Queer Theory from theory.org.uk. Many people mistakenly believe that the term "queer theory" is just a synonym for "gay & lesbian studies." In reality, queer theory is a very specific subset of gay & lesbian studies which is based, as this website explains, on "the idea that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are." The term was coined by Teresa de Lauretis in 1990.
Queer Theory—another quick definition, this time by Andrew Wikholm of gayhistory.com
"What Is Queer Theory?" study guide by Georgie Williams, London School of Economics & Political Science, at the Perlego.com Knowledge Base
Queer Theory entry at Wikipedia
"Choice, Biology, and the Causes of Homosexuality: Towards A Radical Theory of Queer Identity" by Amy T. Goodloe, 1994
"Bisexuality Politicised: Radical Bisexuality and the Politics of Choice" and its accompanying commentary "Afterbite: Is Bisexuality So Radical?" by Tony Camilleri, 1999.
"Viva Smelly, Messy Humans. The Pro's of Queer Theory" by Tony Camilleri
An excerpt from Jonathan Ned Katz's book The Invention of Heterosexuality, 1995. "In 1901, Dorland's Medical Dictionary, published in Philadelphia, continued to define 'Heterosexuality' as 'Abnormal or perverted appetite toward the opposite sex.' Dorland's heterosexuality, a new 'appetite,' was clearly identified with an 'opposite sex' hunger. But that craving was still aberrant. . . . [I]n 1923 Webster's defined 'heterosexuality' as a 'Med.' term meaning 'morbid sexual passion for one of the opposite sex.' Only in 1934 does 'heterosexuality' first appear in Webster's hefty Second Edition Unabridged defined in what is still the dominant modern mode. There, heterosexuality is finally a 'manifestation of sexual passion for one of the opposite sex; normal sexuality.' Heterosexuality had finally attained the status of norm."
"The Invention of 'Heterosexuality'" by Brandon Ambrosino, March 15, 2017, of Jonathan Ned Katz's book The Invention of Heterosexuality, 1995. "One hundred years ago, people had a very different idea of what it means to be heterosexual. Understanding that shift in thinking can tell us a lot about fluid sexual identities today . . . I was recently caught off guard by Jane Ward, author of Not Gay, who, during an interview for a piece I wrote on sexual orientation, asked me to think about the future of sexuality. 'What would it mean to think about people's capacity to cultivate their own sexual desires, in the same way we might cultivate a taste for food?' Though some might be wary of allowing for the possibility of sexual fluidity, it's important to realise that various Born This Way arguments aren't accepted by the most recent science. Researchers aren't sure what 'causes' homosexuality, and they certainly reject any theories that posit a simple origin, such as a 'gay gene.'"
"How Teaching at a Catholic Liberal Arts College Turned Me Queer" by Margot Backus, presented at the Modern Language Association Panel Voices in the Wilderness: Teaching Queer Theory in Strange Places, 1997.
"Gender Criticism: What Isn't Gender" by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Duke University
"On Queer Theory: Remarks at the New York Association of Scholars for Reasoned Discourse in a Free Society" by Caleb Crain, speech delivered November 8, 2000
"Queer Theory" by Annamarie Jagose, from Australian Humanities Review
"Queer Theory" by Mary Klages, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1997
"Lesbian Feminism and Queer Theory: Another 'Battle of the Sexes'?" by Amy T. Goodloe, 1994
"Identities and Ideas: Strategies for Bisexuals" by QueerByChoice Mailing List member Liz Highleyman, published in Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, edited by Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, and Rebecca Kaplan, 1995
"The Love That Need Not Name its Speaker" by David M. Munsey, from The National Journal of Sexual Orientation Law, Vol. 2 No. 1, 1996
"Hypertext and Queer Theory" by Jonathan Alexander, University of Southern Colorado, March 1997
"On Being Gay: A View from the Sixties" by Philip J. Hoskins: "They chose being gay. Not in the sense of selecting off a platter at a buffet, but in the true sense of going for it wholeheartedly. For these men (and it was almost exclusively a male movement) the question was what is being gay?. They were not willing to let the larger culture define this important question for them and they set off to find the answer in the spiritual roots of same-sex love."
"Letter to the Thistle: On Bisexuality and Feminism" by Kathrine Holden, The Thistle: MIT Alternative News Collective, Vol. 9 No. 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995. "As a feminist, I believe that bisexuality can be seen as a strong expression of support for gender equality: a bisexual person does not restrict their choice of partner on the basis of gender, unlike a homosexual or heterosexual person. I think that the character of a person is more important than their gender, when selecting a sexual partner."
"Identity Judgments, Queer Politics" by Mark Lance, from Radical Philosophy, March/April 2000. "Most gay people take their sexuality to be fairly fixed, something which is unlikely to change. Often, they also perceive it as something about which they had very little choice. More strongly, in recent times many gay men and lesbians seem to believe that they were born gay. A widespread belief that sexual identities can be explained biologically stands in direct opposition to the social constructionist view which is now the orthodoxy among scholars working in queer theory, history and politics."
"Analysis of My Sexual Identity a Year Ago" by Naz
"On Gender and Sexual Orientation" by transgender writer Julie Waters, 1992. "What about people who have shown sexual interest specifically in me? If a lesbian is interested in a woman who has a penis is she still a lesbian? If a gay male is interested in a woman who wants to exchange her penis for a vagina is he still a gay male? Are we interested in the person behind the sex organs or are the sex organs our primary motivating force in determining to whom we are attracted? Do I, to be at a particular point on the Kinsey scale, have to demonstrate my interest in people in terms of how their appearance, actions and attitudes relate to their perceived gender? Their biological gender? Is sexual orientation constructed in a manner which even allows for such perspectives as my own?"
Michel Foucault: Wikipedia entry
The Foucault.Info Repository and Mailing List
"The Class-Inflected Nature of Gay Identity" by Steve Valocchi, from Social Problems, Vol. 46 No. 2, page 207, May 1999
"Social Protest and the Performance of Gay Identity" by Alan Sikes, from UnderCurrent, No. 5, Eugene, Oregon, Fall 1997. "Frequently, civil rights campaigns launched by homosexual communities rely upon an ill-defined conception of an innate or intrinsic gay identity; cast as a foundational 'core of being' to be cherished and protected by gay rights activists—and alternately reviled by their conservative naysayers. . . . Recently, however, a number of post-structuralist theorists have sought to extricate identity from its untenable position as the site of this "essential" contradiction between sameness and difference."
"The Madness Outside Gender: Travels with Don Quixote and Saint Foucault" from RhiZomes
"Positions for Classicists, or Why Should Feminist Classicists Care about Queer Theory?" by Kirk Ormand
"Beyond Identity? Questioning the Politics of Pride" by Jamie Heckert, July 2000. "Early radicals argued for releasing 'the homosexual in everyone.' Instead, [later] homosexuals concentrated their energies on social advancement as homosexuals. Certainly, there were specific historical reasons why this was chosen. However, that does not necessarily mean that we should continue following this path. In fact, these criticisms suggest that we should not."
"Embodied and Symbolic Difference of Being Gay" by Wendelin Merlin Küpers-Sefer, Germany, from Journal of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity. "Freedom of Gay will is not the absence of causal determinations, but a 'conflict capable harmony' among all Gay preference schemes. It is a state and driving force in which Gay desire follow Gay thoughts and Gay actions follows Gay desire. Where feeling, thinking and acting of Gay men are one, the distinction between choice and constraint disappears. Being Gay is not being free not to cho[os]e to be non-Gay. Not choosing to choose to be Gay is still to choose not to choose. Of course we cannot choose or want love as a matter of will. But we can choose to be and develop (not fall into!) a conscious Gay-love."