This is a guest post by Melissa D’Andrea, fellow Girl Scout Gold Awardee and radical queer organizer. Melissa wrote this in response to some HRC Glamdalism on her Facebook page.
I’m gonna use ‘I’ statements on this one, cuz everyone who’s commented on this status is more than familiar with that model. I am not a part of the “gay community.”
I’m queer, and what I do with my cunt has EVERYTHING to do with what I do with my cash. I am my sexuality, and I am my politics. For me, I cannot and will not separate them. That would be lethal.
MY queer community is anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-genderist, anti-heterosexist, anti-sizeist, anti-capitalist, anti-ableist, pro-immigrant, pro-healthcare, pro-worker, sex positive, against police brutality, the prison and miltary industrial complexes, and the list continues.
My queer community believes that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” for real… It’s not just a quote that would be found on an HRC t-shirt.
In my community, standing up to injustice means standing up to injustice. Regardless of whether the perpetrator is HRC or the Mormon church. I don’t give a fuck about what it looks like to the outside world. The political, middle of the road, half-assed solutions that only benefit the white, the privileged, the cisgendered and cissexual are not and never will be good enough for me.
If you take out gender identity from a bill in order to get the sexual orientation part passed, it’s selling out, it’s not a victory and it’s not a stepping stone. It’s shitting on your neighbor to benefit yourself. I do believe that changing legislation is extremely important, but in what is such a flawed system, I do not support the idea that it is the only solution, nor is it always the most important solution.
Most great social justice movements involved illegal activity, many of them, the stonewall riots (being a very popular one for all LGBT folk) included, involved acts of vandalism. The law is not on the side of the oppressed, the lawmakers tend to be the oppressors.
I am willing, and ready, and have already fought for your right to get married (even though I believe the institution of marriage should be dismantled altogether) because it is your right. I will stand by you if you wish to have the right to join the military. (Even though I would prefer it if beautiful queers stood up and fought back against the killing machine that is the U.S. Military.)
But it is my obligation as a citizen of my queer community to stand side by side with those who publicly challenge the largest organization that claims to be the authority on fighting for LGBT rights, and claims the title “human rights campaign” and in actuality is only fighting to protect the rights of a gay,white, affluent, male,cisgendered,cissexual, American, adult population.
-Melissa D’Andrea, SophisticuntSupremeFemmetacularSisterfriendLoverGrrrl
Melissa at the International No Diet Day BBQ I threw in May
Hi! I’ve recently found this blog & I LOVE it! Thank you for being so Femme FABulous!!
I’m intrigued by the distinction between gay and queer that you’ve made here (the general you, since this is a guest post). I don’t see “queer” as being much, if any, less male-identified than “gay.” I observe a disturbing amount of misogyny and male/masculine privilege in queer communities. I credit feminism specifically (as a method of critical analysis) with giving us the tools to articulate, confront, and deconstruct the wide array of power imbalances that you cite here. I believe that “queer” invisibilizes the debt owed to feminist theory in favor of individualistic explorations of identity that have, sadly, neglected to equally value women/female ways of being. I know there’s a lot of complexity and subjectivity to all I’ve said, but I just wanted to make that comment.
Thanks! I’ll be back to bask in your collective fabulosity. 🙂
I think that a lot of the politicians are actually focusing on giving us equality, rather than just acceptance