A House of Prayer for All People This page intentionally left blank A House of Prayer for All People Contesting Citizenship in a Queer Church David K. Seitz University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis • London Portions of the Introduction and chapter 1 were published as “Why Do You Go There? Struggle, Faith, and Love at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto,” in Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, edited by John Lorinc, Jane Farrow, Stephanie Chambers, Maureen FitzGerald, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, Rahim Thawer, and Ed Jackson (Toronto: Coach House Books), 305– 7; reprinted with permission. Portions of chapter 4 were published as “ ‘Is This Enough Proof?’ Queer ‘Limbo Life’ in Canada’s Waiting Room,” Mask Magazine, The Multiple Words Issue, no. 11 (December 2014), and as “Limbo Life in Canada’s Waiting Room: Asylum-S eeker as Queer Subject,” Environment and Plan- ning D: Society and Space, first published August 31, 2016, doi:10.1177/0263775816667074. Copyright 2017 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2 520 http://www.upress.umn.edu ISBN 978-1-5179-0213-1 (hc) ISBN 978-1-5179-0214-8 (pb) A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer. For Elfrieda, who always could listen This page intentionally left blank . . . these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered. ISAIAH 56:7– 8 (NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION) This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction. Repairing Bad Objects: Improper Citizenship in Queer Church 1 1. Too Diverse? Race, Gender, and Affect in Church 41 2. Pastor– Diva– Citizen: The Reverend Dr. Brent Hawkes, Homonormative Melancholia, and the Limits of Celebrity 83 3. “Why Are You Doing This?”: Desiring Queer Global Citizenship 131 4. From Identity to Precarity: Asylum, State Violence, and Alternative Horizons for Improper Citizenship 181 Conclusion: Loving an Unfinished World 225 Acknowledgments 231 Notes 237 Bibliography 241 Index 263