Black Queer Theory | Coded Black

QUEER THEORY AND ACTIVISM

Black Queer people are the targets of discrimination from multiple communities, including Black populations fighting racial oppression. Yet people like Ma Rainy, Angela Davis, Isaac Julien, Cecil Belfield Clark, Lady Phyll and Barbara Jordan, to name a few, have blazed a trail for Black and queer people in history, politics, art, and culture. Below is just some of the work that looks at the long history of Black Queer activism.

Allen, Jafari Sinclaire. There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life. Duke University Press, 2022.

Ballard, Tymia. "Black Queer History is American History". Glaad, 31 October 2024.

Carruthers, Charlene. Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. Beacon Press, 2019.

Ferguson, Roderick A. Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Johnson, E. Patrick (ed). No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies. Duke University Press, 2016.

Johnson, E. Patrick, and Henderson, Mae G. (eds). Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology. Duke University Press, 2005.

Jones, Briona Simone. Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought. The New Press, 2021.

Lancaster, Beau. "On the Significance of Black Queer History". Black Perspectives, 12 February 2025.

Lane, Nikki. “Bringing Flesh to Theory: Ethnography, Black Queer Theory, and Studying Black Sexualities”. Feminist Studies, 42.3 (2016): 632-648.

Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Penguin Classics, 2018.

Oloukoï, Chrystel. “The Watermelon Woman at 25: The Black Lesbian Classic That Wears Its Brilliance Lightly.” BFI (27 February 2021).

Opoku-Gyimah, Phyll (ed). Sista! An anthology of writing by and about Same Gender Loving Women of African/Caribbean descent with a UK connection. Team Angelica Publishing, 2018.

Petermon, Jade D., and Spencer, Leland G. “Black Queer Womanhood Matters: Searching for the Queer Herstory of Black Lives Matter in Television Dramas.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 36.4 (2019): 339–56.

Ross, Marlon B. Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness. Duke University Press, 2022.

Snorton, C. Riley. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Somerville, Siobhan B. Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture. Duke University Press, 2000.

Sullivan, Laura L. “Chasing Fae: 'The Watermelon Woman' and Black Lesbian Possibility”. Callaloo, 23.1 (2000): 448–60.

Willis, Morgan Mann. Outside the XY: Black and Brown Queer Masculinity. New York: Riverdale Avenue Books, 2016.

"The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

Toni Morrison