that emerges in the early 1990s. Queer theory is grounded in gender and sexuality.
The theory mostly derived from post-structuralist theory and deconstruction and was originally associated with radical gay politics of ACT
UP, OutRage And other groups which embraced queer as an identity label that pointed to a separatist, non-assimilations politics Blackburn, 1996: 31.
‗Drawing on both Michael Foucault and Jacques Derrida, queer theory explores the ways in which homosexual subjectivity is at once produced and
excluded within culture, both inside and outside its borders
’
Namaste, 1994: 229
. Queer theory is grounded in gender and sexuality. Due to this association, a debate emerges as to whether sexual orientation is natural or essential to the person,
as an essentialist believes, or if sexuality is a social construction and subject to change Barry: 2002, 139-155.
The essentialist feminists believed that genders have an essential nature e.g. nurturing and caring versus being aggressive and selfish, as opposed to differing by
a variety of accidental or contingent features brought about by social forces‖. Due to this belief in the essential nature of a person, it is also natural to assume that a
persons sexual preference would be natural and essential to a per son‘s personality.
Blackburn: 1996: 34.
Queer theory attempts to maintain a critique more than define a specific identity
.
The Queer theory started by the statement that there is no ‗natural‘ sexuality- a traditional accorded to heterosexuality- there is no
stable relationship between biological sexuality.
Queer theory questions traditional constructions of sexuality and sees non- heterosexual forms of sexuality as sites where hegemonic power can be
undermined. Queer theory is a continuation of the post structuralism in which the insistence on the constructed nature of all classifications in terms of
biological sex, sexuality, and gender. Queer theory related with the play that shown in the main idea of the play. The Normal Heart tells the story of a gay
activist whom not afraid of being closeted gay. He tried to speak to the public regarding to the AIDS epidemic and his work indicates a few critiques
towards closeted gays and towards the government. His movement in many ways reflected the queer theory.
2. Queer Theory on Politics
There are arguments that stated sex is a private matter that should be left to choose and kept out of public politics altogether. Since the rise of HIV and
many literary works that discusses it, so many people seemed affected by the works of gay people. Although it appears that queers have a lot to say
regarding their freedom and equality, but there is small evidence that queers interested in politics. Since politics have a broader impact in Justice, freedom
and equality. All the rights that are demanded by gay people. Most theories evolve around queers are psychoanalytic and historicist. Not one of them can
determine how queer emerge in the political area. ―The 1980s saw a massive
literature of social constructionism, designed to localize all concepts of sexuality, sexual identity, and political interest relating to sex. This literature
raises skepticism about rights discourse and other forms of universalism in gay politics.‖
The researcher uses Laurent Berlant and Michael Warner‘s theory on
Heteronormativity to reveal the qualities of queer in the world of politics. ―By heteronormativity we mean the institutions, structures of
understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent
—that is, organized as a sexuality—but also privileged. Its coherence is always provisional, and its privilege can take several sometimes
contradictory forms: unmarked, as the basic idiom of the personal and the social; or marked as a natural state; or projected as an ideal or moral
accomplishment. It consists less of norms that could be summarized as a body of doctrine than of a sense of rightness produced in contradictory
manifestations
—often unconscious, immanent to practice or to institutions. Contexts that have little visible relation to sex practice, such as life narrative
and generational identity, can be heteronormative in this sense, while in other contexts sex between men and women might not be heteronormative.
Heteronormativity is thus a concept distinct from heterosexuality. ―Berlandt
and Warner: 1998
It means that the world is set and structured in heterosexuality. Every aspect of human lives, i.e. education, clothing, music, norms, religion etc. is in
heterosexual continuum including politics. The heteronormativity helps the researcher to evaluate its role on the rise of gay politics.
3. Labeling Theory
Labeling theory is based on the idea that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as deviant. As such, conforming members of society, who
interpret certain behaviors as deviant and then attach this label to individuals, determine the distinction between deviance and non-deviance. Labeling
theory questions who applies what label to whom, why they do this, and what happens as a result of this labeling. Powerful individuals within society
