Worldmaking and Everyday Interventions

In “Sex in Public,” Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner laid out one of the charges of the queer worldmaking project in that it extends well-beyond those who can be identified: “By queer culture we mean a world-making project, where ‘world,’ like ‘public,’ differs from community or group because it necessarily includes more people than can be identified, more spaces than can be mapped beyond a few reference points, modes of feeling that can be learned rather than experienced as a birthright.”¹

Queer worldmaking takes place in all kinds of places, at all different times, involving all kinds of people, who work toward creating a different world. It is not a strategic plan, organized by anyone, but a bottom-up engagement with the everyday.

Yet, Berlant and Warner conclude as well that collective action in the public sphere is also a key component of worldmaking: “the heteronormativity of U.S. culture is not something that can be easily rezoned or disavowed by individual acts of will, by a subversiveness imagined only as personal rather than as the basis of public-formation.”² Walking the line between individual practice and collective action is never easy as individuals assert their individual rights over a larger unknowable community. The recent case of Kiva highlights this tension.

Kiva is a non-profit, microlending organization, based in San Francisco, “with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”³ Using the Internet to loan money, ordinary people can become lenders with as little as $25 to loan to various people whose requests are posted on the Kiva website. Kiva members can loan individually or join various “teams” with their own discussion boards where lenders can learn about various loan requests and other related issues.

Founded in 2008, the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) Kivans & Friends say that they loan because “[w]e are out and proud and know what it is like to face barriers.”⁴ According to the statistics posted on their webpage, the team loaned $917,900 dollars in 2012,$736,275 in 2013 and, as of the time of this writing, $462,200 in 2014.⁵ The decline in the team’s giving rate is noticeable.

On August 28, 2013, Matt Flannery, cofounder and CEO of Kiva, posted “An Open Letter about Kiva and Strathmore.” In it he addresses the controversy facing Kiva over its relationship with Strathmore University in Kenya, which “is a Corporate Undertaking of Opus Dei”; “Opus Dei provides spiritual and doctrinal orientation for the University.”⁶ Concerns about the anti-gay views of Opus Dei have led a number of Kivans to leave Kiva, whereas others remain committed to the microlending approach to helping others on an international level. In his letter, Flannery sympathizes with those concerns:

That said, on a personal level, I share a lot of the same concerns aired by our lenders. The type of anti-gay rhetoric expressed by Strathmore’s chaplain is very disheartening. We understand the damage and pain that it can cause, and I assure you, with no reservations, that the views expressed do not reflect any of our beliefs or Kiva’s organizational values.⁷

Yet, this conflict with his own views, as well as Kiva’s values, did not lead to severing the relationship between Strathmore and Kiva. On the contrary, Flannery lays out the vision for Kiva: “This is what we do believe: That providing safe, affordable access to capital to those in need helps people create better lives for themselves and their families. At the core, Kiva is trying to do good in different regions and cultural contexts—even when some of the values of a culture run counter to our own.”⁸

His open letter did not satisfy all Kivans, and the ensuing discussions on the GLBT team discussion board continues over a year later. Some have chosen to leave, whereas others have chosen to continue lending. A self-identified Kivan and member of the GLBT team, Tony Adams, noted: “For the moment, it seems that Kiva leaders found a willing partner in Opus...