Queer erasure

{{Short description|Societal act of dismissing or misrepresenting LGBTQ people}}

Queer erasure (also known as LGBTQIA+ erasure) refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally remove LGBTQ groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.{{cite journal |last1=Scot |first1=Jamie |title=A revisionist history: How archives are used to reverse the erasure of queer people in contemporary history |journal=QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking |year=2014 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=205–209 |doi=10.14321/qed.1.2.0205 |s2cid=154539718 }}{{Cite journal|last1=Mayernick|first1=Jason|last2=Hutt|first2=Ethan|date=June 2017|title=US Public Schools and the Politics of Queer Erasure|journal=Educational Theory|language=en|volume=67|issue=3|pages=343–349|doi=10.1111/edth.12249|issn=0013-2004}} This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.

In academia and media

Queer historian Gregory Samantha Rosenthal refers to queer erasure in describing the exclusion of LGBTQ history from public history that can occur in urban contexts via gentrification.{{Cite journal|last=Rosenthal|first=Gregory Samantha|date=1 February 2017|title=Make Roanoke Queer Again|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/tph/article/39/1/35/90937/Make-Roanoke-Queer-AgainCommunity-History-and|journal=The Public Historian|language=en|volume=39|issue=1|pages=35–60|doi=10.1525/tph.2017.39.1.35|issn=0272-3433}} Rosenthal says this results in the "displacement of queer peoples from public view".{{cite journal|last1=Rosenthal|first1=Gregory Samantha|date=February 2017|title=Make Roanoke Queer Again|journal=The Public Historian|volume=39|issue=1|pages=35–60|doi=10.1525/tph.2017.39.1.35|s2cid=151792218}} Cáel Keegan describes the lack of appropriate and realistic representation of queer people, HIV-positive people, and queer people of color as being a type of aesthetic gentrification, where space is being appropriated from queer people's communities where queer people are not given any cultural representation.Keegan, Cáel (2016). "History, Disrupted: The Aesthetic Gentrification of Queer and Trans Cinema". Social Alternatives. 35: 50–56 – via ProQuest.

Erasure of LGBTQ people has taken place in medical research and schools as well, such as in the case of AIDS research that does not include lesbian populations.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} Medicine and academia can be places where visibility is produced or erased, such as the exclusion of gay and bisexual women in HIV discourses and studies or the lack of attention to LGBTQ identities in dealing with anti-bullying discourse in schools.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Straightwashing

Straightwashing is a form of queer erasure that refers to the portrayal of LGBTQ people, fictional characters, or historical figures as heterosexual.{{cite news |last=Petrow |first=Steven |date=20 June 2016 |title=The LGBT community feels the effects of 'straightwashing.' They're angry about it. |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-lgbtq-community-feels-the-effects-of-straightwashing-and-theyre-angry-about-it/2016/06/20/2a026d12-3721-11e6-a254-2b336e293a3c_story.html?noredirect=on |access-date=26 November 2018}} It is most prominently seen in works of fiction, whereby characters who were originally portrayed as or intended to be homosexual, bisexual, or asexual are misrepresented as heterosexual.{{Cite journal |last=Mueller |first=Hannah |date=April 2018 |title=Queer TV in the 21st Century: Essays on Broadcasting from Taboo to Acceptance. Ed. Kylo-Patrick R.Hart. McFarland, 2016. 232 pp. $35.00 paperback |journal=The Journal of Popular Culture |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=550–553 |doi=10.1111/jpcu.12662 |issn=0022-3840}}{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Lydia |date=20 April 2018 |title=What is straightwashing? When Hollywood erases gay characters from films |website=Pink News |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/04/20/what-is-straightwashing-gay-characters-hollywood-films/ |access-date=23 July 2018}}

Bisexual erasure

Homosexuality erasure

= Gay erasure =

= Lesbian erasure =

Trans erasure

File:March for Black Trans Women IMG 6549 (49009536382).jpg

In 2007, Julia Serano discusses trans-erasure in the transfeminist book Whipping Girl. Serano says that transgender people are "effectively erased from public awareness" due to the assumption that everyone is cisgender (non-transgender) or that transgender identification is rare.{{cite book |last1=Serano |first1=Julia |title=Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity |date=8 March 2016 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-1-58005-623-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7RKDgAAQBAJ}} The notion of transgender erasure has been backed up by later studies.{{cite book |last1=Norman |first1=Kate |title=Socialising Transgender: Support for Transition |date=1 June 2017 |publisher=Dunedin Academic Press Ltd |isbn=978-1-78046-571-5 |url=https://www.google.combooks/edition/Socialising_Transgender/-VtwDwAAQBAJ |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Following this directive, numerous federal agencies have removed references to transgender individuals from their materials. For instance, the National Park Service eliminated mentions of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument's website, altering the acronym "LGBTQ+" to "LGB."{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/13/stonewall-website-transgender |title=US park service erases references to trans people from Stonewall Inn website |access-date=2025-02-14 |date=2025-02-13 |publisher=The Guardian |author=Cecilia Nowell}} Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expunged information related to transgender health from its resources and withdrew funding from research projects that promoted what the administration called "gender ideology."{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/health/trump-gender-ideology-research.html |title=Trump Administration Orders CDC to Remove Transgender Health Information |access-date=2025-02-14 |date=2025-02-03 |publisher=The New York Times |author=Apoorva Mandavilli and Roni Caryn Rabin}}

Aspec erasure

= Aromantic erasure =

Aromantic people are often erased due to the societal expectation that everyone prospers with an exclusive romantic relationship, something that Elizabeth Brake has coined as the term amatonormativity. Aromantic people face continued pressure and prejudice to conform to the "social norms" and form a permanent romantic relationship such as marriage.{{cite web |date=29 January 2023 |title=Aphobia, understanding the discrimination and effects |url=https://www.asexuals.net/aphobia/ |access-date=25 March 2023}}{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Sherronda J. |date=2017-12-26 |title=Romance is Not Universal, Nor is it Necessary |url=https://wearyourvoicemag.com/more/culture/romance-not-universal-necessary |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412082517/https://wearyourvoicemag.com/more/culture/romance-not-universal-necessary |archive-date=2018-04-12 |access-date=2018-04-15 |work=Wear Your Voice}}

= Asexual erasure =

Intersex erasure

Intersex and transgender individuals are often erased in public health research which conflates sex and gender (see sex–gender distinction).{{cite journal|last1=Morrison|first1=Tessalyn|last2=Dinno|first2=Alexis|last3=Salmon|first3=Taurica|date=19 August 2021|title=The Erasure of Intersex, Transgender, Nonbinary, and Agender Experiences by Misusing Sex and Gender in Health Research|journal=American Journal of Epidemiology|volume=190 |issue=12 |pages=2712–2717 |doi=10.1093/aje/kwab221|pmid=34409983 |issn=0002-9262}} The narrow and inflexible definitions of sex and gender in some countries means some intersex and non-binary people are unable to obtain accurate legal documents or identification, preventing their access to public spaces, jobs, housing, education and basic services.{{cite news|last1=Levin|first1=Sam|date=25 October 2018|title='Erasure of an entire group': intersex people fear Trump anti-trans memo|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/24/intersex-trump-transgender-policy}} It is only recently that the concept of legal rights for intersex people has been considered,{{cite journal|last1=Bird|first1=Jo|date=2005–2006|title=Outside the Law: Intersex, Medicine and the Discourse Rights|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/cardw12&div=10&id=&page=|journal=Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender|volume=12|pages=65}} even in LGBTI activist circles. However, there is a growing intersex activist community which campaigns for intersex human rights, and against intersex medical interventions which they see as unnecessary and mistreatment.{{cite book|last1=Khanna|first1=Niki|title=Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons: Research, Practice, and Advocacy|date=2021|publisher=Springer International Publishing|pages=185–194|chapter=Invisibility and Trauma in the Intersex Community|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-52612-2_14|isbn=978-3-030-52611-5 |s2cid=228845383 }}

References

Category:LGBTQ and society

erasure