Remember 1969? It Wasn't A T-Shirt...

By Tim Murphy

"We're like everyone else." I have heard this more times than should be legal from the 'leaders' of the 'gay and lesbian movement'.

The problem is, for many 'community' members, this is true. Whether it is strategy conducive to liberation is another matter.

In my discussions with gay activists, themes recur. These radicals call for same-sex marriage, the right to jointly adopt children, coverage of same-sex partners for benefits and so on.

Nice, middle-class goals. If it were true that such would lead to the disintegration of society as 'we' know it, I'd be on the front lines!

As I said to someone who held gay matrimony was revolutionary, if you want to get married, move to a house with a white picket fence, have a dog and 2.4 children, then, I'm sorry, but you are NOT radical. That is one model of how a heterosexual's existence is led (and, I might add, an increasingly minority one).

As to the benefits thing - now, colour me Red, but shouldn't a more laudable goal be to extend benefits to everyone, instead of 'fuck you, Jack/Jacqueline, because I got mine'? I don't believe that gays are more left-wing than average, but, if you want to pretend it is so, you should be consistent.

Expound one's views on such issues, however, and charges of 'internalized homophobia' shower down upon one.

I was asked to sign a petition for same-sex marriage. When I explained I could not, out came accusations of not being a good activist (from someone who opposed ads for a group we were working with, 'lest it attract bashers and 'weirdos'...way to forge links, sister...) and letting down 'the side'.

When did I sign up for a side? I know where I stand on working-class struggle, but gay culture is too contradictory to be doctrinaire.

I want to see who hits the ball out of the park or makes the park a better place before I make a choice. I don't enter into contracts with teams, because I'd rather not be on the bench when we could storm the field.

I will not sign an ANTI-same-sex-marriage petition either, because I know who puts THAT stuff out - the likes of Fred Phelps (go to heaven, man) or Randall Terry of Operation Rescue (who can accept that his anti-choice pickets might lead to a mother's death due to worker distraction or stress - how pro-life of you, darling...).

I support the right to get married, just as I defend bourgeois gays from homophobia, but only in a critical way. I can't celebrate or see it as a means to liberation.

I'm sure happy marriages exist (I know two guys who have a good, illegal one), but it's not a goal I would have pursued if I were straight - why would I because I'm queer?

This notion that there IS a distinct gay culture that 'we' create, enjoy and benefit from puzzles and irks me. I cringe when I see Pride fridge magnets, Pride dog collars and banners like '(Beer Brand) says be proud!' If you say so, corporation...

One is entitled to feel excluded when one relates one's taste in music, books, etc., not to mention views on queer liberation, body image, etc., and gets rejected. One may absent oneself when Pride events are held at bars, where one is to drink, risk cancer and dance to bad music, and, when suggesting alternatives, being told that's where gays go (I go wherever the fuck I want, to quote Mecca Normal) or it's only one who feels so (solidarity!). One is justified in calling for leadership's resignation when one proposes links to others against the status quo and is accused of 'diluting the cause' or being 'assimilationist' (one may laugh, given their Coke-sponsored sucking up to business, but they are serious...).

I've talked to folks who feel similarly, but they will not say these things, because they cling to belonging. I don't want to be a full-time exile, but I don't care for ulcers.

If I'd looked to the collective gay community for support (of course I met individual good people) instead of in politics and friendly straight outcasts, I'd have been a statistic, because my cultural encounters made me feel bad. Now that I have 'tenure', I'm still wary.

I want to tell youth who ask how to fit into gay culture: 'DON'T!' One presents arbiters with people who don't look to bars as cultural centers or match the dominant discourse, and one is told they are closeted (I heard someone say this to a drag queen I know who has been told that she cannot lipsynch to Joan Jett or L7 at drag shows, as that's 'not what the clientele like' - I guess her money isn't good there...shouldn't everyone have an equal right to support capitalism? *sarcasm*). Perhaps such individuals don't care for the storage space of gay society's closet, and would rather kick down the back wall to let light in.

The wearying message of Pride is to fete commodity and Miss Mammon. It's true that there are queens, Bears, nudists and the like - but they drink Molson, eat Pizza Pizza and buy official Pride T-shirts - and, despite the fact that, in the queens' case, they are responsible for this commercial space's availability (rebellion pops, capitalism bottles it - that's why punks are only a threat when they step out of place - the banks LIKE packaged dissent...), there is a sneer from the 'nice' queers (back at ya, 'normal' babes!).

To me, the 'normal people' ARE the Bears, queens, leathermen and nudists, who have some life, defiance and wit, even if they've been commodified by the Pied Piper of Penny Power to an extent.

I may be naive - but I'd rather be that than Kweer Kapitalism's fuck-buddy who thinks he can use the Master's sex toys to dismantle the Master's house, to paraphrase Audre Lorde.

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