This essay first appeared on Cliterati on May 5th; I have modified it slightly for time references and to fit the format of this blog.
In “Under the Bus” I discussed the way in which politicians are all too willing to sacrifice the rights of minority groups (especially already-marginalized ones like sex workers) in order to broker some political deal. When the stakes are extremely high, this can perhaps be understood if not forgiven; at least the sacrifice of the few won some important victory for the many. But the ugly truth about the modern gay rights movement is that it now regularly throws marginalized subgroups under the bus to win minor victories for the majority. As one activist recently pointed out on Twitter, “More LGBT people will get jailed under anti-#prostitution laws than will ever want to marry. Gay Inc tells them: Go rot.” I think it’s safe to say the same thing about the military: more LGBT people (especially transgenders) are sex workers than soldiers, but one would never know it from the comparative amount of noise mainstream gay activists make about the issue. Furthermore, I’ve seen others complain that “Gay, Inc” is trying to ignore HIV patients and to cut the “T” off of “LGBT”. The reason for all of this bus-throwing is the same; as I explained in “Chauvinism”,
…Gay rights was for a very long time an uphill battle, especially in the pathologically-prudish United States. Yet in the past few years, opposition to the cause has quickly withered and died with astonishing speed…If one insists that the cause of opposition to gay rights is “homophobia”, in other words a particular aversion to homosexuals, the rapid turn of the tide makes no sense whatsoever. But when one realizes that the same hatred is dispensed to anyone who is outside the norm, the reason for the change becomes clear…While gay people were chanting “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it”, progress was achingly slow. But once they started to stress how little different they were from heterosexuals – “Look, we even want to get married and form families like you do, see?” – opposition to granting them rights rapidly dissolved. Once the majority came to see gay people as sufficiently “normal”, their chauvinism was no longer an issue…
Because sex workers and transgenders are more easily “othered” than nice, “normal” gay folks who want to live in the suburbs, join the country club and adopt kids, our concerns had to be crammed back into the closet lest we upset the status quo – despite the fact that drag and transgender sex workers were the chief agitators at the Stonewall riots, the birth of the gay rights movement. As Wikipedia explains,
The Stonewall Inn…was known to be popular with the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn…Tensions…erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, [Greenwich] Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested…Within six months, two gay activist organizations were formed in New York…and three newspapers were established to promote rights…Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the U.S. and the world. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place…commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June…
San Francisco quickly became a center of the gay rights movement, and the San Francisco pride parade the largest and most elaborate gay community event in North America (it became “lesbian and gay” in 1981 and “LGBT” in 1995). Attendance is now estimated at over a million people each year, and in 1997 the parade began to attract lucrative corporate sponsorship as gay rights became a mainstream issue. The parade, and gay rights in general, has become big business, and mainstream gays (the term “queer” hardly seems appropriate any longer) now seem to think of those of us who challenge the establishment as crazy relatives to be shut in the attic and Not Talked About. So I wasn’t too surprised to see this Glenn Greenwald column at the end of April:
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning, widely known to be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued, the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be read to be believed. Williams proclaimed that “Manning will not be a grand marshal in this year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” and termed his selection “a mistake”. She blamed it all on a “staff person” who prematurely made the announcement based on a preliminary vote, and she assures us all that the culprit “has been disciplined”: disciplined. She then accuses Manning of “actions which placed in harms way [sic] the lives of our men and women in uniform”: a substance-free falsehood originally spread by top US military officials which has since been decisively and extensively debunked, even by some government officials (indeed, it’s the US government itself, not Manning, that is guilty of “actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform”). And then, in my favorite part of her statement, Williams decreed to all organization members that “even the hint of support” for Manning’s actions – even the hint – “will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco Pride”. Will not be tolerated.
Greenwald enumerates at length the evils committed by the aforementioned corporate sponsors, but for our purposes it’s this bit that’s important:
…at the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, once an iconic symbol of cultural dissent and disregard for stifling pieties, nothing can happen that might offend AT&T and the Bank of America. The minute something even a bit deviant takes place…even the SF Gay Pride Parade must scamper, capitulate, apologize, and take an oath of fealty to their orthodoxies (we adore the military, the state, and your laws). And, as usual, the largest corporate factions are completely exempt from the strictures and standards applied to the marginalized and powerless. Thus, while Bradley Manning is persona non grata…illegal eavesdropping telecoms, scheming banks, and hedge-fund purveryors of the…worst right-wing agitprop are more than welcome…when I wrote several weeks ago about the remarkable shift in public opinion on gay equality, I noted that this development is less significant than it seems because the cause of gay equality poses no real threat to elite factions or to how political and economic power in the US are distributed. If anything, it bolsters those power structures because it completely and harmlessly assimilates a previously excluded group into existing institutions and thus incentivizes them to accommodate those institutions and adopt their mindset…
In short, sex workers and those members of the queer community who either can’t or won’t be assimilated into the fascist Borg can forget about getting any help or support from mainstream gay organizations, because it won’t be forthcoming. Over two years ago I wrote, “Sex worker advocates need to concentrate on OUR rights and stop wasting our time, money and energy on…causes…[with] millions of dollars, scores of celebrity advocates, hundreds of legislators and many thousands of low-level activists behind them…” That’s even more true now that our former allies have sold us down the river; like those outcasts who (44 years ago today) refused to submit quietly to police, we need to show the Powers That Be that we will no longer tolerate institutionalized persecution merely because we make loudmouthed, pearl-clutching prudes uncomfortable.
Giving up one’s marginal wildness, and uniqueness has long been a price for tolerance by the masses. Various religious,(Yes, Mormons, I’m looking at you), ethnic and racial groups have done it in the past, and it’s no surprise to see gays and lesbians paying the same admission ticket to the rights of the mainstream.
I’ve always been a marginal member of the GLBT community, as I’m bi, I can’t really be trusted.
But while it’s no surprise, it’s a bit sad.
And your point about corporate backing is no small point. If tomorrow, the capitalists thought whores to be a large customer base, or if they could franchise bordellos like McDonalds, all laws against sex work and opposition would melt away. and celebrity crusaders against trafficking would change tune and become cheerleaders for commercial sex.
And maybe that’s what it will take. Almost all other parts of life have been commercialized. I hope not.
Well there is ample precedent that sex work could easily be franchised: in the 1800s every town had it’s whorehouse/saloon. It was as common and well known an institution as the bank and the barbershop. No reason other than contemporary prudishness that it couldn’t happen again. Look at strip clubs. Not that I see this as an advance in freedom for sex workers: most would probably wind up giving blowjobs for minimum wage while wearing a paper hat and asking customers “Would you like fries with that?” in a corporate sex work environment … after all, it’s unskilled labor. (/me glances slyly at Maggie to see if her head is exploding).
Nope. Did you miss this comic when I featured it?
Man – where do I start?
Brad Manning is gay? Didn’t know that, but it now explains why there is all this love for the guy on the left. Look here – Manning took an OATH – and an oath he was not forced to take – he took it voluntarily. Now – if he did what he did out of a sense of moral duty – he still violated his oath – and he ought to take his punishment like a man.
And that punishment should be execution in my humble opinion – it won’t be, but it should.
I posted yesterday – I used to teach ethics. During my time in the Navy – especially as a senior enlisted guy – I broke rules all the time out of a sense of moral duty. Each and every time I did that – I resolved to take my punishment like an American Fighting Man if the violation were ever discovered. Mind you – none of my violations were ever of a grievous magnitude as Brad Manning’s were.
Brad Manning should accept his punishment like a Marine – and his groupies need to try some breathing exercises and calm down.
Second – the Gay Rights Movement has NEVER been a lilly-white movement of innocence. They’ve also been plenty rude and vocal. Fuck them – they think I’m a “homophobe” because I oppose openly gay soldiers in combat. It’s a damned distraction our fighting men don’t need – it will only weaken their combat ability. Anyone who says otherwise has never picked up a rifle in defense of his nation and he (or she) can respectfully go screw themselves – they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Fact – you could kick out every woman now serving in the military and the military would just about shut down due to the loss. We rely that heavily on female servicemembers these days.
Fact – you could kick out every LGBT now serving in the military and the military would barely notice it. So we’ve done all this to be “inclusive” of a tiny minority that really doesn’t contribute to combat effectiveness but damn sure can take away from it.
Homophobe? I knew of several gays on my ship and I never bothered them. In fact – when one was outed by some anonymous busy body dumping a note in the command “suggestion box” – I took that note to the Captain and told him I was obligated to show it to him – but that he should immediately shred it. Then I went to the Chiefs and told them to scold the troops about anonymous allegations about bullshit no one cared about.
I once made the arrangements to fly the gay lover of a Sailor injured on USS Cole to Ramstein AFB (in Germany) to be with him while he underwent surgery. That’s ONE of the God Damned rules I violated while in uniform and I did it because it was the right damn thing to do. I got U.S. Navy travel funds to fly that guy over – he didn’t have to pay a cent and I even paid for his hotel while there out of the same funding line.
I’m a Homophobe? No, I don’t think so.
I loved my time in the military – but I cannot recommend it as an occupation to young men and women these days. It’s become nothing but a cesspool of political correctness and Liberal social experiments.
The weak – are coddled – while the warfighters who are protecting us are saddled with more and more bullshit from Liberals and Neofeminists every single day.
Gay Marriage? Well – I have no problem with Gays getting “married” but sorry folks – since the inception of the human race “marriage” has been an institution between man and woman. Don’t expect me to call these unions … “marriages”. Just as I will never call the color purple, blue. I think gay marriage is stupid – just as I think drug use is stupid. However, as a Libertarian – I don’t think it’s the government’s business to legislate against stupidity.
And lastly – concerning this “evaporation” of opposition to gay marriage. That’s more wishful thinking than anything else. Seven judges does not a national plurality make. And – more and more – our politics are become REGIONAL – anyone want to bet that opposition to gay marriage has eroded in the SOUTH. Nope. I had a guy interrupt my workout this morning for 20 goddamn minutes bitching about the SCOTUS and that ruling.
While I can’t argue with your description of life in the military – you’ve lived it and I have not, though my family has spoken differently – I can speak to the comment about “marriage has been between a man and a woman…” because it hasn’t. It SO hasn’t. You’re thinking “inception of the human race” means only what you’ve learned about in Western “history”, and I have in my possession 10K pages of records of cultures that were completely destroyed because women married women and men married men (as in, they are unified for life via the gods they so had). Not just in places like South America and Polynesia – this was going on in cultures in Europe as well. I also have lots of implied evidence that the cultures that remain were only allowed to remain so by bowing to the colonial dictates of sexual “morality” (read: prudishness).
By posting that statement on this particular blog, you’ve indicated you’re not really aware of how much the world has been cut, killed, sculpted, and altered to fit an ideal that never really existed in human life.
Just to add an example to this: The damn *Spartans* encouraged gay couples in their military.
If I’m remembering the Greek and Roman cultures right, they were gay when young, straight long enough to have kids when they could afford them, then went *back* to being gay. And that was considered normal.
“I used to teach ethics. During my time in the Navy ”
It shows.
The most gay-hostile state in the Union is Alabama. The most pro-gay state in the Union is Massachusetts (yeah, I was expecting it to be California – oh well).
People under thirty-five in Alabama are more pro-gay than people over fifty in Massachusetts. THAT’S what’s driving things: a new generation being old enough to buy stuff, be listened to a little, and vote. So many people have come out of the closet, especially among the young, that almost everybody who isn’t gay or bi knows somebody who is. And guess what? they’re just like us. The young people SEE that in their co-workers, classmates, and friends. And when people with that experience start taking a hand in making the rules, the rules change.
When people who are just old enough to buy stuff, be listened to a little, and vote decide to get behind the rights of sex workers, THAT is when the movement for same will gather steam. But that’s a closet it’s as hard to come out of today as the gay closet used to be.
It’s nothing new. People have an “authenticity” fetish. Mexican and Puerto Rican Latinos have disdained Cuban-Americans for skewing conservative, therefore they are not “real” minorities. There are terrible problems in African-American communities where studying and aiming for success are deemed “acting white”. The worst insult you can hurl at someone is to call them a sell-out.
I honed my verbal self-defense and debating skills while living in New York City. Jewish, female, child of immigrants, and a (gasp, shock) libertarian. People didn’t know how to deal with me because I did not robotically agree with every left-liberal talking point. It’s been said before but it bears repeating: there are none so intolerant as the “tolerant” left.
I am a proud freak, and I love my fellow outliers. They make the world a better place. Conformity can go pi$$ up a rope.
OK, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I strongly favor legalizing prostitution, and have no problem with transgenders (what business is it of mine, anyway?) . On the other hand, I have long felt that the pattern of all (or most) Gay Pride events being let-it-all-hang-out freak parades was fantastically counterproductive.
For one thing, based on my reaction to some stripes of porn, and to the reactions of others I talk to, I have tentatively concluded that sex that you are not personally attracted to is fundamentally creepy. It seems to me that it reminds us of the film loops they used to show in school of insects extruding and probing various bit of themselves. It reminds us on some level that we are all meat-machines. Now, I’m not saying that people who are excited by stuff that turn me off are bad people who must be punished. I AM saying that it makes it much easier for me to think about such people fairly if I don’t have their particular kink rubbed in my face.
What you do in the privacy of your own bedroom (or in a members only setting, where I would have to intrude to see, for that matter) is absolutely your business. But sex hits the senses so viscerally that if you want me to treat you just like everybody else, you will (please gods!) NOT make it hard for me to not imagine the messy details. I’m over 50, fat, and have bad teeth. You don’t want to know what my sexual fantasies are, much less visualize me playing them out. Please return me the favor.
“Why should we hide?” is for attractive young people. The rest of us are uncomely, save to those who love us.
The reason they “rub it in your face” is because they generally have low self-esteem due to societal ostracism and the fact that they do – deep down, realize they are “abnormal” when compared to the aggregate population.
For this reason – they DESPERATELY need your acceptance. And – you are right – the “in your face” antics are completely counter-productive along with calling everyone who thinks differently from them “homophobes”.
The whole movement has ALWAYS reminded me of a bunch of crying kids that need a paddling.
Having said that – a lot of the belly-aching is caused by a millenia of tormentations in both Eastern and Western Society – and virtually every religion that has ever existed under our sun.
Just as we reaped the ill rewards for our father’s embracing slavery – so we are reaping the rotten fruit of persecuting homosexuals.
Once you create a “victim” – that “victim” will forever identify himself as one and he will not climb off that cross no matter how desperately you need the wood. I will bet my ass that the “Gay Rights” movement, after receiving everything they want – will move towards “Special Rights” just as the women’s movement did.
That is a “Hong-Kong No-Shitter”.
>The reason they “rub it in your face” is because they generally have low self-esteem due to societal ostracism and the fact that they do – deep down, realize they are “abnormal” when compared to the aggregate population.
The only time I’ve ever “rubbed it in anyone’s face”, besides a sex partner, was when they paid me to.
Please. I really don’t need, nor care for your acceptance, or approval, of what I choose to do in my bedroom. I don’t give a damn for your opinion on it. What I do ask is to be let alone free to do it, without your bloody interference.
And I ask to be treated equally by law, as what I get up to in my bedroom makes me no less a person. If you can marry who you choose, then so should I. The fact that I fancy both men and women makes me no less a person.
I don’t have a problem with anything you say. What I have a problem with is little twits and ninnies who seek any reason at all to label themselves as “victims” and then use that to “rub it in my face” and to FORCE me to accept their victimhood. It completely turns me off … I don’t like “whiners” because I’m not a “whiner”. I generally believe that people control their own destinies and this is an imperfect world. If people can’t accept that – too bad.
Wait, seriously?
You can’t imagine for one minute that a particular person at a Gay Pride Parade MIGHT not be behaving the way they are for you, or anyone like you? That maybe they’re acting the way they are so they can feel normal, for one day out of the year? In a world where your old, fat, bad-teethed body is regarded as NORMAL and okay in the approved hetero “sexual engagement spectrum,” EVEN IF no one really wants to go there in their imagination?
I mean, really. Who REALLY wants to imagine Donald Trump or Jack Nicholson plowing anyone, except all the people who look like them?
Please. You don’t need to watch the parade. You can sit at home and watch whatever it is that suits. I’m a non-trans woman who has the great luck and privilege to fit a particular standard of beauty, even at a post-20s age… but my interests and desires spread broadly, and if you think that seeing some of the kinkier floats in the parade are “counterproductive” to me and most of my female generation, you’re really missing something about the female thrust of interest. Pun intended.
Look, I’m not saying don’t cross dress. I’m not saying don’t hold hands or kiss your lover. I’m saying that wearing your ass-less chaps is a poor idea. I’m saying that exposing your pierced nipples is over-sharing. And, for the gods’ sakes, please don’t wear your bondage gear on the street.
New Hope PA has a Gay Pride day that, barring the number of men in prom dresses and a slight overabundance of broadway show tunes, could pass for the July 4th celebrations of Mason City Iowa that inspired THE MUSIC MAN. It’s a community event, and straights are part of the community.
Sex is a very basic urge/trigger. It’s hardwired into us by millions of years of evolution. Very few people can ignore a sexual signal (which is why it is used to sell so much that has so little to do with it). And, because we are balding apes, humans are triggered by the exposure of certain areas of the body. We can’t help it. Some parts are culture dependent (as a gaijin I’m just never going to get the charge that a Japanese native does from the nape of the neck), but lots aren’t. And when the signal is sent, and it’s on the wrong wavelength (so to say) it causes uncomfortable static.It isn’t SINFUL, so far as I am concerned, but it sure is vulgar. It jars. And jarring people is bad PR.
Say you belong to a reasonably well know BDSM society called The Black Rose (read about it, no idea if it exists). Fine. Go to a pride event, but wear good looking street clothes. If you wear a zippered mask and a dog collar, all you are doing is signaling that members of your group are tacky and have poor impulse control. NOT a message you want to send.
I used to be active in SF fandom. I know about playing “Shock the Squares”. But fen aren’t trying to gain civil rights and societal acceptance when they dress for a convention, and fen who wear their cosplay on the street are considered a tad strange (OK, late evening, near the con hotel is an exception, sorta).
Last line of Maggie’s article:
…we need to show the Powers That Be that we will no longer tolerate institutionalized persecution merely because we make loudmouthed, pearl-clutching prudes uncomfortable.
Repeat that a few dozen times.
I respect Maggie, but I do not always agree with her. I don’t think you have to be a “pearl-clutching prude” to believe that there is something wrong with the kind of twerp who wears bondage gear on the street. No, dressing in suits won’t stop the NeoFeministas from having the vapors over “trafficking”, but if you present sex-workers (and so on) as respectable people who don’t ‘let it all hang out’ where it will ‘spook the horses’ (to reach back to the 19th Century, where the NeoFeministas belong) you make them look like the godsdamned fools that they are.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s tactic of looking like Middle America won the civil right battle. The Black Panthers’ tactic of getting up in ‘whitey”s face got them the sponsorship of the Radical Chic Intellectuals and damn little else.
Who now, who said we should look freaky in public? Not I; in fact, I’ve often said the opposite, over and over again: the main theme of this whole blog is “whores aren’t discernibly different from other women”. But Big Gay isn’t just throwing streetwalkers and loud drag queens who couldn’t “pass” in pitch darkness under the bus; it’s throwing ALL sex workers, and ALL transpeople, and even perfectly normal-looking HIV patients, all for the sake of a seat at the big table and a mess of pottage.
Let’s not pretend that there aren’t PLENTY examples of fat old dudes in the Gay Pride community.
This is an old, old problem. Consider the fate of the women’s rights movement under the abolitionists (who convinced the women that emancipation was more important, then promptly abandoned the cause once they’d achieved their goals) or the women’s rights movement itself (which decided not to challenge ‘Southern customs’ in their quest for equal rights in order not to offend their southern female contributors).
Leaders of the primary cause have a tendency to use supporters of related causes, and abandon them once the primary cause has achieved their goals; indeed, sacrificing minor supporters in order to achieve their goals.
It is what I call an interlocking chain of sh*t. No matter to hardship in obtaining you little piece of the American Dream, somehow it’s all forgotten when dumping on the next guy. We did it to blacks, then the Irish, then Italians, Chinese, Mexicans, Japanese-Americans during WW2 and now the current racial punching bag is Arabics. Jews have been the All-Star punching bag for recorded history. Now the gay community is coming through but only for the GL and not the BT. As one wag put it, we should write “GLBT” with letters that rapidly get smaller. I don’t care about the opinion of others when it comes to me being Bi and seeing beauty in both the male and female forms; I get my Irish up when they start getting on my girl for being a transwoman. Every time I get into an argument with such individuals who spout ugliness: “Do you know any trans people?” No “Have you read anything about the condition of gender dysphoria.” No “So you don’t know what a trans has to go through on a daily basis, no nothing of the condition of gender dysphoria, yet you’re acting like you have some sort of basis for spewing vitriol, why?” I know what’s wrong when I see it. And what all these attacks on all these races, sexes, and marginalized groups forget on a constant basis is this: Bigotry is dehumanizing. And dehumanization is the first step to atrocity.
You’re absolutely right. The folks who schmooze the politicos have no interest in rocking the boat. The fact that HRC is now canvassing on “transgender folks can still be fired in x# of states for being transgender” sort of hinges on the “THAT’S WHY THEY’RE SEX WORKERS” prudishness clause. No discussion on the fact that they’re the last to get hired in the first place, and even if they prefer sex work, why is that allowed in almost every state as a VALID reason for them to get murdered? The generalized “people outside the approved sex behavior bubble have no rights to any kind of bodily autonomy” meme is starting to make me really, really angry.
Many transgendered can only find work in the sex industry because there is the “visible” discrimination, that is it is hard to hide being transgendered. Also the medical costs of being transgendered which are substantial are not covered by health insurance or even medicaid. So unless a transgendered is wealthy the money has to come from somewhere.
One thing I have seen and don’t understand is the invisible discrimination coming from the gay and lesbian community against the transgendered. But then this is no different from the feminist who say a women’s body is her own, but then absolutely hate women using as they choose as sex workers.
While you come at many topic from the sex-worker perspective (entirely understandable, everyone hones will try to use what they know best as basis for further exploration), you come to conclusions that can be reached from other directions as well, validating your approach. As to politicians, politics is an evolutionary process, and the fitness-criteria are messed up. That is why this willingness to sacrifice some minority for minor victories is so popular: Politicians that do this despicable thing are more successful than others that have at least some basic decency. The gay-rights movement only shows that politicians take over when something is established enough to have power and then corruption sets in.
My conclusion would be that in many/most instances the problem is that those that affirm the power of politicians (i.e. in a democracy the voters) do not get it. They want to be lied to, they want the minorities to look down on, they want the minor victories sold as huge step forward, etc. As long as that does not change, the moral quality level of successful politicians will stay abysmally low.
Churchill was right when he said “the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter”. The more fundamental problem is that the human race is still has not figured out a way to select leaders that actually works. The only thing that seems to be clear from the experience with democracy we have now is that those that want power are almost always unfit to wield it, but many of them have the skills to acquire it in a democracy.
[…] Sold Out ”…sex workers and those members of the queer community who either can’t or won’t be assimilated into the fascist Borg can forget about getting any help or support from mainstream gay organizations, because it won’t be forthcoming.” […]
I agree that gay rights started making serious headway when the rest of us started thinking, “Huh, they’re just us.” But I don’t think that happened because we thought, “They want to get married? Huh, they’re just like us,” but because so many gay people came out that we started thinking, “Huh, they’re just like Uncle Bill,” “Huh, they’re just like my friend Cindy,” “Huh, they’re just like that very manly actor I admire,” and so on.