Staging LGBTQ Protest in the United States: Exploring the Politics of Theatricality

Abstract

This paper considers the physical, verbal, and visual aspects of how LGBTQ protest and rebellion are and have been staged in the United States. It examines whether “staging” should be taken literally or figuratively, and explores the interactions between performers and audiences, whether the performance is explicit or subtle, possibly involuntary. A heuristic angle is that of audiences and stages: just as staging should be addressed differently depending on whether the audience is internal or external to the LGBTQ community, audiences are not inherently internal or external, but the boundary may fluctuate. Likewise, the stages on which LGBTQ protest is performed are not given or fixed, but contingent on larger social, political, cultural, and economic factors. The article examines examples that are illustrative and telling of the ways in which LGBTQ protest and rebellion may take on a theatrical form, or the staging itself may endow some practices with a degree of politicity.

Keywords

• queer theatricality
• Pride marches
• commodification
• camp
• unserious seriousness