Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Music

Advisor

Emily Wilbourne

Committee Members

Laura Westengard

Anne Stone

Anaar Desai-Stephens

Subject Categories

American Studies | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Musicology | United States History

Keywords

trans studies, queer musicology, gay men's choruses, lesbian-feminism, protest song, contrafacta

Abstract

This dissertation examines gay and lesbian communal song in the U.S. during the long 1980s with particular attention to the successes and failures of separatism and solidarity in five sociomusical contexts: the women’s music movement, the feminist men’s music scene, the feminist choral movement, the gay men’s choral movement, and the temporally broader arc of queer protest music. The sonic landscape of gay and lesbian communal song in the 1970s and 1980s U.S. was profoundly shaped by the politics of both separatism and solidarity. These cultural forces can be seen from the earliest gay protest music sung in the streets to the lesbian- feminist women’s music movement and feminist men’s music scene to the lesbian/feminist and gay men’s choruses. Politics of solidarity, coming from a tradition of Black feminist theory and praxis, the Civil Rights movement, and labor movements, collided with largely-white lesbian separatist politics within the women’s music movement, while in the early gay, lesbian, and feminist choral movements, gay men and lesbians often clashed over gender, and most subcultures and organizations struggled with race and class. I argue that today’s liberation movements can learn from the failures and successes of earlier separatist, affinity, and coalition work through the lens of communal song.

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