After reading the first two chapters of Queer Injustice (for class on Tuesday, October 30), use evidence from the reading to answer this question: How have LGBTQIA+ folks been criminalized in the United States? (Put another way, how has U.S. culture, society, and law defined "queers as intrinsically criminal" (23)?)
To help you get started, you might want to review briefly how our authors explain what they mean by the criminalization of queers (see p. 23, for a starting point). Then, please discuss two concrete examples of how queers have been criminalized in the U.S. Aim for at least 250 words in your comment.
There are several ways in which queers have been criminalized in the history of the United States but the most discussed in the beginning of this book are sodomy and indecency. The authors make it clear that there were not laws that specifically criminalized LGBTQ people but that sodomy and indecency charges were used against them. This is what made queer people intrinsically criminal. Because they went against gender or sexual norms they were automatically criminals or against society at the time. The authors discuss really early history of persecuting LGBTQ people going back to the Spaniards throwing gender nonconforming individuals to the dogs and the deaths of indigenous people who may not have fit into gender binaries. The authors were also clear that punishment or sodomy or sexual deviance was worse for people of color through most of history. Death penalties were enforced for men of color more often than white men. Examples like this illustrate how prejudice can increase the more minority identities one holds.
ReplyDeleteThe authors also discuss some archetypes that we have latched onto in the Unites States that allowed us to persecute or degrade LGBTQ people. They cite some specific examples types like Queer Killers that are represented in movies like Silence of the Lambs (among other examples) and how they made queer people seem like they would inherently use violence to fulfill their identities. These archetypes enforce stereotypes that queer people are criminal or will do things at any cost to do unnatural things. These assumptions are so harmful and untrue they are likely what upholds prejudice against LGBTQ folks to this day.
The literal definition of the word ‘criminalization’ means, “the action of turning an activity into a criminal offense by making it illegal.” In this case, the authors of Queer Injustice refers to it as the criminalization of queerness. Mogul et al states, “queer people are targeted for policing and punishment regardless of whether they have actually committed any crime or done any harm” (Mogul et al, 24). Because the LGBTQ+ community does not conform to the status quo or what society expects as “normal,” they are often associated as being dangerous, sick, violent, etc. In order to frame LGBT people as being “criminals,” Mogul et al provided several examples in which they called “archetype.” These archetype provide evidence as to how the stories of LGBTQ+ people were “predetermined” in order to “shape how a person’s appearance or behavior will be interpreted” (Mogul et al, 23). Two examples that resonated with me regarding criminalizing queerness came from the various narratives that framed queer people men as “threat to our children” (Mogul et al, 34). When a boy and a girl were sexually assaulted and murdered in Sioux City, Iowa, police began arresting “sexual deviates” (Mogul et al, 33). Ultimately, the police arrested twenty-two gay men and essentially forced the men to “pled guilty to conspiracy to commit sodomy” (Mogul et al, 34). The men were sent to to indefinite confinement where this shattered their entire lives. Another example was of the sexual abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Church. Gay priest became the prime target during these investigation, even-though there were no evidence that suggest “gay priest were more likely than hetersexual clergy to sexually abuse minors” (Mogul et al, 34). These examples show how queer people were being painted as threat to our children, our future -- and we must do whatever it takes to keep them from ruining the social order even it means sacrificing the lives of innocent people.
ReplyDeletePeople in the LGBTQIA+ community have been criminalized by racial/ethnic backgrounds, citizenship status, physical appearance, and gender. The arrests and results from the arrests came along with the European settlers in the United States. First beginning with the Native American tribes that were living in the lands for longer than the colonizers.
ReplyDelete“The imposition of the gender binary was also essential to the formation of the U.S. nation state on Indigenous land. As [Andrea] Smith explains, ‘In order to colonize a people whose society was not hierarchical, colonizers must first neutralize hierarchy through instituting patriarchy.’” (3). The Anglo-Saxon settlers viewed the Native American forms of gender and sexuality as immoral, therefore arresting, torturing, and at times killing them.
Fast forward to 1960 with Sara Harb Quiroz. Quiroz lived in America for many years with her kids as a domestic worker. She was coming back to El Paso, Texas from Juarez, Mexico. Quiroz was then “...stopped for questioning by a U.S. immigration officer with a reputation for detecting so-called sexual deviates and ensuring that they were denied entry into, or expelled from, the United States. According to Albert Armendariz, Quiroz’ attorney, she was stopped because, based on her appearance, the immigration inspector perceived her to be a lesbian.” (37). Because she looked like what the officer perceived her as she spent over thirty years not being allowed back into the country that she lived in for years.
It is horrifying to even think about what people have done to others who were not only different in sexuality, but with race added on as well during certain situations.
When thinking about queer folks being criminalized in the context of the United States and its history, I think of the events and systems that have led to the reification of a dangerous, and morally unsound character archetype with very loose structures of freedom. I think of a body of people that has been marked in such a way that the systems have already decided where they will go and how they will act in society. Mogul et. al offer us a definition that criminalization is the direct result of, "persistent melding of homosexuality and gender nonconformity with concepts of danger, degeneracy, disorder, deception, disease, contagion, etc. This intersects nicely with my own thoughts how how and why criminalization occurs. Some of the most visceral examples that I found in the text were in the links between sodomy arguments and colonialization. Learning that this was a tool that many of the colonizers used to discredit and kill indigenous populations exposes the bone of our context of anti "queer" perception and positionally. Another that I thought that was particularly horrific was the work of vilifying blacks through the convolution of their sexuality with perversity. Through this act people were made to hypersexual and dangerous, and the racist language of this time was strongly intermingled with these anti sodomite conclusions.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the authors of Queer (In)Justice, the LGBTQ+ community has been criminalized in the United States through a long history of archetypes. “Archetypes” are narratives that are so embedded in our society that they change the way our brain works and make it so our society associates criminal activity with queer people. In the beginning of chapter 2 the authors explain, “This research suggests that criminalizing frames for understanding perceived departures from (white supremacist, colonial, patriarchal, gendered, and heterosexual) norms, reinforced in infinite ways, consciously and unconsciously over hundreds of years, can literally change how we are able to think about these issues.” (135) This quote explains that queer criminalization may be unconscious in our society and in order to challenge these reoccurring narratives. Some of the archetypes that exist in America today is, for one, “The Queer Killer” which creates ideas of queer people being so confused or insecure about their sexual orientation/identity that it results in insanity and/or a murderous rage. One example is, “
ReplyDelete‘transsexual’ serial killer Jame ‘Buffalo Bill’ Gumb in the film Silence of the Lambs are terrifying representations of men in the grips of pathological gender confusion who go to murderous lengths to become women.” (147) Another archetype that exists is “the Queer Security Threat,” this archetype makes it seems as though queer “sexual deviance” is intruding in on our idealistic world with nothing but nuclear families. One specific example is a lady named Sara Harb Quiroz. Quiroz was barred entry into the U.S. from Mexico just because she looked like a lesbian. The authors explain that there was one border patrol guard who was supposedly good for being able to pick out sexual deviants. Quiroz was one of his choosing because she had short hair and wore jeans.
In the book Queer Injustice, the criminalization of queer people is defined as, “The enduring product of persistent melding of homosexuality and gender nonconformity with concepts of danger, degeneracy, disorder, deception, disease, cognation, sexual predation, depravity, subversion, encroachment, treachery, and violence” (23). Taking an action that is already associated with a group, and then making that action illegal is criminalization, and the queer community is only one of the many groups that has been targeted by this tactic. Queer people weren’t gender conforming or ashamed of their sexually, and did many other things that non queer people saw as strange, so this made criminalizing queer activities specifically so much easier.
ReplyDeleteA specific example of an archetype that leads to the policing of queer people is that they spread disease. Some examples of this come from the spreading of HIV and AIDS because they are sexually transmitted diseases. Queer Injustice illustrated the difference between a stereotype and the archetype of queer people spreading diseases, “queers do not only spread diseases, they are a sexually transmitted disease” (36). This lead to new opportunities for society to “erect barriers between the acceptable and the deviant” (36).
A second archetype is the queer security threat. It is explained that, “queers pose a fundamental threat to the integrity and security of the family, community, and the nation” (36). Societal barriers are crossed when different (sexually, racially, and financially) people are breaching these set ideas and that is considered a threat to many. As a result borders are tightened and rules are more strictly enforced on those who are different than society, severely limiting queer people. In some cases queer people were denied entry to our country based on their queerness, and other excuses were used to cover it up.
In “Queer Injustice”, the authors first work to set the stage by laying out the historical context of LGBTQ+ oppression, defining and deconstructing terms, and forcing an awareness of intersectionality. Bringing us back to the horrific roots of colonization, when so-called explorers went to great lengths to naturalize the forms of hierarchy present in western culture. As is explained by a cited historian, “It can hardly be said that colonization was primarily a battle against sodomy, but sodomy… very often became a useful pretaxt for demonizing- and eliminating- those whose real crime was to possess what Europeans most desired.” (2). Projected first on the indigenous peoples of North and Central America who engaged in acts identified by colonizers as sodomy and cross-dressing, a similar tool was used against other minority groups such as Africans who were labeled as similarly sexually deviant, providing grounds for abuse and dehumanization. The authors note that it is misguided to try and understand the sexual and gender norms of these cultures through the words of colonizers or from our current reference systems, and it is important to acknowledge the complex nature of sexuality and gender-based oppression, “Emphasizing the role systems of sexual regulation played in reinforcing other forms of social regulation based on race, class, and gender.” Despite a global history of homophobia predating the Old Testament back in 400 B.C., systemic processes carried out through colonization mark the beginning of this history on our stolen soil. While modern-day oppression of the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. has morphed form through the repeal of anti-sodomy and other anti-gay laws, it certainly still exists. As the authors explain, the criminalization of the queer community has origins in and persists on a cultural level. It is more than a legal process, “It is the enduring product of persistent melding of homosexuality and gender nonconformity with concepts of danger, degeneracy, disorder, deception, disease, contagion, sexual predation, depravity, subversion, encroachment, treachery, and violence.” If we do not engage with these deeply rooted, culturally-infuse ideologies, the level of equality and liberation we strive for will be dangerously shallow.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why my name still isn't coming up, but this is Cailin!
DeleteQueer Injustice allows us to dive into the topic of criminalization and make connections to the current political and social climate we are living in which specifically affects the LGBT community. The introduction does a great job in presenting certain themes such as the crisis of mass incarceration, crime, and punishment to lay a foundation of how crime has become a national obsession in America. The root cause and effect of minorities becoming mass incarcerated comes from a skewed "system that promotes prisons as 'solutions' to social, political, and economic problems while reaping political and economic benefits from incarceration" (xiii).
ReplyDeleteWith this in mind, the LGBTQIA+ community has been criminalized as a punishment of people identified as living outside the appropriated gendered, heterosexual norms. First, the term "queen killers" can be seen through the example of Gumb in the film Silence of the Lambs showing "terrifying representations of men in the grips of pathological gender confusion who murder and go lengths to become women" (30). Criminalization can be seen through media by falsely producing a form of entertainment (US culture) which influences societal views on people. A second example, seen on page 35, has a parallel to what we learned about the AIDS epidemic. LGBT individuals such as Gaetan Dugas are seen as disease spreaders. A gay journalist Randy Shilts publishes his accusations which state how Dugas "was emblematic of gay 'promiscuity', now clearly marked not only as criminal but also homicidal. This spread to the media, specifically a New York Times article, creates an archetype in which queers are seen as to not only spread disease; they are a STD. These two examples resonate with the language being used today exclusively from powerful governmental figures that use scare tactics to influence society to see minorities and the LGBTQ community as a dangerous 'other'.
To understand in what way queers are criminalized you have to first understand why they are criminalized. What attributes about this group of people that go against some kind of law? Is it only a social law? In Queer Injustice the authors suggest that the reason for this is because queer criminality stems from, "policing and punishing of people [who] live outside the appropriately gendered heterosexual norms... [they serve to] establish compelling, ultimately controlling, narratives, or predetermined story lines that shape how a person's appearance and behavior will be interpreted" (p23). These social and, sometimes real, laws that queers break tell a story of a threat to overall society and not from a dangerous killer stand point. Historian Lisa Duggan expands on what the narrative of a lesbian who murdered her partner for accepting a marriage offer from a man, then was declared insane. She explains that her true crime was a threat to, "white masculinity and to the stability of white home as fulcrum of political and economical hierarchies" (28). She did not simply murder her partner, she threatened the structure of heteronormativity and white as superior or infallible.
ReplyDeleteA crime that has been stereotyped to gay men in particularly is pedophilia. There was a horrible lie spread about the intentions of child predators in relation to gay men, because the crime had often been committed by older men on younger boys. The authors explain part of this damage from the lie resulted in, "wave of arrests and sentences- from probation to life imprisonment- echoed and amplified the antihomosexual fervor already marking the era, linking it to broader national efforts to purge gays and lesbians from public life and government service" (32). This is an example of the systematic oppression of gays and lesbians due to the perceived social deviant sexuality.
Joey Mogul and the other authors explain how society has started criminalizing queers in ways like, sexual predation, violence, and disease. They criminalize queers because society believed, mostly around this time, that queer people only bring disease and terror. One example of queers being criminalized in the US is the biased incarceration of the LGBTQIA+ community. “In 1997 San Francisco Department of Public Health study found that 67% of transgender women and 30% of transgender men had a history of incarceration.” That also shows a large bias against transgender women, which can come from a form of toxic masculinity. This is criminalizing the trans community because it’s highly unlikely that 67% of transgender women deserve to have been to jail repeatedly. This reminds me of the time with saying transgender people can’t go into the bathroom of the gender they identify with. This isn’t fair because trans people are more likely to be victims of violence than people who are violent. Another way queers are criminalized are the sodomy laws that are well known. “Sodomy laws, widely perceived as the cornerstone of criminalization of homosexuality, arose in the colonies against this backdrop of sexual and gender deviance unevenly projected onto certain populations”(pg 9). What is hard about this is the fact that something that is so private, like sex, is being seen as a crime. And in the end I think that’s a lot of criminalizing queers. Society’s expectations are criminalizing queers because they don’t fit in those molds.
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