A drag show and a power substation attack: geographies of anti-queerness and the limits of liberal inclusion in the homefront.
Topics:
Keywords: queer space, futurity, militarism, Fort Bragg, right-wing violence, drag show
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Nathan McMenamin, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Abstract
On December 3rd, 2022, two anomalies occurred in Moore County, North Carolina. One was Downtown Divas, a drag event sponsored by regional queer organization Sandhills Pride, held in the town of Southern Pines. The second was an attack on two power substations in neighboring Carthage and West End that would cut power to over 40,000 people for three days, with many convinced the attack was in response to the drag performance. This paper is part of a larger project to map queer and trans geographies in the shadow of one of America’s largest military installations—Fort Bragg. This act of right-wing terrorism highlights the limits of liberal inclusion in the imperial core, particularly in places where the concentration of empire is pronounced. These imaginative geographies of tolerance are discussed alongside Jose Esteban Muñoz’s ideas of queerness as futurity. In a region where queer space often does not resemble that which exists in the Gayborhood, Muñoz’s notions of ephemeral traces, glimmers, and residues are vital to mapping and honoring queer modalities. This paper takes up his charge of unsticking ourselves from the quagmire of the present, including the pragmatic queer agenda that seeks inclusion in these and other violent institutions, to imagine a then and there: a future without war. How does queerness and activism in this field site imagine the there's of queer futurity not just in the interstices of empire but undermining empire?
A drag show and a power substation attack: geographies of anti-queerness and the limits of liberal inclusion in the homefront.
Category
Paper Abstract
