Hollins Digital Commons

The Backbone: Queer Black Women and Femmes within the Black Church

Janney Lounge

The positive and adverse influences of the black church on queer black women and femmes influences the social identity of these individuals within their institution. The historical context in which the Black church has shaped its own identity impacts the everyday in which these individuals live their lives. This study demonstrates the queerphobia, misogynoir, and transphobia of the church. The black woman is the one who often disagrees with and pushes for social change within American society (Higginbotham, 1993). Through the use of the black church as a vessel, black women express the discomfort they feel as well as push for educational advancements and equal employment opportunities. Within the age of police militarization and brutality, black women have started protest movements while systemically challenging the system in order to produce change for black society. However, as gender expression begins to change and the definition of what it means to be masculine and feminine become more obscure, challenges of the black church’s structure create complexity. The black church perpetuates the following: transphobia, or the fear, hatred or discrimination toward transgender and gender nonconforming individuals (Erickson-Schroth, 2014); and queerphobia, or a fear or hatred of queer people. (Douglas-Bowers, 2014). The church simultaneously installs misogynoir, or misogyny directed toward black women and femmes where race and gender intersect in discrimination (Bailey, 2010).