LGBTQ+ People with Chronic Illness : Chroniqueers in Southern Europe

Drawing on theory and empirical research, this book provides an analysis of the intersections between LGBTQ+ identification and chronic illness. Chapters focus on the theoretical meaning of chronic illness as a queer notion, as well as the lived experiences of chronically ill LGBTQ+ people. The author analyzes chronic illness as an experience that interrogates the normative notions of time, (in)visibility, and disability. Interweaving notions of heteronormativity and able-bodiedness as interwoven and mutually dependent, this book argues that the experience of chronic illness through LGBTQ+ embodiment presents the potential to imagine bodies differently. This book will be useful for scholars and students in Disability Studies, Queer Studies, and Gender Studies. Acknowledgements Contents About the Author Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Hic Sunt Dracones? 2 Time, Care, (In)visibility 3 Chapters Outline References Chapter 2: A Queer-Crip Perspective on Chronic Illness 1 Introduction 2 Chronic Illness: Biographical Disruption or Normal Chaos of Life 2.1 The Prismatic Nature of Chronic Illness 2.2 Chronic Illness and LGBTQ+ People 3 Against Normalcy: Crip Theory, Disability, and Illness 3.1 The Emergence of Crip Theory 3.2 Cripping Chronic Illness 4 Queer-Crip Temporalities: A Proposal 4.1 Chrononormativity: The Obligation to (Re)produce, Be Happy, and Get Well 4.2 Too Much of the Wrong Thing at the Wrong Time: Queering Kronos 4.3 Can We Queer and Crip Time? References Chapter 3: LGBTQ+ Rights and Access to Healthcare in Italy and Portugal 1 Introduction 2 Southern Europe: God, Family, and Austerity 2.1 Catholic Culture 2.2 Familism 3 Economic Precariousness 4 LGBTQ+ Rights Between Tensions and Surprise 4.1 The Politics of Indifference: Italy 4.2 The Avalanche of Legal Changes: Portugal 4.3 Healthcare and Welfare 5 Methodology and Challenges of the Research 5.1 Doing Queer-Crip Research: The Tools 5.2 The Sample and the Fieldwork 5.3 The Inside Job 5.4 The Wounded Researcher References Chapter 4: Intimacy and Sexuality: Weaving Significant Relationships 1 Introduction 2 The Closer Ones: Negotiating Identities with Families and Friends 2.1 Inherited Families: The Struggles as LGBTQ+ and Ill 2.2 Alternating Closets: Friendships 2.3 Friendship: A Matter of Time and Place 3 Spaces of Intimacy 3.1 (In)visibility in the Time of Dating 3.2 Desire, Communication, and Sexual Practices: When Illness Comes to Bed 3.3 Bodies That Change, Relationships That Change 4 Able-Bodied and Reproductive? The Pressures to Normalcy 4.1 Being Ill Together 4.2 The Procreative Imperative 4.3 Imaginaries of LGBTQ+ Parenting 5 Conclusions References Chapter 5: Negotiating Care Between Silences, (In)visibility, and Disobedience 1 Introduction 2 Negotiating Relationships of Care 2.1 Care as a Duty 2.2 Care as a Form of Control 2.3 Care as a Choice 2.4 Care as a Gift 3 The Unseen Faces of Care 3.1 Not Only Care Recipients: Narratives of Care Providers 3.2 Mental Health 3.3 Learning Self-care 4 Healthcare Contexts and Medical Power 4.1 Being an LGBTQ+ Patient 4.2 Sexism, Fatphobia, and Discrimination in the Doctor’’s Room 4.3 Disobedient Patients: Grappling with Medical Power 5 Conclusions References Chapter 6: Precarious Lives. Navigating Through Work, Public Spaces, and Activism 1 Introduction 2 Precariousness at Work and Because of Work 2.1 (In)visibility at Work 2.2 A Necessary Destiny: Precariousness 2.3 Don’t Leave to Live: Family Ties and Cohabitation 3 Inhabiting the Public Space 3.1 Accessibility in Space and Time 3.2 The (In)visibility Dilemma in the Public Space 3.3 Only for Spectators: Performing for the Social Gaze 4 The Politicisation of Pain in Activism 4.1 The Epistemology of Ignorance in LGBTQ+ Spaces 4.2 The Bionic Bodies of LGBTQ+ Activists 4.3 An Ensemble of Atoms: Activism on Illness 5 Conclusions References Chapter 7: The Emergence of the Chroniqueers 1 Introduction 2 Blurring Boundaries of Time, Care, and (In)visibility 2.1 Queering and Cripping Time 2.2 Reimagining Care 2.3 Reconsidering (In)visibility 3 Back to This Scene: The Future and the Chroniqueers 3.1 The Unmapped 3.2 Hic Sunt Chroniqueers References Index