QUEERLY REMEMBERED: TACTICAL and STRATEGIC RHETORICS for REPRESENTING the GLBTQ PAST by Thomas R. Dunn Bachelor of Arts, Unive
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QUEERLY REMEMBERED: TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC RHETORICS FOR REPRESENTING THE GLBTQ PAST by Thomas R. Dunn Bachelor of Arts, University of Richmond, 2002 Master of Arts, Syracuse University, 2005 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2011 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Thomas R. Dunn It was defended on April 18, 2011 and approved by Dr. John Lyne, Professor, Department of Communication Dr. Ronald J. Zboray, Professor, Department of Communication Dr. Kirk Savage, Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Lester Olson, Professor, Department of Communication ii An earlier version of Chapter Three, Copyright © 2010 by Michigan State University. This article originally appeared in Rhetoric & Public Affairs Vol. 13, Iss. 4, 2010, pages 611-51. All remaining chapters, Copyright © by Thomas R. Dunn 2011 iii QUEERLY REMEMBERED: TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC RHETORICS FOR REPRESENTING THE GLBTQ PAST Thomas R. Dunn, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2011 This dissertation explores a turn toward strategic public memories in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) community. While GLBTQ people have long used memories to influence and persuade heterosexual audiences, these memories have largely been what Michel de Certeau labels tactical —fleeting, ephemeral texts built upon the detritus of dominant culture. In contrast, GLBTQ people increasingly deploy strategic memories that endure heterosexual forgetting, persist through time, and exert greater control in spaces of power. In four case studies, I examine the possibilities and pitfalls of the strategic turn for securing greater GLBTQ rights. The first case study examines the Alexander Wood statue and how gays and lesbians have used material rhetorics like commemorative sites to make their memories durable and to resist heteronormative forgetting. While highlighting Wood’s “official” meaning, I also demonstrate how both traditionalist and camp viewers of the statue contest that meaning through performative viewing practices. The second case study, on counterpublic memories of bias crime victim Matthew Shepard, illustrates how counterpublic memories can oscillate between public spheres. In doing so, vernacular memories of Shepard seek to replace dominant memories that obscure systemic antigay violence, endow Shepard with “saintly” qualities, and limit diverse imagining of GLBTQ identity. The third case study, featuring efforts to include GLBT people into California public school curriculums, examines how advocates use a “rhetoric of contribution” to align GLBT people with the strategic rhetoric of American nationalism. This iv case also highlights the difficult choices marginalized groups must often make to enter strategic spaces, including “strategic forgettings” that render much of the GLBT past incomplete. The final case study details gay and lesbian rhetorical acts to ensure they are remembered as queer in the future. Examining two prominent death displays — Leonard Matlovich’s Gay Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Patricia Cronin’s Memorial to a Marriage — this chapter argues that both marked and unmarked strategies are required to disrupt the reterritorialization of gay and lesbian identity after death. This dissertation concludes by looking at George Segal’s Gay Liberation statue, reviewing the value of the strategic turn, and pondering the future of queer public memory. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... X 1.0 INTRODUCTION: QUEER BRICOLAGE ............................................................... 1 1.1 “MAKING DO” WITH HETEROSEXUAL HISTORY ................................. 1 1.2 THE RHETORICITY OF THE (GLBTQ) PAST .......................................... 11 1.3 MEMORY AS TACTICS AND STRATEGIES ............................................. 23 1.4 THE STRATEGIC TURN IN QUEER MEMORY RHETORICS .............. 36 1.5 RELEVANCE OF TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC MEMORIES .............. 51 1.6 PREVIEW OF CHAPTERS ............................................................................. 55 2.0 REMEMBERING “A GREAT FAG” ...................................................................... 60 2.1 VISUALIZING PUBLIC MEMORY AND GAY SPACE ............................. 60 2.2 CONTESTING MEMORY THROUGH POLYSEMIC VIEWING ............ 69 2.3 VISUALIZING THE OFFICIAL DEMOCRATIC MEMORY ................... 70 2.4 VISUALIZING A TRADITIONALIST COUNTERMEMORY .................. 85 2.5 VISUALIZING AND PERFORMING A CAMP COUNTERMEMORY ... 90 2.6 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 107 3.0 REMEMBERING MATTHEW SHEPARD ......................................................... 112 3.1 VIOLENCE, IDENTITY, AND COUNTERPUBLIC MEMORIES .......... 112 3.2 THE QUEER PAST AND COUNTERPUBLIC MEMORIES ................... 116 vi 3.3 THE PUBLIC AND COUNTERPUBLIC: VICTIM OF VIOLENCE ...... 123 3.4 COUNTERPUBLICS: SECULAR SAINT/COMMON MAN .................... 132 3.4.1 The Secular Saint ......................................................................................... 133 3.4.2 Queer Counterpublic Memories of Intersectionality ............................... 142 3.4.3 The Common Man ....................................................................................... 147 3.4.4 Queer Counterpublic Memories of Division ............................................. 151 3.5 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 156 4.0 IMAGINING GLBT AMERICANS ....................................................................... 160 4.1 THE CALIFORNIA TEXTBOOK DEBATES ............................................. 160 4.2 TEXTBOOKS AS TOOLS OF THE NATION ............................................ 168 4.3 RHETORICS OF GAYS AND LESBIANS AS ANTI-NATIONALS ........ 176 4.4 EARLY RHETORICS OF CURRICULAR REFORM: 1985 – 1992 ........ 185 4.5 THE BIAS-FREE CURRICULUM: 2006 - 2012 .......................................... 205 4.5.1 Rhetoric of National Contribution ............................................................. 208 4.5.2 The Strategic Forgetting of the GLBT Past .............................................. 217 4.5.2.1 Forgetting Harms .............................................................................. 218 4.5.2.2 Forgetting Politics ............................................................................. 223 4.5.2.3 Forgetting Sex .................................................................................... 229 4.6 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 238 5.0 STRATEGIZING A QUEER (AFTER) LIFE ...................................................... 242 5.1 QUEERING (AFTER) LIFE .......................................................................... 242 5.2 GRAVES AND CEMETERIES AS RHETORICAL TEXTS ..................... 246 5.3 THE HETERONORMATIVE REGIMES OF GRAVESCAPES .............. 253 vii 5.4 THE QUEERING OF CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY ......................... 268 5.5 NATURALIZING LESBIAN LOVE IN THE GARDEN ............................ 290 5.6 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 305 6.0 CONCLUSION: IN (STRATEGIC) MEMORY’S WAKE ................................. 310 6.1 REMEMBERING GAY LIBERATION ......................................................... 311 6.2 THE VALUE OF QUEER PUBLIC MEMORY .......................................... 317 6.3 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THREE FIELDS OF INQUIRY ........................... 326 6.4 THE FUTURE OF QUEER PUBLIC MEMORY ....................................... 336 6.5 THE FUTURE OF THIS PROJECT ............................................................. 347 6.6 A MONUMENTAL MEMORY ..................................................................... 352 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 356 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. East-facing view of the Alexander Wood statue. Photograph by author. ..................... 62 Figure 2. North-facing plaque depicting Wood's land in colonial times. Photograph by author. 76 Figure 3. Plaque featuring Wood's accomplishments. Photograph by author. ............................. 78 Figure 4. The "Fondling Plaque," featuring Wood inspecting the genitals of a local militiaman. Located on the base of the statue, facing west. Photograph by author. ........................................ 84 Figure 5. Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. in the memento mori landscape style. Photograph by author. ................................................................................................................. 251 Figure 6. Gay Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also known as the grave of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Photograph by author. ..................................... 272 Figure 7. A death display using form to queer the gravescape. Photograph by author. ............. 277 Figure 8. Patricia Cronin's Memorial to a Marriage (2002). Courtesy Patricia Cronin. ............ 292 Figure 9. Memorial in Woodlawn Cemetery’s garden gravescape. Courtesy Patricia Cronin. .. 294 ix