Embracing queer heartache: lessons from LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues

Abstract

In this article, we reflect on the role of heartache during the first 2 years of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The project—a partnership between an LGBTQ+ community center, an art and design college, and a public research university—brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ young (18–26 years old) and older adults (62–81) for dialogue, creative collaboration, and shared dinners. The project was conceived as a collaborative ethnographic pedagogical experiment in which participants became partners in research, education, and community formation. We quickly realized that heartache would be central to our journey together, as we navigated this rare opportunity for LGBTQ+ intergenerational contact. Grief, anger, and pain generated through interactions between LGBTQ+ people can be surprising, and especially weighty, components of Queer Battle Fatigue. It is necessary, we argue, to explore the heartache we experience within queer spaces as a pedagogical tool with which to strengthen queer communities.

Keywords:

• LGBTQ elders
• LGBTQ young adults
• intergenerational
• queer pedagogy
• storytelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this article, we use a combination of pseudonyms and real names for project participants based on their individual preferences.

2 Rainbow Land is a pseudonym for the senior living facility.

3 And an institutionally sanctioned educational space, to boot!

4 Early on, participants began using the terms “younger” and “elder” which led to thinking about and through the use and problems with such terms. A general agreement to the words “younger” and “elder” was landed on to capture the two age groups broadly represented. This agreement is not without complications.

5 Reflecting on an especially tense conversation around race and politics in the shadow of the 2016 presidential election, Rankine writes “I learned early that being right pales next to staying in the room” (p. 151).

6 Epistemic injustice, a concept coined by feminist philosopher Miranda Fricker (2007) gets at the ways marginalized groups are unjustly treated as knowing subjects. This occurs when a member of a marginalized group is given a deflated level of credibility by a hearer, what Fricker called testimonial injustice. It also occurs at a prior stage when a member of a marginalized group lacks access to interpretive resources for making sense of their experiences, termed by Fricker as “hermeneutical injustice.”

7 Our use of storytelling as method takes up an established approach to countering erasure and legacies of epistemic injustice imposed on marginalized populations. Storytelling can provide a way to construct counter-narratives vis-à-vis dominant narratives that oppress or erase certain peoples and histories and legitimize the experiences and perspectives of some over others (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004; Johnson, 2008; McLean & Syed, 2015, Tuhiwai-Smith, 1999).

8 For our work, participants recognized both the usefulness and falsity of “generation” talk. There is something to having been born at a particular time, but such a time is complicated by other variables such as race, gender identity, economic class, geography (urban vs rural vs suburban) and so forth. Time may be a particular arbiter, but other factors can connect people across time that generate different relationships. Our dialogues have thus never centered on generations in any traditional sense (Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, etc.)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Morris

Karen Morris is an associate professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a lesbian mother and cultural anthropologist, whose work focuses on family, gender, media, and sexuality.

Adam J. Greteman

Adam J. Greteman is an associate professor of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work addresses the ethical and political challenges and possibilities that emerge as genders and sexualities are centralized in pedagogical and philosophical thought. He is the author of Sexualities and Genders in Education: Towards Queer Thriving and the coauthor of On Liking the Other: Queer Subjects and Religious Discourses and The Pedagogies and Politics of Liking.

Nic M. Weststrate

Nic M. Weststrate is an assistant professor of Human Development and Learning in the Department of Educational Psychology and member of the Center for Research on Health and Aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Nic’s research investigates positive aging in the LGBTQIA + community. Recently, he has been exploring the potential for intergenerational storytelling to bolster the health and well-being of LGBTQIA + elders and youth, while also sustaining the community’s rich culture and history.