Global Gay Nation > Gay Identity - Queer as Volk?
Is Christopher Street turning fuddy-duddy?
Rain:
"She's not a woman, she's a MAN!"
berto:
Rain -- check yer PMs...
Rain:
Okey Doke...
vanrozenheim:
--- Quote from: "berto" ---Thanks for the article, Victor -- I am going to post that elsewhere, and also forward it to several friends.
--- End quote ---
You are welcome. :wink: The article is indeed very interesting, and there are many good shots in it. I enjoyed reading it very much, but while progressing through the text I got certain feeling of uneasiness. I confess that at the end, I disagree with this article's socialist tone and the final intention behind it.
The remarkable thing in this article is that while being superficially very harsh on "Gay assimilationsts," the author's mindstate in reality is not a Gay separatist' one. What he/she basically proposes is that Gays should stop fighting for their specific rights (like equal marriage etc) and instead shall turn towards the reforming of the "entire society" towards the bright socialist future. This article correctly points to several problems, but suggested solutions have more to do with class consciousness and the fight of have-nots against the establishment, than with Gay separatism.
In its way, the article is itself very assimilationist one - it strives to split the rich and influential Gays from the poor Gays, with the intention to unite disadvantaged Gays with disadvantaged straights in a fight for what the author perceives as a better world. Mind you, I do not object to those high goals in the least - I only wish to disclose the applied tactics of abusing the Gay issue for the socialist cause.
This article was written by a person who is very skilled in using language as a tool of manipulation. You can see how he/she segregates the "Gays" (= white, wealthy, male, old/middle-aged) from the "Queers" (= black, latino, female/transgender, young). This is made on purpose - to feed the outrage of the targeted potential clientel against those "wicked establishment Gays" and win supporters for the socialist cause. These vicious tactics are responsible for converting people like Jasmyne Cannick into fervent supporters of what they think is "the black cause" or "the worker cause" and put a blind eye to homophobia - indeed, those "vicious Gays" become their primary enemy.
Need I say that these people are not thinking of "homosexuals" in first line? Marriage equality and the "freedom to serve" does not fit in their agenda of combatting the imperialism and capitalism, thus they readily accept the destruction of lives of many, many Gay people who happen to be in a bi-national relationship or into some military profession. We can contest the institution of marriage and militarism as such, but it should be no question at all that Gays must have the same rights as heterosexuals. We can discuss on whether it makes sense for Gays to marry, but anybody voting in parliament against marriage equality is clearly an enemy of the Gay people. You will be not surprized that German leftists, including the former lesbian and now transgender heterosexual man Christina Schenk did exactly this in German Bundestag back in 2001.
Kyleovision:
Something missing from the analysis of what's happening in the Castro (and elsewhere) is the demographic shift that's actually causing it. Face it, there is a whole generation of people (a huge cohort) that is at its economic peak-- that is. the Baby Boomers.
It's no surprise. They've done the same thing before in other arenas: monopolizing pop culture, etc.
--- Quote ---In college I was taught that gay liberation and class struggle were bound together in the achievement of mutual goals.
--- End quote ---
See, I find that to be an assimilationist attitude in itself. I am not a str8 fruit-picker or coal miner. I'm not a terribly beset Appalachian single mother.
My goals are, therefore, necessarily not coincident with those who are.
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