Excerpt: The really radical act is to question the idea that any sexual act is somehow in itself transgressive.
Category: Hate Crime Legislation
“The people who are going to benefit the most from gay marriage will be the ones who already have the resources.”
I was part of a roundtable discussion on what it means to get “Beyond Gay Marriage” in In These Times. Many thanks to Rebecca Burns for initiating this.
An excerpt:
It is probably true that hate crimes legislation and anti-bullying laws in Washington are connected to gay marriage—but that is exactly the problem. Marriage solidifies the idea that the “inclusion” of LGBT people is the solution, and it has been accompanied by a push for inclusion in the military and in hate crimes and anti-bullying legislation. But this ignores the fundamental inequality perpetuated by these institutions—marriage, the military, the criminal justice system. Hate crimes and anti-bullying legislation are punitive measures that will drive the prison-industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline.
You can read the rest here. Contact me if you need a pdf.
“Radical queers haven’t yet figured out how to use film as politics; we’ve done it with performance and spoken word, but not with film. The assimilationists are winning the war because they’ve learned how to use film as propaganda by wrapping their message in the preferred discourse of civil rights.”
Joe Solmonese, executive director of Human Rights Campaign (HRC) , frequently finds himself in the eye of the LGBT political storm. In recent years, criticism of the nation’s largest gay organization has increased, whether for what many described as the betrayal over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) or its rumored agnosticism over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). The organization recently unveiled a nationwide campaign, No Excuses, which aims to empower LGBTs everywhere to talk to their members of Congress about the issues facing them. Solmonese talked to Windy City Times over the phone about the campaign, and about a range of legislative and political issues.
A report from the Deaf Queer Resource Center ( www.deafqueer.org ) indicated that a murder in Waverly, Ohio, was being ignored, unlike the killing of Matthew Shepard, because the gay victim was a hearing-impaired, homeless man. The details of the murder were horrific: Daniel ‘Dano’ Fetty, 39 years old, had been living in his car after a fire, working at a local restaurant, and saving up for his next apartment.