Annual Queer Theory Lecture

The Natural History of Queer This paper traces the roots of sexuality studies in the postwar social sciences, arguing that the observational approach of researchers in deviance studies and microsociology offers a model for queer critics today. I consider the case of Erving Goffman, whose account of stigma situates deviance in scenes and interactions, not in people. Goffman exerted a profound influence on works such as Laud Humphreys¿ Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places and Esther Newton¿s Mother Camp; these texts offer an ¿ecological¿ view of sex and gender deviance that sets aside affect, motivation, and desire to describe highly specific interactions in concrete settings.