Queer & Trivial Tidbits: The Role of LGBT History in Self-Recognition and Cultural Acquisition
2009
In this essay, I raise questions regarding the role of LGBT/queer history in projects of
self-recognition for LGBT/queer youth. I am particularly concerned with the LGBT/queer
history that comes in the form of lists of famous historical LGBT/queer people and is
easily accessible in the form of print and digital media. I grapple with the question of
what work these pieces of history are doing. If they are providing LGBT/queer people
opportunities for self-recognition, how are they also limiting opportunities? I contend
that these opportunities are limited by the ways the information is commonly presented.
When we get tidbits of information in the form of lists or trivia, statements are
decontextualized and presented as simple facts without acknowledging the complexities of
the lives and events themselves, or discussing how identities intersect to impact lived
experience.
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