The long, global history of queer art in churches

A Sydney venue dedicated to queer performance lasted just ten days before a landlord's notice forced it closed. Divine Playhouse opened in a deconsecrated church on July eighth, but Christian protesters and objections from fundamentalist groups prompted the landlord to issue a notice to cease operating "offensive trade," citing performances that parodied Catholic rituals. But queer art and churches have a longer, more complex history. For decades, active and former churches have hosted experimental performance and queer artists—from Judson Church's legendary dance theatre in New York to Canterbury Cathedral's benefit dance parties to grassroots queer venues in London. These spaces have been vital to artistic creation and queer community. The closure reflects a broader pattern: queer performance venues are vanishing across Australia, the US, the UK, and Canada. Per The Conversation's Charlotte Farrell, a theatre scholar, the irony is stark—deconsecrated churches, free of sacred obligations and available to the community, may be the ideal spaces to reclaim and sustain queer arts as commercial pressure and ideological censorship make other venues unsustainable.

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