Queerness: A 21st Century Power Relation

Written by : Christopher Turner

​​The traditional parties have slowly disintegrated in a power vacuum: It’s a reality
faced in a world of antiblackness that is thirsting to catch the appeal of one
group—the LGBT.

In recent times, the American right has adopted a populist basis to become the new
anti-establishment’s establishment; a contradiction necessary to win over the
general idea of change in a time of stagnancy.
​

Pictured: Lucian Wintrich wearing a MAGA hat

​​Lucian Wintrich, a gay conservative, created a micro-movement in America: “Twinks
for Trump”- a group made specifically for LGBT conservative members in America to
congregate- represents an emerging split in the LGBT.

Homonationalism, a term coined by Jasbir Puar (a Professor at Rutgers University’s
Women and Gender Studies department), is the intersection between queerness and
nationalist thought that is slowly plaguing Western society. The idea centers around
the exploitation of queer bodies and people in order to seize the reproduction of nation-state thought. It’s a form of resistance against the queer cause under one
basis—it’s antiblack.

Modern homonationalism creates a poster child in Republican media; usually white,
gay, Christian, and most importantly…wealthy men who create a space of tolerance
for those like themselves- “successful”. It symbols a world where all LGBTQI members
have “woken up” and chosen national identity by undermining queerness, while
emphasizing their queerness at the same time. Let us go back to Wintrich for an
example. When making a speech on campus at the University of Connecticut, the
protests against him were not the typical homophobic, bible-thumping conservatives
in deep-water Alabama; in fact, they were Black Lives Matter protesters who felt in
danger by his comments on African Americans, Illegal Immigrants, and the modern
left.

Queer theory serves as the rejection of the state to build new institutions that are
objectively better for the status of all queer bodies. It’s the acknowledgement that
the black body’s “queerness” is vulnerable and significantly targeted after.

Once queer bodies choose nationalist thought, they have subscribed themselves to a
world of queer soldierhood, exploitation, and fetishization. The normalization of
nation-states forms a façade of peace to maintain itself. Though, to maintain such
peace, the nation-state creates a dichotomization of who is and is not allowed, who
is and is not exploited, and who is and is not making capital gains. It leads in a
constant schizophrenic state similar to Wilderson’s description of blackness that
creates a world of antagonism, displacement, and utter failure.

Take Trump’s transgender ban in which transgender subjects are meant to feel
protected by not having to participate in military services; however, as citizens, their
rights are actively taken away under a false security statement. Even if the ban is
lifted, which it wasn’t and instead acts as a check for fiscal protection against gender
surgeries, trans people are still potentially dying for a homophobic state to disrupt
black and brown nations. The goal presented by queer theory is an attack on these
white institutions to end their misuse of queer bodies.

The future of ending homonationalism is a push that scholars have been requesting
for a long time. “African ‘homosexuality’s’ can never be comfortably slotted within identity politics carved out of Western “gay" and ‘lesbian’ liberation struggles, and display queer and even post-queer characteristics.” (Chantal Zabus,  Out in Africa: Same-Sex Desire in Sub-
Saharan Literatures & and Cultures).

Only a radical change can truly save the lives of queer, brown, and black people.