Staff Spotlight: Marquette staff member explores LGBTQ+ representation in Middle-earth

As part of its Faculty Focus, Staff Spotlight and After Hours series, Marquette Today is sharing weekly features during Pride Month highlighting faculty and staff whose work supports and connects with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Recognizing the rich history and traditions of Marquette as a Catholic, Jesuit institution, these stories reflect a commitment to acknowledging and cherishing the dignity of each individual. "We would like before all else to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while 'every sign of unjust discrimination' is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence." - Pope Francis

Developed in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group - open to all members of the Marquette community - the series highlights how faculty and staff put this commitment into practice through their work, fostering spaces for dialogue, support and growth across the university community.

Threads of J.R.R. Tolkien's stories have been woven into the fabric of Grace Moone's life since she was a child.

Growing up in upstate New York, she saw the town's barrel-chested Santa Claus cruise around in his red convertible. Little did she know then that it was Romeo Muller, the screenwriter made famous by his work on the Rankin-Bass versions of films like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Hobbit." She'd go on to read Tolkien's books later in their adolescence.

As a teenager, she dressed up in elven garb to attend showings of the trilogy of "Lord of the Rings" movies directed by Peter Jackson.

Now at Marquette, Moone, Grad '13, is footsteps away from the Tolkien archives that she often uses for research for their podcast, "Queer Lodgings: A Tolkien Podcast."

The administrative assistant for the Physician Assistant Studies program and her co-hosts dive into Tolkien's works and examine the not-so-subtle themes of LGBTQ+ identity throughout his lifetime of work.

"The podcast is named after the seventh chapter of 'The Hobbit' when the characters find reprieve from being chased at a house owned by Bjorn, a bear shapeshifter," Moone says. "He feeds them and protects them and so we very intentionally chose that name for our podcast as an acknowledgement of respite and safety for those who are othered and those who are being attacked for who they are."

Moone's research and their jump into the mythopoeic themes in Tolkien's work began in 2022 when she was invited to the Mythopoeic Society's conference in Alburquerque, New Mexico. There she met their future co-host Alicia and later, co-host Leah and between them, Alicia's idea for the podcast blossomed.

It's important to see ourselves reflected in fiction stories, to see our existence validated and possibly built towards something that's healthier and safer than our current world.

The podcast approaches Tolkien's work through an LGBTQ+ lens as his manuscripts and evidence of who he worked with during his writing and editing process heavily suggest he was an ally to the community, Moone says.

"I recently spent some time poring over a list held in the Marquette archives that archivist Bill Fliss had brought forward which shows the people who Tolkien wanted to receive early copies of his work, and what I found was a majority of these people were women, and often women who didn't fit the gender norms or conformity of their time," Moone says. "He knew a lot of queer people and sometimes critiqued or even gave a rare recommendation to the work of queer people like poet W.H. Auden or author Mary Renault. He also trusted some of his queer contemporaries to be early readers of his work and provide feedback."

In fact, Moone says the podcast gets enough comments on social media about whether Tolkien would like their subject matter that the podcast has a recurring segment cheekily titled "Tolkien Would Hate This Podcast," where they dispel assertions made in comment sections and showcase Tolkien's much kinder feelings as evidenced in his work and life.

It matters, Moone says, that Tolkien based themes in his books off his own real-world experiences and drew from the real world where queer people exist and did in his time, as well.

"One of the things we get all the time is that 'Tolkien was Catholic, so he would hate queer people,'" Moone says. "But I sit here with my perspective at Marquette University and know from the work of R. Richard Wagner and organizations like Expanding Horizons that the Catholic Church was instrumental in passing the first anti-discrimination law in the U.S. that protected LGBTQ+ people in 1982, not very long after Tolkien passed."

She says her time at Marquette and the Jesuit education she has received has helped discern the church's sometimes surprising role in supporting the LGBTQ+ community and how, despite whatever people may say about their community, she knows the church has had a role in walking with them and others who are excluded.

"I have plenty of complicated thoughts about organized religion, especially as a queer person," Moone says. "But the type of Catholic I've seen Marquette create and mold to send into the world doesn't line up with type of online hate we get in the name of Catholicism."

As their work on the podcast has continued, Moone and their co-hosts were able to chair the Mythopoeic Society's 2024 online midwinter seminar titled "Something Mighty Queer: queerness in fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, and other mythopoeic work."

That publication, too, is named after a Tolkien line in "The Fellowship of the Ring."

As fate would have it, during a recent trip to the Tolkien Archives in Raynor Library, Moone saw the publication on a bookshelf included among other prestigious authors distilling Tolkien's work.

With each new episode, Moone says she is reminded of the importance of showcasing the podcast's research and that it is important to the fans who consume their work.

"It matters to see ourselves in fictional worlds," Moone says. "What you see in history is what allows you to imagine your future as well. It's important to see ourselves reflected in fiction stories, to see our existence validated and possibly built towards something that's healthier and safer than our current world. We can build a better future collectively."