Bateman, R. Benjamin. "The Future of Queer Theory: on Lee Edelman's No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive." MINNESOTA DRIVE 65-66 (2007)

Gaining credibility as a queer theorist, it appears, necessitates the assumption of increasingly radical, and at times counterintuitive, political positions. Such extremity finds full expression in Lee Edelman's polemic, No Future. Subtitled Queer Theory and the Death Drive, the book argues that politics as we know it relies upon a future-oriented logic that is indissociably intertwined with heterosexuality and with what Edelman terms "reproductive futurism." On Edelman's reading, the face of the child, epitomized by Dickens's Tiny Tim, coerces us—through conjuring our compassion—into subordinating our present wants and enjoyments to the always-deferred, future needs of 'innocent' children. Tim's vulnerability turns vindictive, Edelman proceeds, when conservatives use 'protecting children' as a pretext for discriminating against gays and lesbians. Nowhere is this disguised homophobia more apparent than in recent 'arguments' against gay marriage. . . . Read the rest here: http://www.theminnesotareview.org/journal/ns6566/bateman_r_benjamin_ns6566_stf1.shtml.