On Time

To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of GLQ, this essay explores the significance of the 2007 special issue on queer temporalities. Edited by Elizabeth Freeman, this issue marked queer theory’s distinct turn toward temporality as a critical frame. Its contributors proposed combining queer theory and temporality as a way to “reimagine ‘queer’ as a set of possibilities produced out of temporal and historical difference,” and to think about the politics of temporal orientation (whether one is focused on the past, present, or future). As this essay highlights, the issue intervened in key debates between optimistic and antisocial queer projects and has had a lasting impact on the field. Many of the questions, puzzles, and problems posed by GLQ’s contributors in 2007 continue to hold relevance today.