Denormatizing queer theory More than (simply) lesbian and gay studies For Thomas Dowson, 'Queer theory is very definitely not restricted to homosexual men and women, but to any one who feels their position (sexual, intellectual, or cultural) to be marginalized. .. Queering. .. empowers us to think what is often the unthinkable to produce unthoughtof pasts [presents and futures]' (2000: 163, 165). Not so, it seems, for some. This short paper asks what happens when a discourse meant 'to challenge and break apart conventional categories' (Doty, 1993: xv) becomes one itself? 1 Despite Lee Edelman's description of queer theory as 'a site of permanent becoming' (1995: 348), 2 many queer theorists have sought to limit the discourse to examinations of gay male and lesbian genders and sexualities alone (or primarily). 3 Sheila Jeffreys' citing of queer theory as the 'new lesbian and gay studies' (1997: 277) has, in many cases, held true. In this way, some queer theorists have done exactly what Cherry Smyth warned against: continually substituted queer for gay (1992: 25). In the process, they have reduced queer to an identity category alone, or the ontological and epistemological extensions of an identity category/umbrella descriptor. Those who employ queer theory for anything other than the location of non-heteronormative-yet non-gay or lesbian-identities risk charges of mis-appropriation, misuse , and misunderstanding. 4 This is criticism levelled by those who would presume to own what Judith Butler insists must 'remain. .. never fully owned' (1993: 228). While lesbian feminists, such as Sheila Jeffreys (2003), worry that queer theory is proving harmful to lesbian identities, 5 many queer theorists fear that queer will be emptied of its political valence and critical edge if it is moved outside of the lesbian and gay sphere. This is not to suggest that lesbian and gay studies is an unimportant mode of enquiry or that lesbian and gay studies has not been influential in the development of queer theory. However, lesbian and gay studies does not equal queer theory. Given spatial constraints, I cannot treat all of the intricacies of lesbian and gay studies here; however, I would like to make it clear that I am not suggesting that lesbian and gay studies examines lesbian and gay identities or issues alone. Although I recognize that those in lesbian and gay studies examine, among others, heterosexuality, transgender and bisexuality, there is a primary and ontological investment in examining,