Big Gay Church: Religion, Religiosity, and Visual Culture

Five academics explore their performed occupations of the National Art Education Association Annual Meetings. They have annually mounted Big Gay Church (BGC) services that deconstruct and question the ways visual culture, media representations, scriptural interpretations, and religious teaching have constructed (at times harmful) depictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ2) subjects. This essay recounts how co-authors have drawn on their multiple experiences with/in churches to play with religious rituals and narratives in ways that queerly comment on the damage or support organized religions offer LGBTQ2 students and educators