Through this exhibit, we intend to tell the story of the intersections of queerness and religion in the Humboldt community, specifically Humboldt State University, seeing that it’s often seen as a seemingly unlikely relationship. In an effort to bridge the gap between the two our goal is to show that queer religious people exist. We hope that this project can convey the stories of the ways in which (if any) HSU greets and accommodates queer religious people. Through interviews with HSU alumni, professors, and students, as well as local Rev. Sara Potter, multiple points of experience with the intersections of queerness and religion are documented here on this page. We want our audience to leave our page feeling accepted, and knowing more about a community that has been perceived a contradictory pairing.
What Is Queer?
To further understand where our perspetive of queerness and intersectional lenses are derived from, we have defined queer theory through the work of two well known theorists, Salvador Vidal-Ortiz and Mimi Marrinucci. Through Marinucci's novel Feminism Is Queer: The Intimate Connection Between Queer and Feminist Theory and Vidal-Ortiz's collection of work Queer Brown Voices, we have come to understand queerness as an identity and "queer as a destabilizer of identities, or as an indicator of what is slipery, excessive, and thus uncontainable by indentity frameworks." (Vidal-Ortiz) This project comes to understand and recognize "that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender indenities, or LGBT identities, do not constitute an exhaustive or exclusive list of alternatives to the heterosexual norm." (Marinucci)
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The Berkeley Gender Equality Resource Center outlines the confusion and discussion on queer theory:
"What does queer mean?
Queer has been used as... :
• an umbrella term for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community.
• a political statement, as well as a sexual orientation, which advocates breaking binary thinking by recognizing both sexual orientation and gender identity as potentially fluid. •a simple label to explain a complex set of sexual behaviors and desires. For example, a person who is attracted to multiple genders may identify as queer."
Through this, the GERC has outlined a furthure understanding of queer theory and queer definition, while also asking the question "How can we as a society be more respectful to queer people?"
Credits
Curated by Erin Scofield & Ani Glenn