Queered Tradition: Disidentificatory Practices of Queer-affirming Religious Space

Responding to high rates of religious trauma in the United States, particularly for LGBTQ people, this study investigates the rhetorical moves made in protestant Christian spaces to consider what makes these spaces safe and affirming for queer people. Specifically, I consider the rhetorical impact these churches make through not only their space but also their liturgy and online presence, which informs the embodied experience of the space. Through autoethnographic research, I look at three local churches—Metropolitan Community Church of Omaha, Urban Abbey, and Elevate Church–the first two queer-affirming and the third conservative. Findings show the various church elements negotiated with religious tradition through José Esteban Muñoz’ queer practice of disidentification, neither fully embracing nor rejecting ideas of a higher power, transformation, or divine justice. As such, this study is framed through disidentification, viewed as a rhetorical tool for organizations to determine which aspects of religious tradition benefit their members, sometimes to protect them from traumatic experiences, the goal of Metropolitan Community Church of Omaha and Urban Abbey, and sometimes to push traumatizing messages, as with Elevate. Having conducted this multi-sited study, I argue two points: first that Christian spaces seeking to prevent religious trauma must address root issues rather than surface ones through a queering of the space and interrelated factors like liturgy, and second, this queering, especially disidentification, requires an element of hope, incapable of functioning on the fear and shame-based logics of Christian tradition but thriving on contradictory traditional ideologies of love. Advisor: Shari J. Stenberg