Reference no: EM132846416

"The closet" has often been described as a strategy to resist the anti-queer and anti-trans violence of American culture in the period after the Second World War, and the culture of the LGBTQ closet has often been seen in complex terms--both as an accommodation of homophobia/transphobia, as well as a more subtle form of resistance to homophobia/transphobia. In your responses this week, explore the ways in which the culture of the closet both reinforced AND challenged the homophobia and transphobia of US culture in the 1940s-1960s. As Johnson and Stryker, and view the film about the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, you might also consider the ways in which gender created new ways to think about LGBT self-image. In particular, you might concentrate on the ways in which gender identities converged based on masculinity and femininity, as well as trans and cisgender identity. You might also think about the importance of race and class in addition to gender differences.

Discussion 1: did "Liberation" mean something different for cisgender gay, lesbian, and bisexual people and transgender members of the community? Was "Liberation" more complicated for working-class people and/or people of color?