Queer Insurrection

thepostgrad: 18mr: Sunday is Asian Pacific Islander HIV...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:49:40 -0700

18mr:

Sunday is Asian Pacific Islander HIV Awareness Day. The numbers about HIV testing in our communities are staggering and telling: APIs are less likely to be tested for any number of reasons (the fact that OB/GYNs are less likely to offer HIV testing to their API patients is pretty concerning), but like everyone else, if we’re sexually active, we can get HIV.

These great posters are from The Banyan Tree Project, a project of API Wellness.

Substance usage also leads to HIV infection as well. Using substances (especially harder ones such as thizz, coke, and the like) can lead to impaired judgment.

Especially with EDC coming up, please drink, drop, and smoke responsibly. Let’s be real—-how many of my API brothers and sisters do I see posting about upcoming summer parties like EDC?

How many of us go to raves, music festivals, or whatever the fuck they’re being called now while tweaking out on some pill? If you’re gonna hide a pill in your socks, you might as well put a condom and some lube in there as well.

Nothing wrong about trying to get some ass while you’re partying. Just be educated and act upon it.

Also, please be real about your shit.

If you’re fucking someone or some people, get tested.
If you’re doing drugs/drinking a lot and want to hook up, get tested.
If you’re about to get into a relationship, get tested.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard API folks gossip about so-and-so fucking this person or that person. Don’t get me started on those Tumblr XPosed blogs getting people’s personal business.

If we can talk shit about each others sex lives, then we’re comfortable enough to talk beautifully about keeping our sex lives healthy.

And shit. Even if you’re a virgin or you haven’t fucked in a while, still get tested.

Learn and remind yourself what it’s like to talk about sex and wait anxiously for that status. Because when you actually start fucking (again), you’ll want to know you can handle an HIV counseling session.

Nothing can change your life more than the 20 minute wait after submitting your sample.

An Open Letter to Felicia Day from Anna Anthropy- Pastebin.com

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:20:43 -0700

An Open Letter to Felicia Day from Anna Anthropy- Pastebin.com:

fyeahqueermusic:

mattachinereview:

TW: suicide, outing

A couple of days ago, a woman game developer attempted suicide on a live video stream following internet harassment related to an Indiegogo campaign for her game. While she lay in the hospital, Destructoid writer Allistair Pinsof, in the interest of clarifying her Indiegogo “scam,” outed her as a transgender woman on his Twitter account.

[…]

Destructoid announced today that they’re docking Pinsof’s pay and putting him on a temporary leave of absence. But not firing him. I couldn’t help but remember when, less than a year ago, Destructoid writer Ryan Perez was fired for comparing you to a “booth babe.”

[…]

Pinsof put this woman’s life in danger in a real way - as she (according to his tweets) lay in a hospital bed following a suicide attempt. He still has a job. The man who called you a booth babe lost his.

you know what to do, tumblr

reblog, signal boost

Please pass along to as many people as possible.

"You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 05:31:24 -0700

“You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple the unemployment isn’t interested in purchasing the assets of the generation who just blew an enormous housing bubble and kept it from popping through quantitative easing and out-and-out federal support? Curious.”

- When comments are better than the article, Atlantic edition (“The Cheapest Generation: Why Millennials arent’ buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy”)

Every time someone says we’re a lazy and entitled generation I’m going to show them this

They should be happy most of us haven’t moved to the moon yet

That actually sounds like a good idea at this point

(via setfabulazerstomaximumcaptain)

doctorqueer: torn1990: MtF: How To Goto The Bathroom (by Aaron...

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:18:33 -0700

doctorqueer:

torn1990:

MtF: How To Goto The Bathroom (by Aaron Klein)

How to shit and piss like a trans person.

Gorgeous poem by Ari

Smash the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy: ttssgg: “Ethnic” whites are still white. White Jews are still white....

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:27:06 -0700

Smash the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy: ttssgg: “Ethnic” whites are still white. White Jews are still white....:

shaveyerpitz:

iamdianamai:

ttssgg:

“Ethnic” whites are still white. White Jews are still white. So are white muslims. White privilege is white privilege is white privilege. You can experience anti-Semitism or xenophobia or religious persecution and still be white. Remember intersectionality? You can be a non-American, but if you read as white to Americans, congratulations, you have white privilege. If you come from a country where you perceive race differently than in the US, or you are considered an ethnic minority there, or you don’t personally ID as “white,” that doesn’t change the privileges that come with how you are perceived in the U.S. Like it or not, you are excluded from or consumed into whiteness based on things that have little to do with your own personal racial identification or cultural heritage. That’s how whiteness operates. It consolidates its power by stretching to contain as many disparate people as possible, to make itself a false majority, and then it makes membership so attractive and otherness so abhorrant that the power structure upholds itself.

“That’s how whiteness operates. It consolidates its power by stretching to contain as many disparate people as possible, to make itself a false majority, and then it makes membership so attractive and otherness so abhorrant that the power structure upholds itself.”

(emphasis mine)

a few boys in town definitely need to try to understand this concept better.

crackerhell: haraamzadi: this is the best thing i’ve seen all...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:15:09 -0700

crackerhell:

haraamzadi:

this is the best thing i’ve seen all day.

lord jesus the burn

thepeoplesrecord: Undocumented youth infiltrates another...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:13:15 -0700

thepeoplesrecord:

Undocumented youth infiltrates another immigration detention center: Read what she discovered
April 19, 2013

When I spoke with Claudia Muñoz two weeks ago, she said she was tired of fearing the moment when authorities might arbitrarily place her in detention. Because she arrived in Texas from Mexico at the age of 16, the 27-year-old is ineligible for Obama’s deferred action for students—and that means it might be easier for her to be deported. So Muñoz decided to take the matter into her own hands, and infiltrate a detention facility. “I’m the one who’s going to determine the moment when I’m detained, and the moment when I’m released,” she said.

Muñoz was apprehended a week-and-a-half ago by customs agents near the US-Canada border, and has been working to document the stories of immigrant women housed at the Calhoun County Correctional Facility near Detroit, Michigan. She works with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), which has infiltrated detention centers in the past with the aim of organizing with detainees on the inside. The facility holds just thirteen undocumented women—among non-immigrant inmates held for more serious charges.

Since her detention, Muñoz has managed to call me collect several times to explain what she’s found. Each of those collect calls costs $9.99—paid to a private contractor that specializes in jailhouse communications services—and ends at exactly five minutes, with several precious seconds lost in the one-minute warning message. Muñoz says she was prepared for the rather deplorable conditions: it’s often cold, and the food is often inedible, so inmates and detainees go hungry.

What she didn’t expect were the daily lockdowns. Two or three times daily, immigrant detainees and inmates accused of varying crimes are locked into cells for a few hours at a time. Early on, Muñoz says her cellmate explained the solicitation charges she was facing, and asked her why she was in. When Muñoz told her it was because she didn’t have papers, her cellmate didn’t seem to get it. “But what did you do?” she questioned. Muñoz says she had to explain that simply being undocumented has landed her in jail.

Since her arrival at Calhoun, she’s been in contact with NIYA, which last week highlighted the imminent removal of Everlida Calvo Sanchez—a woman who is the primary caretaker of three children who feared being deported to Guatemala, where her own sister was murdered just two years ago. Although she was set to be deported last Friday, immigration authorities opted to allow her stay after a barrage of phone calls and petition emails demanded a halt to her deportation.

Now, NIYA is focused on more cases. Wanda Rivas Rivas was detained after a traffic stop for a broken taillight revealed she had an expired driver’s license. Rivas does have an old deportation order, but fears returning to El Salvador because of extreme violence there. Members of her entire family in the US have temporary protected status to shield them from such a circumstance.

Muñoz met Gustavo Vargas when she was first detained, and although the two are now housed in a separate facility, NIYA is brining attention to his case. Vargas, a local entrepreneur and the father to four US citizen children, was deported more than a dozen years ago but returned in order to take care of his family. The group hopes that phone calls and petition emails will make immigration authorities reconsider all of these cases.

Muñoz has had little face-to-face contact with the outside world—undocumented immigrants are not allowed to visit her in jail. But a visit from Steve Pavey changed that last week. Pavey, an applied anthropologist who works with the One Horizon Institute, become involved with undocumented youth in 2010 during a bus ride with some seventy undocumented youth from Kentucky to Washington, DC.

Pavey says he was surprised when he saw the jail—which he says looks more like a corporate business office complex than anything else. Once inside, Pavey and Muñoz shared horrific stories about women in detention. At Calhoun, nine of the thirteen women there have children under the age of ten at home. But Pavey says that what might seem like the last stop before deportation has changed with Muñoz’s presence. After Calvo Sanchez was released last week, women began to have hope about making their stories public. “Claudia Muñoz has come in on her own will, in one sense,” explains Pavey. “And that’s shining hope for other women in that space in the midst of the awful despair of family separation.”

Activists are now calling for an immediate investigation into Michigan Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Director Rebecca Adducci, and corrections officer J. Jolin, who acts as an ICE liaison. They say Adducci has willfully ignored federal directives to release those detainees with low-priority cases. Jolin, meanwhile, is a local deputy who Muñoz says has verbally harassed detainees—including threatening long prison sentences for those who don’t sign voluntary departure agreements. Jolin is also married to the federal deportation officer in charge at the jail, which may signal a conflict of interest.

Despite the conditions as she approaches two weeks into her detention, Muñoz says she’s doing fine, and it’s the other women and men being unfairly held that worry her the most.

Source

Pictured: Claudia Muñoz at a news conference on the DREAM Act.

"So we must not refer a history of sexuality to the agency of sex; but rather show how ‘sex’ is..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:05:28 -0700

“So we must not refer a history of sexuality to the agency of sex; but rather show how ‘sex’ is historically subordinate to sexuality. We must not place sex on the side of reality, and sexuality on that of confused ideas and illusions; sexuality is a very real historical formation; it is what gave rise to the notion of sex, as a speculative element necessary to its operation. We must not think that by saying yes to sex, one says no to power; on the contrary, one tracks along the course laid out by the general deployment of sexuality. It is the agency of sex that we must break away from, if we aim - through a tactical reversal of the various mechanisms of sexuality - to counter the grips of power with the claims of bodies, pleasures, and knowledges, in their multiplicity and their possibility of resistance. The rallying point for the counterattack against the deployment of sexuality ought not to be sex-desire, but bodies and pleasures.”

- Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 (via omensetters)

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD

(via adornoble)

socialismartnature: Yesterday, at 7:05pm Eastern Time, Boston...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:59:28 -0700

socialismartnature:

Yesterday, at 7:05pm Eastern Time, Boston Police received a report that suspected terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding in a boat in Watertown.

At 7:15pm, a drone was heard overheard. Seconds later, an enormous explosion destroyed the boat, as well as 10 nearby homes.

Sources say 46 Watertown residents were casualties of the missile strike, including 7 children.

…

Wouldn’t that be an unconscionable end to this ordeal?

If so, then why are we okay with us doing this in Pakistan?

And if you’re not okay with us doing that, then you don’t get to wave an American flag and chant “USA USA!” when we catch a terrorist.

Why? Because that same flag is painted on the side of the missiles we use to commit our own acts of terror.

[tw: VIOLENCE] i am a young pakistani-american muslim woman living in boston

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 03:06:57 -0700

haraamzadi:

and for the next god-knows-how-long i am going to have to be terrified of both the person/people who committed an act of terror in my city AND the very people who are ‘sworn’ to protect me (who i already have reason to be scared of). i’m not saying this to bitch. i’m saying this to put something into perspective.

the mythical “saudi national” rumor has branched out into hundreds of sub-rumors now, while the boston PD denies having even taken in anyone as a witness or otherwise yesterday.

all i know are two things:

1. the person/people who committed yesterday’s act of terror is/are still out there

2. if i don’t make a point of ‘laying low’ (eg, wearing sunglasses, long sleeves that cover my the skin on my arms, avoiding eye contact with people, by NO means wearing ANYTHING ‘too muslim-ish’), i am inherently at risk of being jumped (my uncle was attacked and had his nose broken on the street in new york after 9/11), harassed (i’ve already been called ‘taliban’ & other slurs on the street in boston before), or sexually assaulted. even if i do take ‘precautions’ there is still a higher risk of this happening now.

people are calling for mass-deportation, mass-detainment, concentration camps. this is not the first time in my life this has happened. the first time, i was 9. it is just as terrifying now as it was then.

i do not even wear hijab. and i am afraid for my life.

essentially what i am saying is if you are not making sure you are prepared to stick up for & protect your muslim brown friends, you’re doing something wrong.

On the Boston Bombings and Drone Strikes

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 03:05:27 -0700

On the Boston Bombings and Drone Strikes:

atriptothemorg:

First of all, my heart goes out to all the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing. I am so, so grateful that my family and friends are safe. I can only imagine the fear and a deep-seated apprehension that must have settled all over the city. I’m not sure what I would have done if I was still in Boston. But I do know that I would be writing.

Writing helps me sort through my thoughts and bring order to my mind. I’ve had a lot of emotions running through me the past few days. Fear that my family had been hurt. Worry that more attacks my come. And yet I am not surprised. This type of violence is common in many parts of the world. US imperialism is constantly waging war against Third World people. This state of fear is common place in areas like Pakistan, Palestine and Yemen. To me, this seems like another manifestation of imperialist violence. Another bomb in a long line of bombs stretching back to Columbus.

There has been such an outpouring of love and support for Boston and the victims of the bombing. It is amazing to see the bravery of those folks who witness the disaster first hand and do what they can to help. All over my Facebook and Tumblr, as well as in person, I have seen people express deep sympathy and solidarity with Boston. I have seen so much rage at the people who did this. But I wonder, where is all of this rage and love and solidarity for the victims of drone strikes in places like Pakistan and Yemen? Where is the outcry for the dead innocents aboard?

And I wonder if that 8 year old boy had been Black, would he have been as mourned as he is now?

Of course, I already know the answer to these questions. Its natural to react more strongly to things that happen closer to you. It is easier to dehumanize that which you will never see or interact with. And our culture of systemic white ignorance keeps most people from realizing what is happening or even caring. But this does not make the reality any less disheartening.

And I worry about what sort of racist backlash we are in store for. Already, aSaudi studentwas accused of being a suspect by the media, when in actually he was injured by the blast. Two men were taken off of a plane because they spoke “Arabic“. A“be on the lookout”alert has gone out for a “tall, dark-skinned man wearing a black hoodie and a black backpack”, which is probably the vaguest, and most lethal, description ever. I have many friends who fit this description but none of them are, of course, involved But that is not going to matter. What is going to matter is the racialized panic that is going to envelop Boston and make like much, much harder for brown folks, especially folks who “look” Muslim.

Already I am seeing on my Facebook patriotic calls for revenge. And that scares me more than anything because that patriotism is under girded by white supremacy and imperialism. And patriots rarely care if their victims were actually responsible for the crimes that they are accused of.

I also wonder how this will affect victims of domestic violence. Almost always, disasters put victims of DV at greater risk.

I don’t say this to minimize the pain or the suffering or the fear that is going on in Boston right now. Rather, I encourage us to hold all of these truths together. I encourage us to stand in solidarity with all victims of violence and understand the ways in which we are complicit in imperial violence here and abroad. I ask that you remember theprisoners in Guantanamo Bay and thevictims of drone strikes. I ask that my friends in Boston, and elsewhere, resist the urge to buy into the panic that the media will be selling us.

Most importantly, take care of yourself. Take care of each other. If you feel like this stuff is getting to you, reach out. There is a Disaster Distress Helplinethat can help you through this. It is times like these that really show the mettle of our character. I would hope that we can act out of compassion rather than fear.

thatsucia: notyrcisterpress: We’re veryyyyyyy excited to...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:00:50 -0700

thatsucia:

notyrcisterpress:

We’re veryyyyyyy excited to distribute “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle,” published by our friends at Untorelli Press.

Click here to check it out!
[Read][Imposed]

hooray train reading!

fantastic.

"Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:46:24 -0700

“Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be talked about in mainstream news, the rap that gets in national news is always the rap music that perpetuates misogyny that is most obscene in its lyrics and then this comes to stand for what rap is. Really its for me the perfect paradigm of colonialism, that is to say, we think of rap music as a little third-world country, that young white consumers are able to go to and take out of it whatever they want. We would have to acknowledge that what young white consumers, primarily male, oftentimes suburban, most got energized by in rap music was misogyny, obscenity, pugilistic eroticism and therefore that form of rap began to make the largest sums of money.”

- bell hooks, cultural criticism — rap: authentic expression or market construct?

BAM. there it is.

(via tahlalaliaaa)

I think that's cool that your blog got referenced in an academic course, but I also think that it's kind of awful that an instructor used your writing without getting your permission.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:01:01 -0700

True. If I wanted intellectual credit, I would have signed the piece and/or had a more personal blog with my personal identity associated with it though. It’s strange how this blog turned in to something of a project. It was completely unintentional (the beginnings of this blog are incredibly personal, but I’ve removed much of that content once I wrote that essay because all of a sudden strangers were reading my blog). I haven’t written extensively for this blog in a long time because I’ve been paralyzed—I don’t quite know my audience anymore so I don’t know how to write for it.

tldr: this blog is rather anonymous for reasons unintended. So I don’t feel bad that my work is shared and used freely. <3

HRC, You STILL Have A Problem

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:58:43 -0700

HRC, You STILL Have A Problem

I was sitting in my college's required English Major class, when my professor passed out an article to enhance our discussion/readings of critical queer theory. title read 'Dear HRC/liberal gay agenda/ Courage Campaign:' ur URL was at the top. realizing tht my prof was referencing a concrete, narrative--from Tumblr, in class, my heart jumped to my throat. Some girl was like, 'I dn't like the use of the F-bomb' and my prof was like, 'oh, I love a good couple of f bombs' my day had been made.

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:42:39 -0700

!!!! Wow, this is incredibly flattering. I am glad that the essay continues to have pedagogical utility!

Black Unemployment Driven By White America's Favors For Friends

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:17:51 -0700

Black Unemployment Driven By White America's Favors For Friends:

so-treu:

There’s a comforting-to-white-people fiction about racism and racial inequality in the United States today: They’re caused by a small, recalcitrant group who cling to their egregiously inaccurate beliefs in the moral, intellectual and economic superiority of white people.

The reality: racism and racial inequality aren’t just supported by old ideas, unfounded group esteem or intentional efforts to mistreat others, said Nancy DiTomaso, author of the new book,The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality Without Racism. They’re also based on privilege, she said — how it is shared, how opportunities are hoarded and how most white Americans think their career and economic advantages have been entirely earned, not passed down or parceled out.

The way that whites, often unconsciously, hoard and distribute advantage inside their almost all white networks of family and friends is one of the driving reasons that in Februaryjust 6.8 percent of white workersremained unemployed while 13.8 percent of black workers and 9.6 percent of Hispanic workers were unable to find jobs, DiTomaso said.

This week, the professor of organization management at Rutgers University and her ideas have captured the attention of the business press. There was ablog about her book in The Wall Street Journalanda story in Bloomberg Businessweek. DiTomaso, who is white, has gathered evidence that racism and inequality actively shape the labor market and make it far harder for black workers to find jobs.

“Across all three states where I did my research, I heard over and over again [white] people admitting that they don’t interact very often with nonwhites, not at work, not at home or otherwise,” said DiTomaso about the 246 interviews with working-class and middle-class whites she did over the course of about a decade in Tennessee, Ohio and New Jersey. Her research included detailed job histories and information about the way her study participants obtained jobs over the course of their careers.

“That was true for just about everybody unless they were still in college,” DiTomaso continued. “Others would allude to some college friend or experience. But since then, they had not had much contact with blacks. So how would they pass opportunities and information across race lines?”

DiTomaso concludes, based on her research, that most white Americans engage, at least a few times per year, in the activities that foster inequality. While they may not deliberately discriminate against black and other non-white job seekers, they take actions that make it more likely that white people will be employed — without thinking that what they’re doing amounts to discrimination.

“The vast majority assumed everyone has the same opportunities, and they just somehow tried harder, were smarter,” DiTomaso said of those she interviewed. “Not seeing how whites help other whites as the primary way that inequality gets reproduced today is very helpful. It’s easy on the mind.”

So white Americans tell a neighbor’s son about a job, hire a friend’s daughter, carry the resume of a friend (or, for that matter, a friend’s boyfriend’s sister) into the boss’s office, recommend an old school mate or co-worker for an unadvertised opening, or just say great things about that job applicant whom they happen to know. But since most Americans, white and black, live virtually segregated lives, and since advantages, privileges and economic progress have already accrued in favor of whites, the additional advantages that flow from this help go almost exclusively to whites, DiTomaso said.

……..

It’s not that black workers don’t attempt the same sort of job assists within their own networks, said Deirdre Royster, an economic sociologist at New York University and author ofRace and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men From Blue Collar Jobs.

African Americans ask neighbors, significant others, the significant others of neighbors, relatives and friends about open jobs, too. But since black unemployment rates were far higher than white rates before, during and after the recession, the number of people in a typical black social network who are in a position to help is far more limited.

According to Royster, there’s an additional twist: When blacks are aware of a job, they describe the job, the boss, the company and its preferences and needs. Then they follow up with a warning.

“They give the person looking for a job all sorts of information and then they say, ‘But don’t tell them I sent you,’” said Royster.

Black workers are aware of something that researchers are still trying to explain: White bosses often worry, lack of statistical evidence aside, that black workers are more likely to sue them or band together in the workplace and try to change things, Royster said. That seems all the more likely if the black workers already know one another, she said. And many white hiring managers still assume, consciously or unconsciously, that black workers bring undesirable workplace habits and qualities, Royster said.

Indeed, a 2003 study by Devah Pager, now a Princeton University sociologist, found that white men with criminal records were more likely to get callbacks for job interviews than black men with the same qualifications and no criminal history.

boldness added.

KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS is a documentary on drag...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:48:10 -0700

KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS is a documentary on drag queens, kings, transgender performers, and the issue of gender expression.

This amazing community focused film is in its final phase of production and we need help! Please share and donate if you can.

Please signal boost this project as well!

clever title tba

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 02:48:57 -0700

clever title tba:

agnesgalore:

It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that, though I didn’t think about this at the time, I probably started a blog because I need somewhere to vent my boundless rage that is not random people’s Facebook walls. I mean, one thing among the many thousands of things that are guaranteed to raise my blood pressure is when folks get all “the internet isn’t real, and it’s not a viable platform for communication,” but also like, Facebook fights are dumb, I’m supposed to be an adult now.

So here’s the thing that got me all het up this week: gay marriage.

Specifically, these goddamn things:

I guess I should start off by saying that I support gay marriage, insofar as I think people who want to get married should be able to, and I recognize that the ability to do so will make lots of folks happy and feel empowered, and that’s a good thing. I also think the phrase “marriage equality” is, at best, a gross misunderstanding of how marriage as a legal institution functions, in that it is not and has never been an institution that has anything to do with equality. It is about extending certain legal protections to a specific class of people and not to others. That that class might be federally expanded really, really is not the same thing as equality, and I wish people would recognize that*.

So I know that when I look at my facebook wall and I see fifteen little “equals” signs, I’m supposed to feel happy. I’m supposed to pat my liberal friend group collectively on the back and feel good about the progress that society is making. I’m supposed to be grateful that after all the years of hard work and all the billions of dollars spent on the gay marriage campaign, America is finally coming around.

But I actually feel sad and more than a little angry. Okay, a lot angry. Folks, the HRC is an organization run by rich white men. They have consistently chosen not to support trans rights. They have consistently silenced POC organizations and organizers. They have accepted donations from, and even honored, multi-billionaire corporations who have done more than their fair share to contribute to the unequal distribution of wealth and to systematic racialized and gendered oppression in the US. Their vision of “equality”—as obviously signaled by their logo—is not, and never has been, equality for all. It is equality for those who can afford it. It’s equality for those who can prove they are “just like everyone else,” who respect and embody gender normativity, middle class sensibility, and white supremacy. It’s equality for those who don’t care about coalitional politics, and who endorse both trickle down economics and trickle down civil rights.

So when I see a cascade of HRC logos as far as I can see, and then a ton of self-congratulatory back-patting on the internet, like way to go, internet America! You’ve seen the light! You’re finally making progress! I think about all the queer people of color, and the trans and genderqueer people, who are being told in no uncertain terms: your rights mean less than ours. Your alienation means less than our visibility. We’ll come back for you later. Wait your turn. Which, hmm, sounds like the same song that’s been sung ever since the HRC, and organizations like the HRC, essentially co-opted the possibility of a radical queer social movement and turned it into a mainstream machine for maintaining the status quo.

Think of it this way: much of the Civil Rights legislation, having to do with fair housing, fair employment, fair education, etc., have been subjected to massive roll-back since the 60s. Most of that legislation—legislation that offered hope for actual structural change—has been de-fanged, done away with or abolished. Still around: the aftermath of Loving v. Virginia, which abolished laws against interracial marriage. (In fact, that case is often used as a rallying cry for the HRC and marriage rights advocates, which, don’t even get me fucking started.) Sure, black/white couples can get married; in the meantime, the conditions that most Latino and Black people are living in today have only gotten worse. Exponentially worse, in fact. Maybe that should tell you something about the possibility for social change “marriage equality” actually offers.

In all my various Facebook fights with people this week, I never once asked anyone why they chose to use the HRC logo. And I was called out more than once for doing so: “But you didn’t even bother to ask me why I did this! How can you attack me when you don’t know my intentions?”

Um, because I don’t fucking care about your intentions. Listen, either you know nothing about the HRC and you posted the photo without bothering to ask any questions about what actual cause you were supporting: disturbing. Or you actually do know about the HRC, and its policies, and you posted the photo anyway: more disturbing. Either way, the net effect is the same: the alignment between the HRC and the “gay rights” movement is solidified, attention and funding is directed towards the HRC and away from organizations that actually support coalitional politics, and yes, one more step is taken—away from the possibility of actual social change for those populations (undocumented immigrants, transgendered youth, the thousands of black and Latino men targeted daily by the prison industrial complex, for instance) that are actually in material need.

Some of my dearest friends have the HRC logo up right now (including many people of color, because we should all know by now, you don’t need to be white to support white supremacy). I don’t know what to say to them, so I’ve been picking my fights with marginal people in my life. I don’t always want to be that insane girl picking fights on Facebook. But I don’t know how to combat an attitude that is not only flabbergastingly widespread, but also bolstered by liberal, well-meaning attitudes. What to say to the many straight white people (or queer white people, or queer poc), who just want to lend a hand? Express their support? Be a visible ally?

I guess what I should say is that to be an irresponsible ally is not to be an ally at all. Blind, feel good liberal support of “do good” organizations without bothering to ask questions about what such organizations do has perpetuated the spread of white supremacy and exploitative capitalism around the globe (Kony 2012, anyone?). To change your profile photo to the HRC logo and then feel good about contributing to a tidal wave of social change is, as Jack Halberstam recently put it, to confuse social justice with the reaffirmation of social norms.

And I don’t feel good about it. I feel worse every day, and farther away from the possibility that the gay rights movement will ever amount to more than merely conferring even more privilege to those who already have it, and thus widening the gap between those with social power and those without. Which is exactly, by the way, how the folks running the HRC like it.

*Better writers than me have written better essays than this one on why marriage as an institution, in general, is not about equality, does more social harm than social good, is at its very foundations racist and misogynist, and sucks for everyone. Start here and here if this is a claim that confuses you. And then like, I don’t know, read the whole oeuvre of feminist and queer theory. And critical ethnic studies.

PS: HuffPo’s new article on the HRC is better sourced than mine on the various ills and wrongdoings of the organization.

anarcho-queer: While the head honchos at the HRC are making 6...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:14:35 -0700

anarcho-queer:

While the head honchos at the HRC are making 6 figure salaries from donations to support ‘marriage equality’, hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ youth are homeless and are purposely ignored by mainstream gay organizations. The ‘fight’ for same sex marriage has proven to be a profitable business for gay ‘non-profit’ businesses, so it’s no wonder why gay marriage overshadows all other LGBTQ issues. After all, helping the needy results in smaller pay.

Supporting gay marriage doesn’t mean you support the queer struggle. In fact, most ‘allies’ and even a large portion of more fortunate queers don’t know the facts about LGBTQ homelessness, violence against trans* people, high unemployment, discrimination, etc, nor do they bother to research it. They are just concerned about their favorite gay celebrities being able to tie the knot.

If you care about the queer struggle, take a minute of your day to familiarize yourself with some of the disturbing statistics:

20- 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ. In comparison, the general youth population is only 3-10% LGBTQ.

LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to experience sexual abuse before the age of 12.

LGBTQ youth, once homeless, are at higher risk for victimization, mental health problems, and unsafe sexual practices. 58.7% of LGBTQ homeless youth have been sexually victimized compared to 33.4% of heterosexual homeless youth

LGBTQ youth are roughly 7.4 times more likely to experience acts of sexual violence than heterosexual homeless youth

LGBTQ homeless youth commit suicide at higher rates (62%) than heterosexual homeless youth (29%)

At least 20% of ALL transgender people will be homeless sometime in their life.

29% of transgender people reported being turned away from a homeless shelter due to their transgender status.

Please consider taking action to help combat LGBTQ homelessness. I suggest making a donation to the Ali Forney Center or volunteering at your local LGBTQ homeless shelter.

P.S. Fuck the HRC!