The Limits of Homonormativity: Constructions of Bisexual and Transgender People in the Post-gay Era

Abstract

This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even people who support same-sex marriage and some recognition of cisgender lesbian and gay people as potentially moral individuals may continue marginalization of transgender and bisexual people in their interpretations of gender, sexualities, and religion. We outline two generic processes in the reproduction of inequality which we name (1) deleting and (2) denigrating whereby people may socially construct transgender and bisexual existence as unnatural and unwelcome despite gains for cisgender lesbian and gay people. We argue that examining the social construction of bisexual and transgender people may provide insight into (1) limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and/or gender liberation, (2) transgender and bisexual experience, and (3) the relative absence of bisexual and transgender focused analyses in sociology to date.

Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities

“…However, they also report examples where they face heteronormative cissexism and biphobia often unexplored in most sociology to date (Monro, Hines, and Osborne ) but suggested implicitly in the data of prior studies (Pascoe ; Silva ; Ward ). These observations echo suggestions that it may be useful for sociologists—especially those studying sexual fluidity itself—to begin systematically examining the ways sexual and gender fluid people experience heteronormativity, and the ways heteronormativity itself relies upon the erasure of fluidity as an option within social life (Mathers, Sumerau, and Cragun ).…”

Queer Pop–Ups: A Cultural Innovation in Urban Life

“…Post‐gay does not mean post‐discrimination, since acceptance is uneven (Mathers et al. ; Mathers et al. )—even in the gayborhood (Doan ; Knee )—where straight residents, who say they support gay rights and feel a common humanity with their LGBTQ/2S neighbors, still discriminate against them (Brodyn and Ghaziani ).…”

Learning from the Religious Experiences of Bi+ Trans People

“…Emerging studies of intersections between religion, nonreligion, bi+ experience, and trans experience suggest even as some religions have become less oppositional to gay and lesbian people and rights in some cases—offering tolerance (Thomas and Olson ), sympathy (Cragun, Sumerau, and Williams ), conditional acceptance (Sumerau, Grollman, and Cragun ), or even full affirmation (Moon and Tobin )—damnation specifically targeted at bi+ and trans people has intensified (Mathers ; Mathers, Sumerau, and Cragun ; Sumerau and Cragun ). Such studies also show bi+ and trans people are evaluated much more negatively by religious people than LG or nonreligious people (Cragun and Sumerau ).…”

“…As a nonreligious, pansexual agender person put it: “The Pope compared trans people to nuclear weapons, so I think it is pretty clear how many of them feel about us.” Referencing the same speech, as did others in the data set (about 11%), a Pagan, queer transgender person stated: “The Pope says people like me are as dangerous as nuclear weapons, and I didn't hear any big outcry from other religious people about it.” According to a nonreligious, pansexual nonbinary person: “My dad ran the men's group in church, and he completely disowned me when I came out at 16, which led to the same with the rest.” In line with the pattern reflected by the responses above, a nonreligious, pansexual transgender person recounts the following example from their youth:

I tried to be the very picture of conservative Christian everyone wanted me to be, but I was taken aside by elders and told I wasn't trying hard enough and my mental illness was no excuse. I was shunned by everyone, and when I went to leaders higher up in the church I was told the others were right to shun me.

Whether local or national, respondents flesh out the hostility captured in prior surveys (Cragun and Sumerau ) and interviews (Mathers, Sumerau, and Cragun ; Sumerau, Grollman, and Cragun ): many contemporary religious people display strong antipathy toward anything nonmonosexual and/or noncisgender (and often still directed at LG people by some; see Moon and Tobin ). As others note (Avishai ; Avishai, Jafar, and Rinaldo ; Bush ), this suggests religion may often be more about normative understandings of gender and sexualities than anything related to a higher power, morality, love or care for others, or anything otherwise explicitly religious (see also Burke ).…”