Queer Crossings: Decoding LGBTQ+ Representations Across Disparate Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

The queer subject emerges with strikingly diverse connotations across global cultures, revealing a spectrum from pervasive unease to unqualified embrace. In Abrahamic traditions, particularly Christianity, homosexuality is branded a sin—an "abomination" per Leviticus—fueling historical and ongoing marginalization of LGBTQ+ communities. Conversely, Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism eschew explicit condemnation; the Vedas affirm a "third sex" (tritiya prakriti), evident in figures like hijras and Ardhanarishvara, where gender fluidity aligns with Judith Butler's notion of gender performativity in Gender Trouble (1990). Puranic narratives exemplify this: Vishnu's Mohini avatar and Arjuna's Brihannala guise transcend anatomical determinism, treating gender as a performative act infused with rasa (aesthetic emotion) rather than rigid ontology. Yet, not all cultures conceive gender as malleable performance. Biblical literalism in Christian polities entrenched heteronormativity, often violently policing queer expressions. This paper interrogates how colonial encounters—British imperialism's export of Victorian morality to colonized Asia, for instance—reconfigured indigenous gender epistemologies, suppressing precolonial fluidity (as in Mughal-era courtesan cultures or temple hijra roles) and imposing binaries that persist in postcolonial nation-states. Through comparative analysis of religious texts, epic literatures, and historical records, this study decodes similarities and divergences in sexual/gender categories, practices, and meanings across Oriental and Occidental contexts. It extends to contemporary ramifications, including filmic adaptations and legal shifts like India's Section 377 repeal. Ultimately, it argues for a transcultural queer hermeneutics that recovers performative traditions, challenging Eurocentric narratives and advocating ethical pluralism amid globalization.