What’s Queer about (Queer) Sport Sociology Now? A Review Essay

Abstract

This article offers a review of the sociology of sport research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) subjects with the aim of analyzing the extent to which this work is participating in the mainstreaming of LGBTQ sexual politics. In identifying points of convergence between “homonormativity” (Duggan, 2003) and research in the sociology of sport, the essay highlights the limitations of scholarship that equates visibility and identity with power and legitimacy; argues for studies that critically interrogate, rather than reproduce, White bourgeois normativity; and advocates for writing that is not nationally bound and insular, but rather intimately engaged with the geopolitical urgencies of our time. Based on an overview of five key features of queer theory, the author argues that a more robust queer approach to research on sexuality is required if sociologists of sport are to avoid colluding with the exclusionary discourses that characterize homonormativity.