Pulse and the Closet

Frameworks for an Eschatological Discourse

Abstract

One of the deadliest attacks to the queer community, specifically the queer community of color, occurred on June 12, 2016, in the Pulse Nightclub, a safe space for queer people. The “closet” has indicated a space of survival for many queer people, however it can also become a space of death, making both places a choratic and eschatological space.  Using Vítor Westhelle’s framework of Eschatology and Space, the author reflects on and challenges the ambivalence of the safe/unsafe and inside/outside that occurs in the queer community of color, arguing for the messianic power of queerness to transgress the center with the spread of its gospel.