Queer Things from Old Closets: Libraries—Gay and Lesbian Studies—Queer Theory

Abstract

There is not one but many silences, and they are an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourses.—Michel Foucault1

In November 1991 nearly 2,000 faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, activists, gays, lesbians, queers, queens, butches, femmes, People With AIDS, and heterosexuals converged at Rutgers University to present papers, take part in panels, and discuss important issues with colleagues at the Fifth Annual Gay and Lesbian Studies Conference. The overwhelming diversity of gay and lesbian studies that has manifested itself in academia during the past five years was illustrated by the 100 different events and more . . .