With gender playing such a huge role in how we understand ourselves in society, transgender variance is an important subject for Queer Art. Born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, the French photographer, writer and political activist chose the name Claude Cahun after a number of different iterations before concluding "neuter is the only gender that always suits me". Cahun expression is camp, playful, and the posture is jaunty. Don't kiss me." This deliberately and playfully contradicts the lips drawn beneath the assertion, the hearts Cahun painted onto the leggings and cheeks, and the painted, puckered lips. Written across the artist's shirt are the words: "I am in training. Nipples drawn on the long-sleeve top give the impression that Cahun is bare chested. Dressed as a weightlifter, Cahun holds a dumbbell. In this carefully posed Self Portrait the artist sits on a chair with legs crossed, facing the viewer. Throughout all of these circumstances, Queer Art has addressed these issues covertly and overtly, insisting on a voice in the art world that routinely suppressed it. It wasn't until the late 20 th century that homosexuality was no longer considered a pathology by psychiatrists, and it wasn't until the 21 st century that marriage rights were granted to same-sex couples. Since the late 19 th century, cultural and legal responses to homosexuality have evolved, but it was only in the second half of the 20 th century that many of the laws criminalizing homosexual acts were overturned. While homosexuality has a long history, the modern sense of the term is relatively new. Adhering to no particular style, for over more than a century, Queer Art has used photography, portraiture, abstract painting, sculpture, and collage to explore the varieties and depths of queer identity.
Any art that can be considered "queer" refers to the re-appropriation of the term in the 1980s, when it was snatched back from the homophobes and oppressors to become a powerful political and celebratory term to describe the experience of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people.