2/29/12 Questions for interviews/survey of queer people

How old are you? (an approximate is fine)
How do you identify, gender-wise?
Do you identify as queer?
Why or why not? If no, do you identify as anything else (ex gay, trans, ally, etc)?
If yes, how did you originally connect to queer identity or how did you become identified as an ally? What has been your most striking experience being queer or striving to be a queer ally in america?
Do you see a difference between being queer and being LG(BT)? If yes, please describe this difference.
In which region of the country do you live?
How queer-friendly is your region in general? Are gay people queer friendly? How about straight people? If there is a queer scene, what's it like in terms of size, identity demographics, visibility in the mainstream culture of the place?
What do you think the national scene is like in terms of the same?
What do you think is the main challenge for the American queer movement in the next 5-10 year?

Do you feel like the way you expresse your gender and/or sexuality affects the way people categorize you (as gay, queer, transgender, etc)? Do people seem to categorize you in ways consistent with your identity? Why do you think people categorize you how they do and what's your reaction to it?

random musing from 2/10/12

types of queers:

trans radicals
grrls (femme or GQ or male)
cross-dressers
random kinky people
radical les/gay
some female butches and male femmes
counterculture enthusiasts
guydykes

link is roles? transgression?

Disorganized notes from SF queer feminist erotica interviews

background: scene based out of SF- seen as at the forefront of the movement bc of inclusive, sex-positive attitudes.

1) queer as sexuality (term meaning pansexual or fluid, basically)

• "“I don’t really give a shit [about categories] and I fuck who I want to fuck, and I think the word queer sums that up”- Ned
• independence, engagement with sexuality
• queer narratives must include sexuality? ex shortbus
• “gender and sexuality evolving until I can’t keep up with it anymore- I can do anything and still just hang onto queer” My inability to select solid labels for my gender identity and sexual preference. Charlie Spats
• my inadvertent refusal to subscribe to categories involving sexual identity. -bobby bends
• “I definitely have a very complex and constantly shifting sexuality,” -Maggie mayhem
• “Don’t quite fit in the binary
  I fluctuate/transform and ride the waves” papi coxxx
  

2) queer as sexual transgression

• “my desires were considered out of the mainstream” -chloe camilla
• “my tastes aren’t influenced by mainstream media or images of what is sold as “sexy” but rather about connecting on about a billion different levels that can make someone so very hot.” cola
• “queer and/or sexually transgressive” from website
• “Who I am, who I love and fuck as well as how is not dictated by anyone else’s terms." Arabelle Raphael
• i'm a total pervert. -Billy castro
  

3) queer as gender/role transgression

• shift away from body-centric sexuality, more towards powerplay, energy, fetishes, roles
• “negotiate power dynamics regardless of trad gender roles” -ned
• don’t fit into traditional roles” -Sealu sideshow
• “my gender and sexual identities and preferences can seem contradictory or confusing to those who identify as straight or homosexual; that i don’t conform to either the hetero-normative or mainstream GLBT codes of conduct.” Courtney trouble
• “my need to define myself as anything I choose to be. I choose the people and the relationships in which I want to be involved without feeling worried about perceptions of traditional behavior.” mickey mod
• “i want to surprise and push boundaries, those of society and even more so my own. i love and celebrate most those parts of myself that are so often used to shame.” Nic switch
  

4) queer as political

• queer is a tribe, is activist group actively trying to make things better
• “commitment to queer community and producing queer cultural content” Sealu Sideshow
• awareness of interconnected/intersecting identity politics
  
• “I dont deal with any kind of sexist anti femme bullshit. " billy castro
• “it’s less about who you’re actually fucking and more about your politics. Queer is an anti-assimilationist term for me… the heterosexist and cissexist model we have for society is wrong… I’m sexually transgressive because I’m not going to stop telling you about all of the exciting ways that humans are having sex until you stop putting them in jail, stop withholding jobs, stop withholding resources, and stop withholding healthcare.” Maggie mayhem
  

5) some combination of the above

• My politics, how I relate to my body and use it, my community.” Arabelle Raphael
• “Nothing MAKES me queer. Queer is who/what I am. Queer comes from inside me and pours out, and there’s too much for me to keep to myself. Queer is my sexuality, being a trans person, and a artist and exibitionist. If something were to “make” me queer it would have to be the bounderies, rule/laws, and roles that the culture, society, and religion that I live in has placed upon my gender, sexual expression, and how and who I like to fuck. Queer is a big part of my identity because I am a sexual creature and I love myself. I believe it’s a form of activism and a political statement to love myself and be open about my queerness, my trannyness, and my sexyness and show as many people that i can they can love themselves too. I think I wouldn’t have to have this identity if the world would just accept people for who they are and not focus so much on “how things are supposed to be” and what is “right” and “wrong”.” dem hot trans dudequeers puck goodfellow
• my fluid gender identity, my sexuality, and my politics… I never refrain from being true to myself; a self that often presents a paradoxical challenge to archetypal gender compartments… see queer as the next frontier of compartment deconstruction – of gender, sexuality, and through this, patriarchy, and heteronormitivity – always in the spirit of definition and a rejection of assimilation. -Quinn valentine
• Queer is a word that helps me identify with my own fluid gender. The term queer also gives me a way to express being attracted to many different genders.” Rodger wood
  
• The ethics and beliefs to which I live my life by and the perverted sex I have. -Scout
• “my gender, my sex, my politics, my desire.” Varina Adams
  

Meetings

Met with my reader (Ms. Dannenberg), with Mr. Fieleke, and with Joel (Greifinger) on Friday.
Ms. Dannenberg was great. She doesn't know anything about philosophy, but is enthusiastic and will be great for making my writing comprehensible for people who don't know about this kind of stuff. We will continue to meet C4.
Fieleke was also great. He suggested that because I have a background of existentialism, I don't need to go in-depth and try to read Being and Time or something. He said I should just look for a few readings, some from last year's Phil Lit textbook: Camu's essay on Sisyphus, Sartre on existence preceding essence, and the Heidegger essay in the textbook (maybe something about the ethic of care too). Basically, he said to read a few good existential works to get a fundamental framework for my thinking, but not to go too in-depth with the existential phenomenology and just focus on the queer theory.
Joel had a different take on things. He made the point that i should focus on exploring the practical meaning of queer for today, and try to make a distinction between the marriage movement and the more radical queer movement. He spent a while trying to get me to define what makes someone queer and didn't give me any book reccomendations, but the talk helped me find some direction for my project.
Some loose notes:
marriage isn't queer? would turn us into same-sex attracted straight people.
What is this experience? What is is about? What does it mean at this point to be queer? is it identity, thinkings about identity, sexual desires, relationships, expression. relationship and thinking about ID, expression (performance). how to we experience ourselves in a way that is DIFFERENT. what makes us queer is transgression? transgressive sexuality- BDSM and fetish cultures? gay community v. queer community. overlap? 2nd-wave fem rhetoric.
"the last radicals standing"- true?