Queering Tropically: Sexuality, Indigeneity, Decoloniality, Spatiality

Abstract

This is the second collection of papers in a two-part issue on the theme of Queering the Tropics. This second issue begins by delving into the notion of “Queering Tropically,” in other words, queering in a tropical manner or in the manner of the tropics. The term queering tropically simultaneously alludes to queering through tropes (figurative and performative), and queering through tropical materiality (climate, elements, nature). This issue asserts that the tropics has always been a space where queerness lives, not a place where queerness has arrived post colonialism; queerness was and is often recognized as part of nature in the tropics. This assertion is evident in discussions of Sexuality, Queer Indigeneity, and Decoloniality. Furthermore, Queering the Tropics in attending to the queer across the worldly zone of the tropics is inherently a spatial practice. The tropics, as the Other of the temperate zone, has been subjected to waves of colonialisms and their patriarchal and heteronormative power structures. Yet, the tropics subverts and inverts the structures and strictures of the temperate zone, and this Tropical Queer Spatiality opens up to myriad ways of queer being and becoming. Thus, the papers collected together in this special issue offers a richness that furthers queer studies.

Keywords

• queering the tropics
• queer tropes
• queering tropically
• queer sexuality
• queer Indigeneity
• decoloniality