MARTYRDOM AND AMERICAN GAY HISTORY: SECULAR ADVOCACY, CHRISTIAN IDEAS, AND GAY ASSIMILATION A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Brett A. Krutzsch May 2015 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Rebecca Alpert, Advisory Chair, Department of Religion Dr. Laura Levitt, Department of Religion Dr. David Harrington Watt, Department of History Dr. Janet Jakobsen, External Member, Barnard College ii © Copyright 2015 by Brett Krutzsch All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT “Martyrdom and American Gay History: Secular Advocacy, Christian Ideas, and Gay Assimilation” is an analysis of gay martyr discourses from the 1970s through 2014. In particular, the dissertation examines the archives, narrative representations, memorials, and media depictions of Harvey Milk, Matthew Shepard, Tyler Clementi, and AIDS. The project’s primary focus is to investigate the role of religious rhetoric in facilitating American gay assimilation. Discourses of gay martyrdom reveal that secular gay advocates habitually employed Protestant Christian ideas in order to present gay Americans as similar to the dominant culture of straight Christians, a strategy that became increasingly prevalent by the end of the twentieth century after gays were blamed for spreading a national plague through sexual licentiousness. In turn, discourses of gay martyrdom expose the recurrence of Christian ideas in promoting, while concurrently foreclosing, the parameters of gay social inclusion. “Martyrdom and American Gay History” also questions the politics of martyrdom and analyzes why some deaths have been mourned as national tragedies. Milk, Shepard, and Clementi, the three most commonly-invoked gay martyrs, represent a narrow fraction of gay Americans that only includes white, middle-class, gay men. The dissertation demonstrates that discourses of gay martyrdom have promoted assimilation, not diverse sexual freedoms or capacious possibilities for queer lives. Ultimately, Protestant Christian dominance in the United States has been obfuscated whenever Christianity has been depicted primarily as an antigay monolith. Discourses of gay martyrdom reveal the role of Protestant Christian dominance in secular gay advocacy, and the ways in which Christian ideas have shaped and foreclosed possibilities for acceptable gay American citizens. iv This dissertation is dedicated to my mom, who has always supported me, and to Kevin, who supported every step of the process. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been mentored by an extraordinarily supportive and generous dissertation committee. I am profoundly grateful to each of them for their guidance and wisdom. Dr. Rebecca Alpert, my dissertation chair, has given countless hours in support of my work over the past five years. In record speed, she responded to drafts with incredible insight. I have learned how to be a scholar by watching Rebecca’s example, someone who taught me not only about religion and sexuality, but also about how to teach college students, how to give kind feedback to other scholars, and how to make scholarship accessible so that its relevance extends beyond the academy. Rebecca has been my advisor, the officiant at my wedding, someone whose company I value, and a person I admire tremendously. I have unending gratitude for her. Dr. Laura Levitt has also been incredibly supportive of my work. She, too, consistently responded to everything I sent her with remarkable rapidity and thoughtful suggestions for how to push my work forward in productive ways. I am enormously grateful for her helpful guidance and positive encouragement over the past five years. I have learned much from her classes, her scholarship, and our conversations. Working with her has been an absolute honor. Similarly, I am incredibly thankful for Dr. David Watt’s ongoing encouragement. He introduced me to a wonderfully rich history of American religion, and repeatedly offered to meet with me to discuss where my project fit within larger scholarly questions. He, too, has been remarkably supportive since I first took one of his courses. Finally, Dr. Janet Jakobsen, my external reader, has significantly influenced me from afar. Her work, as the subsequent pages in this dissertation attest, vi greatly shaped my thinking on religion, sexuality, and the secular in America. I am tremendously grateful for her willingness to be part of this project. Several other Temple University faculty members were especially supportive of this project and my doctoral work generally. Dr. Kathleen Biddick in the Department of History agreed to do an independent study with me on martyrdom even though we had never met. She was immediately enthusiastic about this dissertation and my interest in the discursive function of martyrdom. She graciously responded to every book summary I wrote as I poured through scholarship on martyrdom, and she served as an examiner for my comprehensive examinations. Many people in the Temple University Department of Religion have my utmost gratitude. The chair, Dr. Khalid Blankinship, provided me with additional travel grants on multiple occasions so I could present aspects of this dissertation at various conferences and universities. Dr. Jeremy Schipper was also wonderfully encouraging, and gave much of his time to help me publish an essay that I worked on in his class. Finally, Linda Jenkins, department coordinator, added much joy, humor, and warmth to my time at Temple. I looked forward to seeing her and to chatting with her every time I went to my office. I am incredibly grateful for her friendship and support. A few other people and groups at Temple University deserve my formal appreciation. The first is the Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT), which awarded me the Advanced Graduate Scholar Fellowship so I would have a semester to write my dissertation free from teaching. I am also thankful to the CHAT faculty fellows and graduate students who read and provided helpful feedback on chapter three of this dissertation. Additionally, Denise Connerty, Assistant Vice President for International vii Affairs, graciously provided me with projects for three summers so I would have funding to continue studying for comprehensive examinations, conduct research, and write my dissertation in between each academic year. Numerous people and groups across the country were also important sources of encouragement. The first was the Human Rights Campaign Summer Institute for LGBT Scholarship and Mentorship for Religious Studies. I met and befriended a wonderful group of graduate students and scholars through this program. Having a network of friends and colleagues who were invested in similar questions was profoundly enriching and sustaining. Additionally, several scholars and graduate students read drafts of my work and provided helpful feedback. I would like to thank Dr. Marie Griffith and Dr. Shaul Maggid for insightful responses to two conference papers that turned into two chapters of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Holly Gorman, Andrea Tucker, and Sara Rosenau for reading a chapter draft and for their suggestions. I have been incredibly fortunate to have a number of good friends who provided support and necessary distractions. Alex Drake was the first person I told that I wanted to leave my career so I could do a Ph.D. in religion. She was applying to psychology doctoral programs, so we studied for the GREs together, reviewed each other’s personal statements, started doctorates at the same time, and we were in each other’s weddings. I am tremendously thankful to have gone down this road with her. Similarly, my amazing friend Sara Klein, who already had her doctorate, reviewed my writing sample, provided ongoing encouragement, and invited me to her campus to give a lecture on religion and queer sexualities. She is an inspiration to me in many ways. My friend Aileen Humphreys, who I met as a religion major at Emory University, has also been a viii wonderful source of encouragement. Aileen was the first person to say she wanted to attend my dissertation defense, which thrilled me because I loved picturing her there on such a significant day. Julie Cooper and Kelly Novitski also immediately said they wanted to attend the defense. Julie and Kelly are both remarkably giving friends, and I am incredibly thankful that they are part of my life in such loving and enriching ways. I dedicated this dissertation to my mom, Cherry Cassell, and to my husband, Kevin Williams. My mom has provided me with unconditional love and support my entire life. I have always believed I could accomplish big things because she never ceased to say she was proud of me. Her insatiable desire to learn, her voracious consumption of books, and her natural gifts as a writer made me want to be like her. She is the person I most admire, and I am profoundly thankful she is my mom. Finally, Kevin has supported every stage of this process, from the first classes, through the language exams, to my excitement at researching and writing this dissertation. We spent countless hours together at our dining table as we worked on our doctorates surrounded by notes, books, and laptops. Through it all he has been the most encouraging, reassuring, funny, and loving partner. I love him immensely and am incredibly happy to share my life with him. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION