ABSTRACT
Queer politics in the global North emerged in response to the unjust history of criminalisation and overpolicing of sexuality- and gender-diverse people and thus was closely connected to abolitionist movements. Today, though, since the achievement of decriminalisation and other legal gains, criminal justice reform and penal abolition do not appear to be the urgent queer political tasks they once were. This chapter explores what queer penal abolition is and may be in contemporary times. As its central case study, it examines an event that highlighted distinct queer political approaches to the criminal justice system and different views on queer penal abolition - the “Prison of Love” party held as part of San Francisco Pride in 2014. This party highlighted sharp divisions regarding the place of prison-related activism in post-criminalisation queer politics, community, and identity. The party instigated debates over queer communities’ engagement with and use of prison-related and criminal justice imagery and raised questions about the extent to which an engagement with these imageries is an investment in them. This chapter explores these debates, highlighting the complicated nature of queer abolitionist politics, and considers how the party may also have opened up new possibilities for pursuing queer abolitionist goals.
