The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis has become a classical text of Christian homophobia. The words sodomy and sodomite referring to anal sex/same sex eroticism are just one example of this legacy. However the story of the outrage at Gibeah found in the book of Judges (chs 19-21), while similar, has not had such a history. In this story, a concubine leaves a Levite to return to her father. He sets off to retrieve her and ends up staying several days feasting with her father. Finally they set off in the afternoon to return home. On their way they stop at the town of Gibeah of Benjamin to stay the night. No one offers them hospitality until an old man from the Levite's country takes them in. That night some of the men of the town attack the house demanding the Levite be brought out to them so that they may "know" him. The old man intercedes and offers both the concubine and his own daughter to them. They refuse and the Levite forces the concubine outside. The mob then rape her all night and leave her. She goes to the old man's house and collapses at the door either unconscious or dead. The Levite comes out tells her to get up. He then puts her on his donkey, takes her home and cuts up the body sending the pieces to summon the assembly of Israel. There then follows a civil war between Benjamin and the rest of Israel which results in all the Benjamites but for 600 males being wiped out.

In my project I examine readings of Sodom and Gomorrah as against readings of the outrage at Gibeah. It is essentially an exercise in intertextuality and biblical reception aimed at exposing the homophobic post-text of Sodom and Gomorrah and retrieving other readings outside the dominant Christian homophobic tradition to relativise it. I am interested in how and if homophobia and misogyny are mapped in readings of either/both stories. I am particularly interested in whether anyone recognises the similarities of both stories and how they negotiate such similarities (and differences).

One final thought if Sodom and Gomorrah were to be made into a film who should be cast for the different parts. I would suggest that Shelley Winters would be perfect for Lot's wife especially considering her role in disaster movies over the last 20 odd years. I also think Jimmy Somerville and Boy George would make great angels. Can't think who should play Lot - maybe someone like John Wayne. And Lot's daughters - maybe Sigourney Weaver, Susan Sarandon...

For more details on my project check out what's below.

• Staying the Night is my thesis proposal submitted in 1996
• Reading Sodom and Gibeah is a reading I've done of both stories as part of my 1995 Honours thesis
• Rape and Homophobia in Sodom and Gibeah is a version of a couple of articles doing an anti-homophobic reading of the stories employing anthropology and Eve Kosofky Sedgwick's notion of homosexual panic.
•  Remembering Pelotit   Pelotit, the other daughter of Lot, a character from Jewish Midrash. Can she be a queer/lesbian figure inverting the Christian homophobia invested in Sodom and Gomorrah?  This is a work in progress, a queer reflection on Jewish midrash, Christian homophobia and calling down fire. Forthcoming 2001 in an anthology edited by Ken Stone and published by Sheffield Academic Press.
• Qur'anic Sodom   Some notes on representations of Sodom in the Qur'an and some Islamic texts.
•  Sodom the Cruel, Gibeah and the Rabbis, Part 1 Some notes on representations of Sodom and Gibeah in the Targumim, Talmud, Midrash and other Jewish texts
• Quotable Quotes is a selection from a variety of Jewish, Christian and other sources under the following themes:

 
• the sin of Sodom is it male/male sex or something else?
• the character of Lot, is he a role model or not?
• Lot and his daughters (1), was Lot right to offer his daughters to the mob?
• Lot's wife, why does she end up a pillar of salt?
• Lot and his daughters (2), how to read the rape of Lot by his daughters
• the outrage at Gibeah, who did the men want - the Levite or the concubine?

 
• Queering the Bible is an article I wrote in 1995 on reading the bible with a lavender lens.
• Jonathon  This is a poem I wrote in December 1994 that's a precursor to the article above.

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