This paper addresses the ways in which critiques of "gay" and "queer" as products of western colonialism (Massad 2007, Puar 2017) are co-opted by religious nationalist groups to support anti-queer policies under the guise of anti-colonialism. This co-option puts queer activists in a difficult double-bind of having to prove their belonging in the imagined nation even as they have to compete for funding in a homocapitalist global NGO economy (Rao 2020). I show that this double-bind leads some queer activists in former colonies to reshape not only what it means to be queer but also what it means to belong to a religious community.
As queer activists try to satisfy both international donors and local politicians they toggle back and forth between born-this-way models of identity and more expansive models of identity as becoming. While this whiplash, if viewed in isolation, often appears as complicity with existing power structures, I argue that its instability provides room for innovation and inclusion. At the same time, shifting conceptualizations of identity make it hard for queer activists to garner moral authority. This results in a queer activism focused on visibility, often to the exclusion of other priorities.
Both "religion" and "queer" as categories and concepts have been frequently accused of being products of western imperialism so it should not surprise use that religious queer activists outside the west find themselves redefining both. More interestingly, however, I have found that the queer activist groups I have worked with negotiate the concepts of religious and sexual identity apparently independently. While talking to international donors they might frame queerness as inherent and unchanging and religion as freely chosen, yet when responding to religious leaders and politicians these models of identity are often inverted, with queerness presented as fluid and rooted in practice and religion presented as inherited and inescapable. Of course, these conversations often happen simultaneously, resulting in a curious amalgamation where identity is both determined at birth and an expression of freedom and individuality. Under this approach, identity becomes both more expansive and harder to organize around. I show that this makes it easier for queer activists who take up this curious amalgamation to argue for inclusivity on the basis of the presence or visibility of queerness while also making it harder to fight for more concrete policy goals.
This paper addresses the ways in which critiques of "gay" and "queer" as products of western colonialism (Massad 2007, Puar 2017) are co-opted by religious nationalist groups to support anti-queer policies under the guise of anti-colonialism. This co-option puts queer activists in a difficult double-bind of having to prove their belonging in the imagined nation even as they have to compete for funding in a homocapitalist global NGO economy (Rao 2020). I show that this double-bind leads some queer activists to reshape not only what it means to be queer but also what it means to belong to a religious community. By choosing when and how to be complicit with competing power structures, these queer activists are able to create room for innovation and inclusion through shifting approaches to identity. However, this instability comes at a cost.