Shifting Ground(s): Surveying the contested terrain of LGBT studies and queer theory.

While queer theory initially grew out of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) studies, there are numerous points of contestation between these two approaches, originating mostly from their disparate positions on (sexual) identity politics. To describe, analyze, and contextualize this contested terrain, we begin this piece by providing some historical notes on LGBT studies and queer theory. Next, we turn to an explication of some enduring tensions to identify the criticisms generated by LGBT scholars toward queer theory approaches and vice versa.

Speaking to silence: toward queering nonverbal communication.

The majority of nonverbal communication research and pedagogy reproduces heterosexist and sexist ideologies, normalizing and naturalizing gender and sexual binaries, and sanctioning an exceedingly narrow range of gendered and sexualized subjects, practices, and relationships. This essay proposes that nonverbal communication scholarship and pedagogy need to address these issues. First, I provide a brief summary of the history of the field of nonverbal communication.

A critical appraisal of assimilationist and radical ideologies underlying same-sex marriage in LGBT communities in the United States.

Debates over same-sex marriage have reached the main stage of contemporary U.S. politics.

Transcending heteronormativity in the classroom.

SUMMARY Although a growing body of work addresses heterosexism and homophobia in the classroom context, the majority of this literature neglects trans identities and issues. For various reasons, trans existence currently poses particular challenges to many college students and professors. Foremost among these are traditional assumptions about sex, gender, and sexual identities as stable, essential, binary entities, notions that are often grounded in scientific, religious, and political ideologies.