The visual arts can connect gender, sexuality and spirituality and reshape attitudes about LGBTQ life and religion, scholar Justin Sabia-Tanis said during a lecture presented by the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists.
“And this can in turn offer us a new way in which to consider questions about the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, which at times still seems hopelessly mired in the ruts of the decades-old arguments about the religious acceptability of, and the more recent fervor around, gender identities,” he said.
Justin Sabia Tanis
Sabia-Tanis serves as associate professor of Christian ethics and social transformation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where he leads the social transformation program. He also is author of Trans-Gender: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith.
His presentation, “Reveal, Resist, and Revel — Queer and Trans Artists’ Visions of Spirituality,” was AWAB’s fourth annual lecture and was delivered at Seattle First Baptist Church Sept. 19.
Queer art, Sabia-Tanis explained, expresses the depth of queer struggle and spirituality and helps illuminate the anti-trans and homophobic attitudes that drive many LGBTQ people from churches and other religious institutions.
“Yet, here we are, in the walls of a church, and here I am, an ordained minister, and many of us still find meaning in the life, teachings, ministry and resurrection of Jesus. But I would argue that it’s vital to that faith and that calling that we explore the spiritual lives of those who have broken up with Jesus or other forms of religion.”
Leaving behind communities heteronormative in gender and sexuality does not mean trans and queer people have abandoned faith, he added. “This has led to a fabulously diverse DIY — do it yourself — collection of spiritual practices, beliefs and groups which we can learn a great deal from.”
Visual arts in fact have heavily influenced the development of LGBTQ visibility and advocacy, Sabia-Tanis explained. “Art and aesthetics have been intrinsic elements of queer cultures. At times, homosexuality and the arts have been so closely associated that there’s been a conflation of the two, such as assumptions that all artists or art collectors are inherently gay.”
Artist circles and other communities outside mainstream society often have created space for alternative gender presentations and sexual minorities, he said. “And this includes a consideration of the role of queer art as a foundational source for theology. So, one contribution queer artists make is pushing us out of an assimilationist we’re-just-like-everyone-else mode.”
At the same time, “queer sacred art” enables the viewer to grasp the holiness of images and their subjects in a way that pushes back against popular theological narratives about LGBTQ identity and spirituality, Sabia-Tanis said. “So not only do these works of art challenge this idea, but they also offer a replacement for it in which gender, sexuality and spirituality intertwine in the same image.”
Sabia-Tanis shared examples of the work of Gabrielle Garcia Roman, a Mexican American artist who came to the United States as a young child. He is known for photographing primarily queer subjects — people of color and immigrants — then transforming the images into “queer icons.”
“His icons follow visually the history of European saint paintings of the Renaissance period. He uses lush backgrounds and golden halos to denote the figures as holy. Each subject is invited to show up wearing the clothes of their choice, preferably something that makes them feel powerful or beautiful.”
The subjects are depicted as saints who communicate the strength and courage of immigrant and queer communities in a way that highlights resilience in the face of discrimination and social stigma.
“The work is beautiful because he reminds us of the intersections of spirituality, justice, sexual orientation and gender identity and that our community includes people of all colors, nationalities and ways of being queer,” Sabia-Tanis said.
These and other examples of queer art typically avoid direct confrontations with biblical condemnations of homosexuality but evoke the emotional and spiritual effects of religiously inspired hatred of LGBTQ people, he said. “Instead of justification, this art portrays sacred encounters, and this can have a profound and expansive effect on our understandings of sexuality and spirituality.”
The three gifts of queer art are to reveal the nature and needs of its people and communities, to resist the voices of assimilation and dehumanization and to celebrate the “the profound richness of our spiritual lives,” he declared.
LGBTQ art also functions as a form of resistance in a society where the dehumanizing and scapegoating of marginalized groups often signals impending political violence, Sabia-Tanis explained.
“And that’s why it profoundly matters right now, whether we speak of migrants as human beings rather than as illegals or aliens or worse. And it deeply matters when transgender people are being falsely scapegoated as disproportionately responsible for mass murder, even when the evidence overwhelmingly points to trans people being victims of violence, not perpetrators of violence.”
The resistance to vilification found in art saves lives, he concluded. “Queer art can revel in our distinctiveness, celebrating sexuality, spirituality, expression in new and exciting ways. People on the margins may see blessedness in places that are often overlooked, ignored or desecrated. We can see visions of the divine and are placed within God’s realm in new ways and rejoice in that.”