer Excisions, Entailments, and Intersections. In: Paiz, J.M., Coda, J.E. (eds) Intersectional Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Issues in Modern Language Teaching and Learning. Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76779-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76779-2_6

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