The Transformative Promise of Queer Politics

52 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 QUEER SPIRITUALITY AND POLITICS TheTransformative PromiseofQueerPolitics by Alana Yu-lan Price Alana Yu-lan Price is assistant editor of Tikkun and web editor of Tikkun Daily (tikkun.org/daily). Previously she freelanced, edited international news articles for distribution to alternative weeklies in the United States, and researched public benefits policies. T he lieutenant has handcuffed himself to the White House fence. Defiant in his camouflage fatigues and black beret, his arms outstretched against the black iron barrier, he protests the military ’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Images of the gay soldier soon pepper the blogosphere and reel across TV news shows, quickly becoming a symbol of gay activists’ growing impatienceandfrustrationwiththeObamaadministration. TheMarch18protestactionofLt.DanChoi—anarmylinguist facingpendingdischargefollowinghisdecisiontocomeoutasgay onRachelMaddow’spopularnewsshowonMSNBC—andofdischarged Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, who also locked himself to the fence, followed a rally against the military’s ban on openly gay service members. Choi and five other service members were arrestedforcuffingthemselvestothefenceonceagainonApril20, andsixothersagainonMay2. Inanageofgayandlesbianactivismcharacterizedmostvisibly by highly respectable inside-the-Beltway efforts to convince lawmakers of gay couples’ acceptability to the mainstream, the soldiers ’ edgy direct actions sparked a flash of recognition and perhapsdelightinleftistactivistsyearningforarevivalofthehighprofile , militant, grassroots actions associated with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in the 1980s and Queer Nationinthe1990s. Buttheflashfadedfast.Here’swhy:eventhoughtheprotesters’ edgytacticsmirrorthetacticsofradicalgroupsofdecadespast,the goal of the action fits neatly within the conservative, assimilationist aims articulated by mainstream LGBT lobby groups. Soldiers chaining themselves to the White House fence may on the surface resemble the ACT UP members who disrupted the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour’s live broadcast back in January 1991 by chaining themselves to Robert MacNeil’s desk with signs declaring “The AIDS Crisis Is Not Over.” But whereas the ACT UP activists were fighting for their lives in the face of homophobic societalinactiononAIDS ,Choiandhiscompatriotsarefightingfora nearly opposite goal: the right to participate in an institution that is killing people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in wars that most progressive activists consider unjust. What a change from the 1960s and 1970s, when gay liberation was closely entwined withthebroader,anti-militaristicvisionoftheNewLeft. ThestoryofLt.Choi’sprotestactionisausefulentrypointinto adiscussionofthecurrenttrajectoryofgayandlesbianorganizing becauseitemblematizesonemajorrealityofthepost–Proposition 8, Obama-era activist moment: the widespread sense of urgency and upsurge of grassroots mobilizations, including direct actions like Choi’s, in pursuit of the assimilationist (rather than radically transformative) goals of inclusion in the military, inclusion in the institution of marriage, and fuller inclusion in the national workforceviafederalnondiscriminationlegislation . I definitely don’t mean to suggest that the current moment is devoid of radically visionary activism; in fact, several of the organizers I interviewed—as well as grassroots activists published in this issue of Tikkun, such as Dean Spade, founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and INCITE! cofounder Andrea Smith—argue that a simultaneous but less visible upsurge of radicalgrassrootsworkisalsounderway.Farfromthemodest,assimilationist agenda of D.C.-based lobby groups such as the In a bold protest against “don’t ask, don’t tell,” gay soldier Lt. Dan Choi chains himself to the White House railings. The tactic at first recalls that of radical gay liberation activists, but the goal—expanding the military’s labor pool—is difficult for many on the left to celebrate. COURTESY OF BULLNECK (FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/BULLNECK) J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 53 HumanRightsCampaign(HRC),theagendaofthesesmallgrassroots groups includes work on the interlocking issues of violence and discrimination against queer and trans people, the exploitation endured by all within the global economic system, the neoliberal drift toward the privatization of formerly public institutions and resources, the growth of the prison system and the mass incarceration of black and Latino youth, homelessness, and thecriminalizationofimmigrants.Iwilltouchonthetransformative promise of this radical, multi-issue work later, but first I want to fill in the picture I have sketched of the mainstream gay and lesbianmovementandgiveitsomehistoricalcontext. Historical Trends in LGBT Activism Back in 2000, respected historian John D’Emilio, who also served as founding director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian...