ABSTRACT
Queer and trans subjects have long theorized non-normative relational bonds that are often colloquially termed “queer family” or “family of choice.” Indeed, many people who embody non-normative sex, gender, and sexual identities and bodies continue to experience violence and rejection from families of origin forcing queer and trans subjects to improvise survival. This has led to informal networks of queer relational bonds that work in service of increasing queer and trans survival in light of the intense violences that are the effects of racist cisheterosexism, an intersectional structure that privileges bodies and identities that more closely align with white notions of sex, gender, and sexuality while dominating those who fail to meet the same criteria. In this case study, the author welcomes the reader into a queer world of their own relational design; one that uses familial rejection as a point of critical departure for envisioning queer—familial—bonds that ensure survival.
