Queer Futurity Needs Queer Grief: An Analysis of the U.S. Public Response to Queer Loss

Grief is an inevitable part of the human experience. However, communities, especially those where a majority of members have disprivileged identities, experience disenfranchised grief, or grief that is not openly acknowledged, socially accepted, or publicly mourned. Members of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, plus other identities not encompassed in the acronym) community, and their allies can experience a type of disenfranchised grief known as queer grief. I argue that everyone, not just allies and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, should recognize and publicly acknowledge queer grief, because if queer lives lost are not recognized as worthy of mourning, then queer lives cannot be recognized as worthy of living. In this thesis, I compare public responses to the first display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall in 1987 and to the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub Orlando in 2016 by reviewing varying journalistic coverage through online and print newspapers, magazines, and TV news to determine if and how queer grief is publicly acknowledged, and more specifically the impact of that coverage, or lack thereof, on the LGBTQIA+ community and allies. I describe the ways in which these public responses led to advancements in HIV/AIDS research and highlighted the continued need for support in LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized communities. I conclude by offering the annual Pride parade as an example of queer catharsis that allows for the potential of a queer future by transforming queer grief into queer joy.