Gay Men and Religion Unit
The Gay Men and Religion Program Unit invite papers for the 2023 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, Texas; November 18-23. The following two panel options represent lines of inquiry identified by committee members and attendees of the 202w annual meeting. That said, we will consider all paper proposals. We encourage those submitting papers to read our revised program unit description. So, too, we are very interested in papers that represent a wide variety of religious and geographic locations.
Texas, Religious Opposition to Sexual Autonomy, and Gay Men
State and national electoral politics have been significantly influenced by political and religious attitudes emerging from Texas, and usually of the kind that oppose sexual autonomy and liberty for men who have sex with men. As the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion meets in San Antonio, Texas, the Gay Men and Religion Program Unit is mindful of how our geographic location not only warrants academic interrogation at the intersection of religion, public policy, and gay men, but also raises important matters of safety and our feelings of vulnerability. We invite papers, for this panel, to explore: 1. Anti-gay political rhetoric and policies grounded in religious rhetoric, and responses to those; 2. Ways in which abortion restriction bears on people who identify as gay men, and/or gay men who participate in religious traditions or political systems that seek to restrict reproductive choice; 3. Histories of seemingly opposing gay male religious experiments being shaped by and in Texas (e.g., Exodus and MCC in 1970s Dallas); 4. Christian nationalism and gay men and/or gay men and Texas nationalism; 5. Reflections on Lawrence v. Texas: liberation from sodomy codes or codifying religion-based homonormativities.
The Working of Our Hands: The Insights and Lived Experiences of Gay Men and/in Religion.
In this panel we seek to engage the lived experiences of gay men and religion, inclusive of, but not restricted to: 1.Theological responses to gay men and sex work (notions of radical hospitality, sacred prostitution, etc.); 2. Interreligious gay male experiences, including mixed religious gay households 3. Nonreligious gay male experiences in relation to religious persons and traditions; 4. New horizons in gay male ritual and liturgy - beyond cishet models; 5. Proposals around recent books relevant to the lived religious experiences of gay men, 6. Papers in conversation with the book, Queer God De Amor by Miguel Diaz.
Orthodox-majority contexts, communities, and leaders often cause terrible harm to LGBTQ+ persons through homophobic violence, discourse, and policy. Sexual diversity is perhaps the most polarizing issue facing the modern Orthodox world—from the ecclesial discourse surrounding Pride parades and the conflict in Ukraine, to the Orthodox Church in America’s statement against discussing sexuality—and its real-life effects cannot be understated. Yet, international initiatives over the past decade as well as recent publications (Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality (Fordham, 2022) and Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy: Beyond Male and Female (Fordham, 2023)) have argued Orthodox tradition has resources within it to address issues of gender and sexuality with greater openness and theological consistency. This session will ask: what would a queering of Orthodoxy and an Orthodox engagement with Queer Studies look like? We welcome paper and pre-arranged panel proposals that accurately elucidate or constructively address any aspect of LGBTQ+ identity and Orthodox Christianity and its related topics (asceticism, celibacy, eunuchs, same-sex marriage, sexual ethics, queer theology, bodily agency, etc.) from any discipline (sociology, anthropology, history, theology, etc.).
The Gay Men and Religion Unit: Provides scholarly reflection and writing on the intersections of gay male experience, including sexual experiences, with religious traditions and spiritual practices. Fosters ongoing contributions by (or about) gay men—or men who have sex with men—to religious scholarship in all its forms; we are especially interested in gay men’s experiences across a range of religious traditions and in a wide variety of geographical contexts. Critically challenges homophobic scholarship and religious teaching, on the one hand, and aspects of the LGBTQI equality movement that promote assimilation and normalization of hegemonic patriarchy and heterosexism, on the other. Engages a variety of theoretical and political discourses, which fosters vigorous dialogue between essentialist and constructionist notions of gay male identity; this includes recognizing the insights and limitations of any theoretical and methodological approach to the study of religion and sexuality.