In this chapter, we address the question: Where do LGBTQ+ people access transformational queer wisdom needed for surviving and thriving in a marginalizing and hostile society? With over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills presently being considered by U.S. state legislatures, transformational queer wisdom is both increasingly necessary and increasingly difficult to access. We conceptualize these anti-LGBTQ+ policies, involving curriculum censorship, book bans, and other forms of structural oppression, to represent a potent form of epistemic injustice. We argue that LGBTQ+ intergenerational engagement in intentionally designed community spaces can counter epistemic injustice, offering alternative, affirming models of LGBTQ+ education. Specifically, we describe an ethnographic, community-based project—The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project—that we have facilitated for six years in which older and younger LGBTQ+ adults come together on a biweekly basis to engage in storytelling, dialogue, and collaborative artmaking. A key aim of the project is to bridge gaps between generations and connect each generation to LGBTQ+ knowledges acquired through experiences coming out and into the world as LGBTQ+ subjects in different cultural–historical moments. We offer this project as an educational model for scholars, educators, practitioners, and activists seeking to mobilize transformational queer wisdom within and beyond formal institutions. We describe practical strategies and lessons learned through six years of this work, so that others may design similar community-level interventions with a range of marginalized communities. Ultimately, we illustrate that creating space for LGBTQ+ people to share wisdom across generations is not only possible but necessary for collective survival, resistance, and flourishing.

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We Say Gay: A Community-Ecological Approach to Transformational Queer Wisdom

  • Nic M. Weststrate,
  • Karen A. Morris,
  • Adam J. Greteman,
  • Lisa L. Moore

摘要

In this chapter, we address the question: Where do LGBTQ+ people access transformational queer wisdom needed for surviving and thriving in a marginalizing and hostile society? With over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills presently being considered by U.S. state legislatures, transformational queer wisdom is both increasingly necessary and increasingly difficult to access. We conceptualize these anti-LGBTQ+ policies, involving curriculum censorship, book bans, and other forms of structural oppression, to represent a potent form of epistemic injustice. We argue that LGBTQ+ intergenerational engagement in intentionally designed community spaces can counter epistemic injustice, offering alternative, affirming models of LGBTQ+ education. Specifically, we describe an ethnographic, community-based project—The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project—that we have facilitated for six years in which older and younger LGBTQ+ adults come together on a biweekly basis to engage in storytelling, dialogue, and collaborative artmaking. A key aim of the project is to bridge gaps between generations and connect each generation to LGBTQ+ knowledges acquired through experiences coming out and into the world as LGBTQ+ subjects in different cultural–historical moments. We offer this project as an educational model for scholars, educators, practitioners, and activists seeking to mobilize transformational queer wisdom within and beyond formal institutions. We describe practical strategies and lessons learned through six years of this work, so that others may design similar community-level interventions with a range of marginalized communities. Ultimately, we illustrate that creating space for LGBTQ+ people to share wisdom across generations is not only possible but necessary for collective survival, resistance, and flourishing.