Critical Geography Listserv Posts. Jan. 1-15, 2025.
Reaching the global community of scholars with an alternative to the LGBTQXYZ+ and an alternative to queer studies.
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January 1-15, 2025
Announced published copies of documents of Gay life in the 1970s and 90s.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;11228d92.2501
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2025 15:57:35 +0000
If you know anyone at your university who would like these records, let them know.
Prior to donating the original papers, transcripts, photos etc. to the SF GLBT archives, I have put the documents into a book form for distribution.
Once we donate it to the archives copyright passes to them, but we have copyright and right to distribute what has been published to this point.
One reason to publish is to distribute the records of what we did to the surviving members of those who were involved.
The other reason is to get multiple copies out to archives and university libraries so the record of what we accomplished is part of the historical record.
For those libraries and archives interested, and for which the hardcover book would be a fit, I will purchase the copies myself and mail them to the library and archive.
The most interesting thing about the historical record is the fight against anti-Asian discrimination in SF Gay bars. Everyone says they are against racism, but the reality is that they make excuses for it. We won against the entire, and I mean entire, Gay establishment in SF, completely.
Lest anyone get on soap box, the reason I was working on the problem is that none of the Asian civil rights organizations wanted anything to do with discrimination when the victims were Gay people. This was generally the case with any type of racial discrimination in the Gay bars that the civil rights organizations weren't interested.
There is also a set of transcribed Gay Asian coming out stories. There is a transcription of a presentation by a scholar about Gay life in Japan by an American scholar who was a professor for some years there. I wrote up a paper about Asian White interracial Gay relations as a member of the community.
Basically the typed documents were scanned and put into the book along with some photos we have of the time.
This is the link to the Kindle. At that link there is the paperback and hardcover options. I can also share with you the pdf from Google drive.
Amazon assumes that you have made a misspelling when you type in Edward Sebesta and so you have to tell them that you meant that. Anglo-Saxonism lives.
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Against-Anti-Asian-Discrimination-Records-ebook/dp/B0DRT2CBJV/
I have a brief overview of the materials at this post.
Warrent was issued and served on the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;6a141161.2501
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2025 01:20:32 +0000
Think twice before exhibiting or speaking in Texas. Probably any book with ceiling frescos of European Cathedrals or peeing fountains is likely illegal also.
I am going to be researching a report. No one in Texas took this threat seriously.
I wanted to alert scholars everywhere right away that they shouldn't come to Texas. I hope members of this listserve alert relevant people at their institution.
The language is somewhat vague. When they say the art has been "secured," does that mean it was covered or seized, I don't know.
For the background on this story.
Another BL academic conference in Thailand.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;257158dd.2501
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:36:27 +0000
This conference discusses why BL has been a major force in driving LGBTQ acceptance in Thailand, but not so in Japan.
Thai BL is linked to real life living and social issues, whereas Japanese BL has removed itself into a fantasy world and disconnects itself from reality.
The Faculty of Humanities and the Center for Advanced Studies in the Applied Humanities and Social Sciences, Kasetsart University Institute for Advanced Studies, in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yamagata University; Global Education and Intercultural Advancement Center, Oita University; Harvard-Yenching Institute; Japan Foundation; and FEED, are organizing an international symposium, “Asian Boys Love Inter-references: From Japan to Thailand, Thailand to the World,” on the 11th of January, 2025, at 13:00 hours, at Chulabhornpisalsilp Building, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University. Please scan the QR code or use the link https://kasets.art/H0VUUh to register.
🌟 Abstracts can be downloaded from this link:
This is their post on their dept. page.
The LGBTQXYZ+ studies people in the West still think they are the center of the world and the cutting edge.
For a background what is BL, and I emphasize that it is a genra written by straight women for straight women, I wrote an indepth essay on it. Now that BL is in every continent and translated into a dozen languages routinely, including Arabic, it is a force having global impact. Global consumers consume Thai, Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese BL. The Vietnames and Filipino genres struggle.
Post on my maps of the homophobic churches in Dallas.
First post in this series.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;5126d1d7.2501
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 18:01:16 +0000
Living in Dallas, Texas I am at the epicenter of homophobic Christianity. Also, a couple conversion therapy networks are run out of the DFW area as well as an Evangelical Christian broadcasting network.
The City of Dallas and its local elites work hard to project a progressive imagine and also erase their reputation. With the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963, they acquired the name, "City of Hate." Even in 2017, there was a book, "Nut Country," about historically how Dallas has overrun by right wing crazies.
However, in Dallas, beneath its image, there is still raging craziness. My studies of the neo-Confederate movement started in Dallas in 1992 since the public library had a subscription to the Southern Partisan. The City of Dallas doesn't have a human rights commission even today. There was a raid on a bathhouse in 2010. The Dallas Express has gotten pictues removed from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth recently.
This post has a map of downtown Dallas and the homophobic churches there. Eight out of nine are homophobic, which is close to what it likely is across the Dallas area.
The above online report has links to two other posts reporting on field trips to two other neighborhoods.
To identify what churches I should photodocument, I asked the local community on Facebook and got a lot of inputs. However, when I go to an area, I try to do 6 to 10 churches in the immediate area so I can publish a neighborhood report and map. I about worn out doing a small neighborhood.
The project might be called Houses of Hurt since many individuals related encounters with conversion "therapy" and rejection.
There easily is over 100 and perhaps over 200 homophobic churches in the City of Dallas alone, so after a while a map of Dallas will look like a severe case of mpox.
There has been enthusiastic support among the LGBT and also angry opposition. However, some have characterize that doing this map is negativity or makes me as bad as the homophobes. Others are more sly and suggest that I do a map of the so-called LGBT "affiming" chuches as an easier task, even though that isn't the task for which I am doing the maps.
Of course, there are inquiries whether I am going to do mosques. Some are perhaps just inquiries, others are more about trying to frame my efforts as picking on Christianity. Howevery, when fighting homophobia, Gays don't have to be "fair."
I am making accidental discoveries. I found a nasty homophobic church had inflitrated the local AIDS charity from 2019 to 2022 at least, maybe it still continues, to "rebrand" its homophobia.
For the general public there is surprise that there are so many homophobic churches and that they are the great majority. Some have learned this or that church or denomination is homophobic. Further these are churches they see frequently in their daily routines and are in their neighborhoods.
The various elements that purport to be advocates for the LGBTQ+ in the United States, are also appendages of the Democratic Party and so don't want to call out homophobic Christianity, especially when Kamala Harris had a group Evangelicals for Harris which included some rabid homophobes. One was famous for arguing that the Anti-Christ is Gay.
This is an easy project to do. It could be done most anywhere.
Ed Sebesta
Evangelicals for Harris
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;49ab65fa.2501
Subject: Evangelicals for Harris, one thinks the Anti-Christ is Gay. Democratic Christian Nationalism
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:23:09 +0000
During the 2024 Presidential Election there was a group called, "Evangelicals for Harris." It is now known as "Evangelicals for America."
Its basic idea was to portray Trump as a sinner which no Evangelical would vote for. Though the campaign has appeared to have failed to deliver Evangelical votes to Harris, the conduct of the campaign gives an indication of the actual status of the LGBTQ+ with the Democrats and also with Evangelical social justice advocates. It also shows how Christian nationalism is a tactic of both parties.
The Evangelicals for Harris campaign started with leading Evangelicals speaking out for Harris and arguing that Trump was ungodly and unacceptable for Christian votes. I reviewed the list of Evangelicals and also made sure as much as possible was either screen captures and saved in the Internet Archive.
One of them, Bishop Claud Alexander was know for being an opponent of Gay marriage.
The other, Rev. Dwight McKissic, pastor in the Dallas Fort Worth area, is well known for hysterical homophobia. Besides the claim that the anti-Christ is Gay, he felt Katrina was punishment on New Orleans for their morals. He had some notoriety over his essay, "When Saints Live in Sodom," attacking African American football player Michael Sam. In another post about the "End Times," titled, "Will the Church die on the streets of Sodom," he was upset with the opinions of a singer. He denounced Obama when Obama "evolved" on Gay marriage, saying he had "betrayed the Bible and the Black Church with his endorsement of same-sex marriage." In a Southern Baptist publication he wrote, "Satan has strategically and successfully sought to secure sanctioning for same-sex marriage in every sector of American society." There really is a lot more.
There was another homophobe, who was part of Evangelicals for Harris.
Other homophobes were brought into the campaign, but what was interesting is that Rev. Billy Graham was rehabilited to be a person who it is judged by the campaign would have rejected Trump.
When Bill Graham was considered an asset for the Republicans, there were a lot of articles about how terrible he was for the LGBT. However, now since it was believed he could be invoked to get votes from Evangelicals for Harris, he was called the Protestant Pope by the NY Times.
Had Trump employed any of these homophobes in the slightest tangential way, you can be assured that it would be in all the LGBTQ+ media and also in a lot of the mainstream media. However, since these elements were being used to get votes for Harris, it was ignored.
Also, there was a lot of denial that this was an indepenent group and so Harris wasn't responsible.
What was the most interestng was the lack of reaction from the rest of the Evangelicals in the Evangelicals for Harris team. These were social justice Christians who could not only detect a racist microaggression, but I think could detect a nanoaggresson as wel.
I did a report on who these persons were and their developed thinking and sensitivites to racial injustice.
They had no problem working with these vicious homophobes at all.
Though fear of Christian nationalism was invoked by the Democrats in some venues with some audiences, the LGBTQ+ in particular, Christian nationalism was also employed by the Democrats to get votes.
The larger lesson is that the neoliberal media will report events such that some negative thing is the result of Republicans or conservatives, but not that of Evangelicals whose vote they hope to get in the future.
Truth Social members applauding vandalism of a rainbow cross walk.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;805908b2.2501
Subject: Applauding vandalism of a Rainbow cross walk on Truth Social
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2025 21:35:27 +0000
Truth Social is a social media platform like X, but partly owned by President Donald Trump and he has an account there.
Looking for responses to Gay issues to report for my newsletter I searched for posts about Trump's Gay cabinent appointments, rainbow crosswalks, and other things.
The interesting thing is that the responses to Trump Gay cabinent appointments were overwhelmingly supportive, about 95%. For Bessent, the concern was that he worked with Soros, who is like a great demon to them. When I did some replies to elicit responses as to Bessent being Gay, the replies were strong, that they didn't care.
However, the Truth Social environment is highly variable and it is with cross walks you find the subpopulation that is really homophobic. I did a report on the incident and the Truth Social responses.
I was looking also for what the Evangelical responses might be. I am not seeing anything so far.
So thought the responses to the cross-walks are not representative to the entire population, they do show that cross-walks are very powerful as a statement of values embedded into the landscape, and homophobes see that.
Generally they are aggreived, and see Trump as an avenger and who will bring America to the promised land.
Rainbow cross walks in Taipei vs. Dallas, signifiers of their societies.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM;70ac7584.2501
Subject: Rainbow Crosswalks in Taipei vs. Dallas, signifiers of their societies.
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:11:21 +0000
While visiting Taipei in Oct. 2023 for the Taipei Pride act, I noticed how the Rainbow cross-walk in the Ximen district and near my hotel had a tremendous amount of engagement by visitors to the Ximen district. Families, heterosexual couples, groups of friends, would line up to talk their turn to be photographed on the Rainbow cross walk. It was less than a block from my hotel and it was on the way when I was going out to eat or getting supplies or walking to local temples for photographic field work. I always made a point of getting some photos taken.
This Rainbow cross walk was created expressly for the purpose of expressing Gay Pride. It has the standard six colors.
The Gay section of the Ximen district, the area around the Red House is across from it, but the cross-walk is on the other side of the street across a street entering the other part of the Ximen district. It is the local nightclub/artsy/shopping/alternative section of Taipei. Not very many foreigners.
Even though cars drove across the Rainbow crosswalk, it was well maintained and very brightly colored. To get a photograph of it without people in the way I had to get up early in the morning to photograph it.
On the cross walks couples would be photographed, and then photograph each other, parents wanted their children photographed on it, the families would have group photos on it, etc. etc. Note speaking Chinese I was unable to engage people, plus I had field trips to do.
But it was fairly obvious that for a broad segment of Taiwanese, there was no homophobia impeding their enjoyment and use of the rainbow cross walk.
In contrast, in Dallas they are worn out, dirty, faded in color where they haven't been eroded away completely. So on my return I did a complete photo documentation of all the cross walks in the very small Dallas Gayborhood.
Visiting Taipei, was to visit a place where Christians are 5% and homophobia is very much less than the Dallas area. Though you know abstractly that where you live is bad, several women had died in Texas because they couldn't get a dead fetus aborted, it is another think to visit another place and feel it directly. You don't realize how you are pressed upon by a homophobic society until you visit one that isn't.
The Gays in Taiwan have a Gay liberation spirit, where the Gays in Dallas are pathetic.
So after completing my photo documentation of the Dallas cross walks, I did a short article comparing them as representative of their societies.
I titled it "Seeing Dallas From Taipei."
Being in the United States, with our minimal manifestations of Pride on the landscape, we don't realize that elsewhere this is a significant phenomenon and they are often intergrated into the experience of society in general.
