ABSTRACT
Queer lives have been, and continue to be, largely absent in museums internationally. This absence, often understood as a form of social exclusion, is increasingly regarded by museum practitioners and theorists as a wrong that ought to be made right. Inclusion (as commonly understood in the museum sector) is inextricably bound up with a problematic model of ethics. In practice, this means is that LGBTQ+ inclusion in museums is all too often articulated as inclusion in the parameters of sexual normalcy. As a result, many LGBTQ+ exhibitions present homosexuality as a homogeneous, universal construct, creating a progressivist narrative.
The aim of this chapter is to queer inclusion discourse and the model of ethics that underpins it, in order to articulate an alternative account of ethics as critical practice, which at once acknowledges the constraints of historical circumstances and proposes to move beyond them. Building on this understanding of ethics, we move beyond LGBTQ+ inclusion to articulate, as an alternative, a queer approach.
