This volume is an attempt to serve as a venue for giving a voice to queer people from all faiths and no faiths to describe how they negotiate or have negotiated spiritual violence in their lives, as well as the voices of heterosexual allies who strive for the inclusion of queer people as a counter narrative to spiritual violence of full inclusion and embracement and demonstrate that some communities of faith do not operate from paradigms of violence, but instead operate with love, affirmation, and inclusion. These counter narratives are important. This volume is a collection of narratives that describe a variety of experiences – stories of pain and rejection, joy, and overcoming and transformation. The voices of the authors in this collection are a mixture of personal narratives, theoretical or academic thought, and because art and spirituality often go hand-in-hand, some of the authors offer the reader more creative writing that reflects their ideas.
In this volume, authors explore the interconnected issues of public health and public policy as they relate to queer issues in the Deep South. The book begins with a sustained examination of public health, health disparities, and mental health for LGBTQ people in the South. Next, the issues of public policy and public advocacy, including law enforcement, community advocacy and activism, and public life in the Deep South are taken up. Through the chapters in this text, the peculiarities of public health and public policy for LGBTQ people in the Deep South are explored. However, this volume also points to trends, themes, and dynamics at work in the Deep South that are also implicated in the queer experience in other parts of the U.S. The authors of this text push readers to think deeply about these issues. They clearly highlight the systemic nature of oppression of queer people in the South through institutions of medicine, mental health discourses, the criminal justice system, and public life including Pride and Mardi Gras. Taken together, the authors in this volume call for reform, liberation, and conscientization and queerly envision the future of health and policy in the Deep South.
As one of the first studies of its kind, this book brings together the personal, alongside complex theoretical concepts, in order to explore lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) identities within the Mennonite religious culture. Applying performativity, the book re-examines the meaning of identity in this ethno-religious community, as well as the way in which sexuality is talked about in churches and within institutions. It examines how lesbian, gay, and queer persons negotiate with these heteronormative discourses to be Mennonite. This is an important book for religious scholars and those concerned with queer identifications. (Series: Masters of Peace - Vol. 6)
Understanding and Dealing with Violence: A Multicultural Approach situates violence within a social, cultural, and historical context. Edited by distinguished scholars Barbara C. Wallace and Robert T. Carter, this unique volume explores historical factors, socialization influences, and the historical and contemporary dynamics between the oppressed and the oppressor. State-of-the-art research guides a diverse group of psychologists, educators, policy-makers, religious leaders, community members, victims, and perpetrators in finding viable solutions to violence.
Queer survivors of sexual and domestic violence struggle to find safe spaces for (re)empowerment in community with others. Through the codesign and implementation of regular meetings, six white, adult queer survivors explored the role of gardening, group discussion, and mutual aid on re(empowerment). Audio was coded to unearth patterns of discourse centering empowerment and community while behaviors and commentary surrounding agency, confidence, positive self expression, and connectedness were tracked as signs of empowerment. Engagement with plants became a medium for engaging in themes accompanying empowerment (identified by participants as: agency, confidence, positive self expression, and connectedness) and community (particularly in the form of affirmation) to develop and surface. Patterns of discourse revealed that group process and norms became a central point in our work together, uplifting and expanding co-design as participants worked together to build and enact this project together. Through shared agreements, participants created a feeling of safety, allowing themselves to be fully present and vulnerable. In reaching this place of shared vulnerability, participants began answering the research question, “what does (re)empowerment look like” and identify what aspects of empowerment are important and meaningful to them, leading to discussion around how and when each participant feels empowered.
This collection builds on the foundational work of Penelope D. Johnson, John Boswell's most influential student outside queer studies, on integration and segregation in medieval Christianity. It documents the multiple strategies by which medieval people constructed identities and, in the process, wove the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion among various individuals and groups. The collection adopts an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing historical, art historical, and literary perpsectives to explore the definition of personal and communal spaces within medieval texts, the complex negotiation of the relationship between devotee and saint in both the early and the later Middle Ages, the forming of partnerships (symbolic, economic, devotional, etc.) between men and women across medieval Europe's considerable gender divide, and the ostracism of individuals and groups through various means including imprisonment, violence, and their identification with pollution. Contributors include: Diane Peters Auslander, Constance Hoffman Berman, Elizabeth A.R. Brown, Alexandra Cuffel, Anne M. Schuchman, Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Katherine Allen Smith, Kathryn A. Smith, Christina Roukis-Stern, Susan Valentine, Susan Wade, and Scott Wells.
Drawn from extensive, new and rich empirical research across the UK, Canada and USA, Queer Spiritual Spaces investigates the contemporary socio-cultural practices of belief, by those who have historically been, and continue to be, excluded or derided by mainstream religions and alternative spiritualities. As the first monograph to be directly informed by 'queer' subjectivities whilst dealing with divergent spiritualities on an international scale, this book explores the recently emerging innovative spaces and integrative practices of queer spiritualities. Its breadth of coverage and keen critical engagement mean it will serve as a theoretically fertile, comprehensive entry point for any scholar wishing to explore the queer spiritual spaces of the twenty-first century.
Most therapy is set up in a heterosexist context. Explore the issues facing your gay, lesbian, and bisexual clients--and how to deal with them!The Therapist's Notebook for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients offers therapists treating lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients innovative, practical interventions plus homework and hands-on activities tailored to these populations. Use the notebook to explore the issues surrounding coming out, homophobia in the workplace, spirituality, identity formation, and issues that require a non-heterosexist approach, such as domestic violence and relationship concerns. Grounded in current theory, each chapter explains the rationale for the activity it proposes, includes contraindications, and provides a list of helpful resources for therapists and clients.Here are just a few of the issues this extraordinary book explores in its four thoughtfully planned sections:Section I: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Coming Out and Managing Homophobia and Heterosexism addresses: conflicts in self-perceptions obstacles to the growth of a healthy GLB identity dealing with the trauma and anxiety that result from discrimination using semi-hypnotic visualization to treat internalized homophobia helping bisexuals decide whether to come out or to “pass” coping with internalized homophobic messages dealing with heterosexism in the workplace or at school Section II: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Relationship Issues will help you and your clients understand and work on issues involving: choosing the right partner intimacy and gender roles financial stability assimilation, queer pride, and everything in between how ethnicity and coupling impact sexual identity negotiating a healthy open relationship sexual concerns, sexual dysfunction, and pleasuring sexual role values for bisexual and lesbian womenSection III: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Gender, Ethnic, and Sexual Identity Issues addresses “who am I” issues: sexual orientation and gender identity the intersection of sexual and ethnic identity oppression on multiple fronts gender exploration for lesbiansSection IV: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Specific Issues tackles concepts including: enhancing resilience through spirituality reconciling with religion spiritual wellness and the spiritual autobiography body image disturbances unwanted sexual behavior creating a safety plan in case of same-sex domestic violence alienation and finding a caring community medication adherence for HIV+ clients the difficulties faced by coupled lesbians with children family care planning addiction and recovery healing from the wounds of homophobia relationships with ex-partners managing workplace stressIf you're new to treating lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients you’ll find rich material, based in current literature, to guide your work. If you've already worked extensively with LGBT clients, the activities and fresh, innovative strategies in The Therapist's Notebook for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients will expand and invigorate your skills.
Melissa M. Wilcox explores the complex spiritual lives of queer women in the Los Angeles area. She takes the reader on a tour of a colorful array of religious and secular groups that serve as spiritual resources for these women—from the well-known Metropolitan Community Churches to Wiccan covens, from the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Arguing that these women's stories are exemplary cases of postmodern patterns of religious identity, belief, and practice, Wilcox offers a nuanced analysis of contemporary Western spirituality and selfhood, and a detailed exploration of the history of queer religious organizing in Los Angeles. Queer Women and Religious Individualism is important reading for scholars in religious studies, sociology, women's studies, and LGBT studies.
"Moving through over a dozen cities across four continents, Freedom Moves: Hip Hop Knowledges, Pedagogies, and Futures represents a cutting-edge, field-defining moment in Hip Hop Studies. As we approach 50 years of hip hop cultural history, and 30 years of hip hop scholarship, hip hop continues to be one of the most profound and transformative social, cultural, and political movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In this book, H. Samy Alim, Jeff Chang, and Casey Philip Wong invite us to engage dialogically with some of the world's most innovative and provocative Hip Hop artists and intellectuals as they collectively rethink the relationships between Hip Hop knowledges, pedagogies, and futures. Rooting hip hop in Black freedom culture, this state-of-the-art collection presents a globally diverse group of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Arab, European, North African and South Asian artists, activists, and thinkers who view hip hop as a means to move freedom forward for all of us. Contributors do so by taking stock of the politics of hip hop culture at this critical juncture of renewed racial justice movements in the US and globally (Chuck D, Rakim, and Talib Kweli); resisting oppressive policing and reimagining community safety, healing, and growth in US urban centers like New York (Bryonn Bain), Pittsburgh (Jasiri X), Chicago (Kuumba Lynx), Atlanta and "the New South" (Bettina Love, Regina Bradley, and Mark Anthony Neal), and the San Francisco Bay Area (Mark Gonzales, A-lan Holt, Michelle Lee and the Mural Music and Arts Project); and recovering traditional, Indigenous knowledges and ways of being in the world at the same time that they create new ones (Dream Warriors). Leading thinkers take seriously the act of forging new languages for new articulations of Black/feminist/queer/disabled futures within and beyond Hip Hop (Joan Morgan, Brittney Cooper, Treva Lindsey, Kaila Aida Story, Esther Armah, Leroy F. Moore, Jr. and Stephanie Keeney Parks); theorizing pedagogies that sustain the voices and visions of our youth in our collective movements towards freedom (Marc Lamont Hill, Christopher Emdin and the GZA, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Django Paris, and Maisha Winn); creating independent institutions within the white settler capitalist context of a "post"-apartheid South Africa (Prophets of da City's Shaheen Ariefdien and Black Noise's Emile YX?); envisioning life beyond "occupation" and the crushing (neo)colonial geopolitics of Palestine (DAM) and Syria (Omar Offendum); and organizing against suffocating, neoliberal austerity measures while fighting for a world free of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and political repression (La Llama Rap Colectivo in Spain). This volume is a testament to hip hop's power in that it functions as an art "form/forum," as James G. Spady wrote thirty years ago, and as such, it stands positioned to offer us new futures and new ways to imagine freedoms. This book, this forum, was birthed within the broader context of nearly a decade of interaction with some of the world's leading thinkers on freedom"--
