![\"shutterstock_255282883\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/101\/2015\/03\/shutterstock_255282883.jpg\")
<\/a>Several times over the past few weeks, people have asked me,\u00a0\u201cWhat does the \u2018Q\u2019 in LGBTQ stand for?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0One of them, oddly enough, segued into asking,\u00a0\u201cWhat is the \u2018Q\u2019 source in biblical studies?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0I am by no means an expert, but this is how I understand things.<\/p>\nThe answer to each question is roughly: \u201cIt stands for that which is unknown, indeterminate, or hypothetical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2018Q\u2019 in LGBTQ stands for either \u201cquestioning\u201d or \u201cqueer\u201d.<\/strong> Or both. And, according to some people, \u201cqueer\u201d is more or less the opposite of \u201cquestioning\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cQuestioning\u201d addresses what is unknown.<\/strong> It\u00a0applies to people who are uncertain as to their\u00a0sexual orientation\u00a0or\u00a0gender, as well as\u00a0sexual and gender identity. \u00a0Sexual orientation has to do with sexual attraction. Many\u00a0people, including but by no means limited to adolescents, may not have concluded\u00a0who they are\u00a0sexually attracted to. They don\u2019t know whether they are straight, lesbian, gay, or bi-sexual.<\/p>\n The term also may apply to those who have questions about their gender. \u00a0Western societies break down gender into\u00a0two categories: male and female. Some wonder whether\u00a0they fit into either of these categories. Some feel these\u00a0gender definitions don\u2019t reflect who they are. Hence, the \u201cT\u201d for transgendered in LGBTQ. Others, for example,\u00a0may feel they are \u201cthird gendered\u201d \u2014 both male and female at once but not in an inter-sex way.\u00a0Others may indeed be inter-sex, having\u00a0gender\u00a0characteristics of both male and female.<\/p>\n Identity has to do with which group a person identifies. It is possible, for example, to present as female, but identify as male. Those who both present unambiguously to others as either male or female and also identify unambiguously the same way they present\u00a0are sometimes referred to as being \u201ccisgendered\u201d.<\/p>\n Questioning can address the need many people have for an answer.<\/strong>\u00a0Typically, someone who is questioning wants, often desperately, to find\u00a0an answer.<\/p>\n The word \u201cqueer\u201d carries the opposite meaning. It addresses that which is indeterminate.<\/strong>\u00a0Annamarie Jagose has written a helpful little book called simply,\u00a0Queer Theory<\/a>. In it she says that one of the purposes of \u201cqueer\u201d is to establish the elasticity of gender. Queer is, she says,\u00a0\u201cless an identity than a critique of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n What I think she means by this is that she sees gender as a construct in much the same way that race is a construct. In other words, \u201cqueer\u201d suggests a couple of things. One is that the categories we use to identify ourselves and others is something of a trap. Gender categories\u00a0can be confining. They can tend to hedge in personality rather than release it.<\/p>\n Another way to think of the \u201cqueer\u201d approach to gender and sexual identity is to raise these questions: Where does straight stop and bi-sexual begin? Where does bi-sexual stop and lesbian begin? Where does male stop and female begin?<\/p>\n This is the same issue being raised in race studies.<\/strong>\u00a0Where does white end and black begin? Is the medium skin toned girl\u00a0with green eyes shown in this iconic photograph white or black? Technically, according to race constructions, because she is Afghan, she is Caucasian or white. But in the deep South where I grew up, she would not have been considered white. The question being raised in race studies is, \u201chow helpful are these categories? Do they reflect reality? Are they artificial constructions? Why were they constructed? Who decided? Who benefits?<\/p>\n \u201cQueer\u201d suggests the same kind of concern. Gender and sexual categories, some believe, are constructions which are artificial and don\u2019t reflect reality. Like the concept of race, it can set up winners and losers.<\/p>\n Ostensibly, \u201cQ\u201d in biblical studies has nothing to do with sexual orientation, gender, or identity. Ostensibly.<\/p>\n \u201cQ\u201d is short for the German word \u201cQuelle\u201d meaning \u201csource\u201d.<\/strong> It is the label given to the hypothetical source, the Q source, for Jesus\u2019s sayings found in both Matthew\u2019s and Luke\u2019s gospels. There is the presumption, widely held by current biblical scholars, that there was a written source which contained the sayings of Jesus. And prior to the\u00a0written source, that there was an oral tradition of his sayings. The idea is that both Matthew and Luke had access to the Q source and used it in formulating their gospels.<\/p>\n The Q source calls into question the determinacy, the ability to know once and for all, the origins of Matthew\u2019s and Luke\u2019s gospels.<\/strong>\u00a0Yet, the Bible as a whole, as well as our\u00a0readings and deconstructions of it, necessarily have an aspect of indeterminacy\u00a0about them. We can speculate about the Bible\u2019s\u00a0authors\u2019 and redactors\u2019 intentions, for example, but we will seldom\u00a0be able to reach uncontested answers. By the same token, there is an enormous gulf between ancient cultures and 21st century cultures, between biblical writers\u2019s intentions and our post-modern responses to what they wrote, and between God and our ability to comprehend God.<\/p>\n My purpose in throwing the Q source into this essay on \u201cquestioning\u201d and \u201cqueer,\u201d the Q in LGBTQ, is this:\u00a0the\u00a0Bible is being invoked in efforts to silence, marginalize, bully, and discriminate against LGBTQ persons. In my opinion, we would do well to show a little humility when using the Bible to satisfy our fears and prejudices. We would do well to respect our own inability to know once and for all whom God would have us love.<\/p>\n Photo credit: Lemon Tree Images\/Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Several times over the past few weeks, people have asked me,\u00a0\u201cWhat does the \u2018Q\u2019 in LGBTQ stand for?\u201d\u00a0One of them, oddly enough, segued into asking,\u00a0\u201cWhat is the \u2018Q\u2019 source in biblical studies?\u201d\u00a0I am by no means an expert, but this is how I understand things. The answer to each question is roughly: \u201cIt stands for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1064],"tags":[1273,267,1075,638,796],"class_list":["post-7795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbtq-2","tag-christianity","tag-lgbtq","tag-queer-sexuality","tag-sacred-texts","tag-sexuality"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a>Rev. Ellin Jimmerson, Ph.D. is an ordained Baptist minister, historian of 20th<\/sup> century US cultural and intellectual history, and the director of the award-winning documentary, The Second Cooler, narrated by Martin Sheen. You can find Ellin Jimmerson at www.thesecondcooler.com<\/a>, on her blog<\/a>, on Twitter @EllinJimmerson, and on Facebook at The Second Cooler Fan Page.<\/em><\/p>\n