Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 18:17:33 -0800 (PST) From: Liz Highleyman <liz at black-rose.com>
Donna,
Thanks a lot for your thoughts on this. I've also looked at the writings of Gittlin, Nader and others in the straight left who minimize queer issues -- although in Nader's case, I don't think he was really minimizing queer issues (he had more pro-queer stands on many issues, such as DP and the military, than did Gore), but rather declining to talk about the issues in an identity-focused way.
> And on a more subtle level, the same kind of dynamic works in the
> more grass-roots, street-activist movements as well. When I look at
> queer participation in Seattle, Philadelphia, etc., I often get the
> feeling that we're the Queer Auxiliary of a straight movement. We say
> who we are, but our issues are not in the forefront, and we don't push
> them to the front. Instead we work on supposedly-unfiying
> class/economic issues, and seem to assume that just because we're
> there, we will help to bring about a world where we will not be
> oppressed for being queer. NOT.
I guess my question related to this is just what are "our issues"? Personally, I regard issues like corporate domination and environmental destruction and exploitation of the poor as more "my issue" than same-sex marriage or getting into the military or strengthening the criminal "justice" system with hate crimes laws. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the mainstream GLBT movement is actively working *against* my issues, which would include getting the state out of the business of regulating relationships, and abolishing the military and the prison system as they now exist.
Now, in terms of queer-specific issues, my goals would include sexual and gender liberation, acceptance of a broad range of relationship and sexual choices, ending general societal erotophobia, and social "policing" of gender expression. But I don't really see these as things the mainstream GLBT movement is working on and more than the multi-issue progressive movement. You are right that there are some people -- especially youth -- working toward this type of goal within both the GLBT and the progressive movements. Challenging the sex and gender "system" is a direct challenge to both heterosexuals within the left and mainstream GLBT people (who to a large extent rely on sexual orientation categories remaining stable).
> Long ago, radical feminists posited the idea that
> to organize women, it is necessary to organize around issues that
>are central to
> their oppression as women. That lesson applies to us all, now as
>well as then.
Interestingly, though, there are a lot of women in the the multi-issue "convergence" movement -- I'd put it at about 50/50, with a lot of the "leadership" positions held by women (I know it's officially a "leaderless" movement, but still, women are among the most visible activists). The multi-issue movement doesn't talk a lot about women's identity issues per se, but many women have come to recognize how the issues it's addressing -- poverty, exploitation, environmental degradation, labor issues -- have a disproportionately negative effect on women worldwide. I think they also have a disproportionate effect on queers, so why aren't more queers involved in that fight? Or, perhaps, it will just take some time before non-queer progressive activists learn to honor and respect queer struggles and value queer participation, just as it took 2 decades before women's struggles and issues were widely respected and women valued as equals within the movement.
-Liz
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