The author of several widely read books on queer theology came to our church today to preach and lead a discussion on the subject. At least I thought his books were widely read! From the discussion it became clear that not only is "queer theology" a blank for many in our congregation but the very word "queer" remains for them a term of abuse. In vain did the speaker respond (perhaps a little glibly) that a certain amount of discomfort might be a good thing, especially in theology. What the term triggered for these people was clearly more than discomfort.
This reaction was eye-opening for me. In the circles in which I move "queer" has completely shed these associations. In the religious circles in which the speaker's books are known (and even thought to be a little basic) "queer theology" is almost mainstream now. And in schools like the one in which I teach, "queer" is one of the most common forms of self-identification among students and unequivocally a good thing. Our speaker talked us quickly through a few different senses of queer - an "umbrella term" for non-normative sexualities, a term of "transgression," a term of "resistance," a way of challenging "binaries" of all kinds, and even a formulation of "non-identity." I wonder if it has any of that productively uncomfortable baggage for either my aging co-parishioners or my young students!
In the setting of our church discussion, the term "queer" got in the way of many folks' hearing much of anything our speaker shared. Certainly inaccessible to them was the idea that "queer theology," whatever it is, isn't just theology by and for "queer people," whoever they be, but "theology" that is liberating for everyone. Who couldn't benefit from release from the binaries of identity and the dead weight of supposedly fixed identities? And isn't that the "good news"?
An amusing tangent, in discussion with friends after the discussion: the speaker had mentioned that his books have been translated into several Asian languges, including Chinese, which has a new word that even sounds a little like "queer." I recalled that "queer" doesn't translate into other European languages either, appearing as a loan word in discussions in German and French. While I worried about the implicit Anglo-American associations of the concept in these contexts, a friend loved the idea of a loanword, and wondered if we might just need a new word, too, without the negative associations... though that might blunt its edge.
All to the good, I found myself thinking. A word by itself can't do that much, even if one could control its associations. And since we're talking "queer" - essentially a verb rather than a noun or adjective - any settled word will be a failure. If it holds open a space without upstaging itself, that'll be enough. Any suggestions?
