lambda nordica

Editorial

Erika Alm, Katharina Kehl — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Striving For an Equal Church

Varpu Alasuutari — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

In this article, I explore the hopes and aims of Christian queer activists in Finland from the late 1960s to the early 2000s by conceptualising them with the notion of utopia. I approach utopia from the perspective of not-yet-existing and hopeful queer futurity (Muñoz 2009; Jones 2013), tying it together with affect theoretical notions of activism as an affectively motivated aspiration for a better world (Gould 2009). The study makes an empirical contribution to the study of queer activism and the interdisciplinary fields of queer history and queer religious studies, as well as a theoretical contribution to queer theoretical accounts of utopia. As my data, I use oral history interviews, autobiographical writings, and archival materials collected by the activists. As a method of analysis, I utilise close reading informed by affect theory (Berg et al. 2019). I ask: how did utopian thinking appear in the stories of Christian queer activists, who aimed for inclusion and equality in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland? I argue that activism always needs utopias to exist, and that utopian thinking was a central force within the early decades of Christian queer activism in Finland. I show that utopian thinking had both private and public relevance for the Christian queer activists and that by striving for inclusion and equality, the activists represented utopian voices within the Church and the local Christian queer community of the time.

Queer Pupils at Christian Private Schools

Åse Røthing, Marthe Lilletun Langeland, Hedda Widahl — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

How are LGBT issues addressed at Norwegian Christian private schools run by free churches? In what ways do such schools safeguard queer pupils’ rights and psychosocial learning environment in line with current Norwegian policy in the educational field? Based on individual interviews with seven queer women aged 20–30 about their experiences from Christian private schools, we present and discuss their stories about how sexuality in general, and homosexuality in particular, were presented at the schools they attended. Our findings indicate that the interviews somewhat reflect recent discussions and changes within Norwegian free churches. However, the dominant narrative about how LGBT issues are addressed at Christian private schools run by free churches is imbued by theological heteronormativity. We argue that sexuality education at these schools is provided within the framework of theological heteronormativity, which adds an existential dimension to the teaching and seems to cause insecurity and unsafety for queer pupils. Our study offers new insights into how pupils and young people might experience the collision between rights, such as Christian private schools and free churches’ rights to exercise their religious freedom, even though it clashes with the right of queer people to not be discriminated against and their right to religious freedom.

Exploring the Lived Experiences of a Gender-Expansive Youth

Eirik Skjelstad — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article explores the experiences of “Neptune,” a 13-year-old non-binary individual in Norway, within the contexts of gender identity, music, culture, and education. Grounded in music education and queer studies, it provides a nuanced exploration of Neptune’s narrative, connecting their journey to a comprehensive theoretical framework. The study aims to understand how young gender-expansive individuals navigate their identities in societies favouring binary gender norms. The guiding research question is: How do gender-expansive individuals like Neptune use cultural resources, specifically music and literature, to understand and express their non-binary identities? By examining Neptune’s story through the lenses of epistemic injustice and ontological non-being, the study uncovers systemic challenges faced by young, gender-expansive individuals. Additionally, it investigates the potential of music and literature as transformative tools, offering identification means for those alienated from prevailing gender discourse. This interdisciplinary examination contributes to understanding the experiences of individuals outside the normative gender binary and seeks to enrich dialogues on gender identity, social justice, and cultural expressions, providing valuable insights for educators and professionals engaging with gender diversity.

”Allt jag behöver finns ju här”

Lena Sotevik, Amanda Nordin — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article explores how queer youth outside of urban areas relate to and oppose dominant narratives about place. The concept of big cities as self-evident is in Swedish research frequently referred to as an urban norm. This is our starting point, combined with a view of place as relationally constructed by ongoing negotiations (Massey 2004).

Urban norm includes a general expectation that young people should want to move to big cities. For young queers this expectation also concerns gender and/or sexuality. Queer lives are associated with cities and not expected to take place elsewhere. Non-urban queers are predicted to move both from the closet into openness and from the countryside to the city, a notion referred to as metronormativity (Halberstam 2005).

The study’s 20 participants all somehow refer to their homes as peripheral. Narrative analysis was used to explore how the participants experience and negotiate place in relation to age and queerness. The result shows that queer youth outside urban areas are aware of, and relate to, urban norm and metronormativity. Many question the idea that everyone appreciates big city life. Some prefer to stay (or move back), but this choice depend on the possibility of queer community.

The participants actively negotiate place and take charge of changing both material and discursive conditions. Their critique concerns lack of representation and meeting places, unfair resource distribution and the idea of the preferred urban lifestyle. They create counter narratives by constructing positive, even idyllic, conceptions of rural life, as well as changing material conditions by organizing queer meeting places and events.

Queer Waiting in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours

Oscar von Seth — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100

This article explores entanglements of waiting and queerness in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (1998). It asks if waiting, a universal human activity and an unavoidable aspect of life, can be understood as a queer cultural phenomenon. In answering that question, the article proposes and conceptualizes a new concept in queer theory called “queer waiting.” Although the phenomenon of waiting connotes queerness in the sense that experiences of waiting tend to be perceived as strange, drawn-out, awkward, and tedious sort of “temporal breaks” in which time is somehow suspended, queer waiting is waiting experienced by queer people. More specifically, queer waiting is a form of waiting that is entwined with what makes people queer, like gender nonconformity, norm-challenging sexualities, and forms of kinship that challenge heteronormative relationality. Through close textual analysis, the article investigates if – and if so how – depictions of waiting structure experiences for The Hours’ queer characters, who are waiting in various ways. They wait, for example, to escape heteronormativity, to die from AIDS-related complications, or to relive a “queer utopia” that only exists in the past. Theoretically, a combination of José Esteban Muñoz’s theories about “utopian queer futurity” (an incentive for queers when dealing with the imperfect present) and Martin Heidegger’s Gelassenheit (releasement, which can be understood as a sort of “letting-it-be attitude”) are drawn on. By interpreting The Hours, the article suggests that while waiting, to all, can make the present seem static, boring, or unbearable, queers experience it, and handle it, in unique ways. Cunningham’s novel illustrates that releasement can be a temporary strategy for queers to deal with challenges while they, in Muñoz’s conception, envision (and await) a better future. But it also includes examples of queer characters forcefully resisting releasement as a solution, thereby refusing to let things be as they are.

Bottom Shaming, Shame Anxiety, and Sexual Wellbeing

Richard Vytniorgu, Jaime Garcia-Iglesias — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Bottom shaming refers to the way in which men experience shame due to engaging in receptive anal intercourse, or bottoming. While regularly discussed in an array of online and offline LGBTQ+ media, bottom shaming has seldom been explored academically, as a concept and in relation to the sexual wellbeing of gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (GBMSM). This article explores what is meant by bottom shaming, how it developed historically and transculturally, and draws on the concept of shame anxiety to theorise ways in which GBMSM can experience shame in relation to bottoming. It argues that shame can be anticipated in both clinical and non-clinical contexts, and that the anticipation of shame due to bottoming can cause a range of anxieties that can impede sexual wellbeing.

Farewell LGBTQ+ Competency. Rest In Peace. May You Never Be Needed Again

Malin Fors — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

LGBTQ+ psychology and LGBTQ+ competency are two concepts which, on the surface, appear constructive, even liberating. In this article, I discuss their downside. The premise that an LGBTQ+ person will receive better care if the staff have LGBTQ+ competency applies not only to gender and sexual minority people, but also to other minority groups about whom cultural competence can supposedly be obtained. Developing specific competence to serve a certain social group has become a common strategy in health care and other fields (e.g., Fish & Evans 2016; Harper et al. 2013). While this may well be a very nice thought, in this article I want to paint a more nuanced picture and discuss why the idea of “LGBTQ+ competency” is also problematic – perhaps even completely naive.

Homonationalism and Nationalist Anti-LGBTQ Politics in Sweden

Jon Binnie — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Lagerman, Julia. 2023. A Nationalist Contradiction: Homonationalism and Nationalist Anti-LGBTQ Politics and Activism in Sweden. PhD thesis. Uppsala University: Department of Human Geography.

Research-Based Attention to Lived Experiences and Real-World Challenges of Trans People

Reidar Schei Jessen — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Summanen, Edward & Matilda Wurm. 2023. Trans: Fakta, forskning och erfarenheter. Natur och kultur. (301 s.)