Queer rhetoric about public issues sometimes strives to fit into existing norms around politics, gender, and sexuality. Sometimes, however, queer rhetoric reflects and defends more radical forms of love, family, political organization, and community. Many forms of queer movement rhetoric attempt to integrate both of these approaches, but what happens when they come into conflict? Students in this course will examine multiple examples of queer political rhetoric. These cases may include the Stonewall demonstrations, the election of Harvey Milk, the AIDS activism of ACT UP, the work of the Combahee River Collective, marriage equality campaigns, Pride parades, campaigns for trans rights, and others. The core question of the class is this: what is the relationship between radical activism that strongly rejects political and gender/sexuality norms and more conventional activism that attempts to develop stronger ties between LGBTQ+ politics and mainstream progressive and liberal politics and cis/het lifestyles? For instance, what are the different ways of understanding the relationship between the pursuit of a Supreme Court decision on marriage equality and the formation of a lesbian separatist collective? How do different forms of queer movement rhetoric require different types of research methods to best describe and account for the significance of rhetorical forms of queer political action?

GenEd Information: Approved for the Arts & Humanities requirement of the IU Bloomington General Education program.

Catalog Information: COLL-S 103 FRESHMAN SEMINAR IN A & H