Rage, Humour, and Joy as Resistance: Queer and Trans Youth Reckoning With Far-Right Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies

This article examines how queer and trans youth in Alberta, Canada respond to intensifying anti-2SLGBTQ+ political discourse through affective practices that unsettle the authority of the state. Drawing on participatory visual arts-based research conducted with queer and trans youth, we examine how rage, humour, and joy operate as cultural repertoires that resist state hostility. Participants mobilized rage to refuse the quiet self-management demanded of them in the face of anti-2SLGBTQ+ policies related to gender-affirming healthcare, pronoun and chosen name use in schools, sport participation, and sexual health education. Rather than venting, rage redirected responsibility toward political institutions that claim epistemic authority over youth’s lives. Humour worked differently, exposing the incoherence and absurdity of government narratives that frame queer life as dangerous or damaged. Through parody, satire, and shared laughter, participants rendered these framings laughable, weakening their claim to seriousness and control. Joy emerged as a collective practice of worldmaking sustained through care, recognition, and creativity. Joyful experiences marked ways of continuing to live meaningfully within hostile conditions. Situated at the intersection of cultural sociology and queer studies, this article demonstrates how affect operates as a site of political struggle for queer and trans youth. By tracing how these youth disrupt affective governance and sustain alternative ways of living, we show how cultural practices remake the terms under which queer and trans life becomes thinkable and liveable.