Abstract

Rituals of mourning and celebration abound in queer and trans communities, serving to strengthen bonds of communal kinship, alleviate feelings of alienation and hopelessness, and aid in the transformation of oppressive contexts. In offering an analysis of such rituals, we draw upon van Gennep and Turner to illumine the qualities of liminality and transformation in queer and trans communal rituals, expanding the idea of liminality to honor a sense of sacred in-between in everyday life. Drawing upon Pauli Murray’s use of the term “ongoingness” in conversation with Shelly Rambo’s work on “remaining,” we propose a transing of ritual theory that opens up liminality not merely as a pass through but as a place of remaining, both in ritual and in queer and trans lives.