Carl,
Each time you use that editorial, "we", in one of your comments, the same
response bubbles up to the surface of my mind, which is, "we? What is he
talking about? I can't control anyone else's feelings and responses except my
own. And given the complexities and power structure in our society, and my own
individual situation, I'm not sure I even have control over my own responses".
Two books have just been published, No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein and Moment
of Emergency by Timothy Snyder. Both of them assert that we are about to be
taken over by a Fascist Dictatorship. Snyder provides 20 lessons, and Klein
provides 5 lessons, as guidelines to follow immediately to prevent this from
happening. At the same time, I'm reading The Handmaid's Tale, written in the
eighties, which I never read, but which has shown up on the best seller list
again and has been made into a TV series. It describes a future American
religious dictatorship and the author describes the steps taken by the people
who took over the government, and the passivity of the populace which allowed
their freedoms to be stolen. So tell me, did masses of people come out into the
streets to resist the Muslim ban or the Republicans replacement legislation for
the ACA or the introduction of US troops into Syria or Trump's vile tweets or
the fact that on the Holocaust Rememberance day, Jews weren't mentioned and the
press secretary said that Hitler never put any of his own people in gas
chambers? When Trump opened his new hotel in WashingtonDC after the election,
did masses of people demonstrate in opposition to his using the US Presidency
for his own personal profit? Or bringing it home, when the US Navy began doing
those war games or tests or whatever they were on your peninsula, which were
shown to be clearly damaging to your ecological system, did the population stop
the war games and insist that the Navy leave?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2017 11:03 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Ambivalent Pride
A strong reminder that Human Dignity is still under attack until All People are
given respect by All people.
Is that an impossible goal? Only if we allow it to be.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/2/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistaction.org/2017/07/01/ambivalent-pride/
Ambivalent Pride
/ 21 hours ago
July 2017 Pride 2By JERICHO JONES
This time of year we have reason to look with rejoicing at Gay Pride
celebrations around the world. Their number, persistence, and
exuberance were unimaginable to this lonely queer kid growing up in
the 1970s. To think there was any place you could be openly, even
flagrantly gay was like oxygen. Today, hundreds of pride celebrations
offer queer kids almost anywhere the hope of finding a place of relative
freedom.
Yet in spite of our advances, we still live under the threat of
violence driven by hate. Not two weeks ago, we marked the first
anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the deadliest mass
shooting by one person in U.S. history. Barely a week seems to pass
between reports of vicious and deadly attacks on transsexual women.
Stonewall may have been nearly
50 years ago, but we are still awash in hate.
Experience shows that facts and argument don’t counter hate, but
knowing a queer person and feeling empathy can. Decades of painful,
frequently dangerous coming out have given many of us a world where
queer people can hope to find a place to live and prosper. The
importance of showing pride to the world hasn’t become any less urgent.
Even so, Gay Pride is the season of ambivalence for me. Early on, it
represented a radical demonstration that queer people not only refuse
to be silent but insist on making their presence undeniable. In the
years since, it has become something distinctly different. What once
celebrated the freewheeling sense of possibility at the heart of queer
life has become an opportunity for corporate marketing and for
solidarity among queers who happen to live and look like the majority.
This was demonstrated recently by the interruption of Washington Pride
by a radical group called No Justice, No Pride. Primary among their
issues was the inclusion of the police in Pride, with its obvious
approval by Pride organizers.
It’s stunning: never mind the obvious fact that the police have long
been one of the threatening forces that queer people battle to live
normal lives, Washington Pride (and others) included and celebrated an
institution that regularly murders African Americans. Yet there was
widespread condemnation of No Justice, No Pride for interfering in the
party, not for the organizers who planned a party that pointedly
included racist killers.
Then there is the corporatization of Pride. These celebrations nearly
always include corporate sponsorship, i.e., plastering the event with
company logos for advertising. Washington Pride was sponsored by a
number of corporations, among them Wells Fargo Bank.
On the surface, this is normal—the bank is looking for customers, the
organizers are looking for someone to pay the bills. But No Justice,
No Peace was aware of something critical that Washington Pride
organizers
ignored: Wells Fargo is an investor in the Dakota Access Pipeline,
which is being built by force, with (of course) police protection,
next to the water supply of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation,
while the pipeline studiously avoids the white city nearby. Wells
Fargo has also been forced to pay $175 million for discrimination
against Black and Latinx customers.
Thus, with the police/corporate invasion, Pride has become an
opportunity for pinkwashing, which is the use of gay inclusion to
cover institutional misdeeds. In the cases of Wells Fargo and the
police, the cover is for murder and economic violence committed by
powerful institutions at the heart of the establishment.
And it isn’t just corporate sponsorship or the welcoming of
authoritarian institutions that mark Pride’s dedication to established
power; it’s also observable in the make-up of Pride organizers and
celebrants, who are mostly white and cis, and often mostly male. Why
would Pride be any more responsive to the needs of outsiders than
Wells Fargo or the police when they are all overwhelmingly controlled
by insiders?
Even tragedy has not moved Pride. The victims and survivors at Pulse
Nightclub last Pride season were mostly Latinx. The murdered
transwomen mentioned above have mostly been women of color. The names
of Black people murdered by police—the ones deemed newsworthy—appear
in the media almost every week. How do we celebrate Pride when so many
are ignored while Pride celebrates the wealthy and powerful?
All I can offer is a reminder of the outsiders who gave us the origin
of Pride, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn who, early on the morning
of June 28, 1969, decided they had had it with police harassment and
rioted. That is, they protested with violence, smashing windows,
setting fire to cars, and throwing pieces of the street at police. The
rioters were not polite, well-connected cis gay men in suits, but
marginalized queers, trans women of color, butch lesbians, and drag queens.
And they did not quit, as the rioting continued a second night and
went on to inspire the gay liberation movement in ways polite white
homophile organizations like the Mattachine Society never did and never could.
These queer forbearers showed us that change does not come from
appealing to wealth and power, but from standing against them without
apology. The struggles for Black civil rights and the history of the
labor movement showed us the same. That Pride would leave trans people
and queer people of color behind is unconscionable. Red Rose
Socialists stands—always—with the marginalized, the powerless, and the
voiceless in their struggles.
The author is a member of Red Rose Socialists in Lancaster, Pa.
Photo by Dylan Comstock: No Justice, No Pride demonstrators in
Washington, D.C.
Share this:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) 19Share on Facebook
(Opens in new window)19 Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new
window)
July 1, 2017 in LGBT rights.
Related posts
Toronto: Stonewall is reborn
Northern Lights
We are all Orlando!
Post navigation
← Stand with Greek soldiers against hazing
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month July 2017 (1) June 2017 (16) May
2017
(17) April 2017 (14) March 2017 (13) February 2017 (19) January
2017
(13) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (19) October 2016 (12)
September 2016 (10) August 2016 (10) July 2016 (14) June 2016 (14)
May 2016 (9) April 2016 (12) March 2016 (14) February 2016 (8)
January 2016 (11) December 2015 (11) November 2015 (9) October 2015
(8) September 2015 (10) August 2015 (7) July 2015 (13) June 2015
(9) May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12) March 2015 (9) February 2015
(11) January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12) November 2014 (11)
October 2014
(9) September 2014 (6) August 2014 (10) July 2014 (11) June 2014
(10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10) March 2014 (9) February 2014
(11) January 2014 (11) December 2013 (10) November 2013 (11)
October 2013
(17) September 2013 (13) August 2013 (10) July 2013 (11) June 2013
(15) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (14) March 2013 (12) February 2013
(10) January 2013 (17) December 2012 (7) November 2012 (8) October
2012 (19) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (27) July 2012 (18) June
2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April 2012 (14) March 2012 (17) February
2012 (19) January 2012 (17) December 2011 (3) November 2011 (33)
October 2011 (14) September 2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011
(24) June 2011 (19) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15)
February
2011 (16) January 2011 (15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1)
October 2010 (6) September 2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7)
June 2010 (2) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February
2010 (3) January 2010 (9) December 2009 (6) November 2009 (5)
October
2009 (16) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5) June
2009
(2) May 2009 (7) April 2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (9)
January 2009 (10) December 2008 (11) November 2008 (8) October 2008
(16) September 2008 (14) August 2008 (18) July 2008 (12) June 2008
(3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (14) February 2008 (11)
January 2008 (11) December 2007 (8) November 2007 (1) July 2007
(1) June 2007 (1) April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1) February 2007 (3)
December 2006 (11) November 2006 (11) October 2006 (13) September
2006 (15) August 2006 (11) July 2006 (18) June 2006 (7) May 2006
(14) April 2006 (6) March 2006 (14) February 2006 (5) January 2006
(2) December 2005 (9) November 2005 (8) October 2005 (13) September
2005 (12) August 2005 (9) July 2005 (16) June 2005 (16) May 2005
(16) April 2005 (12) March 2005 (14) February 2005 (19) January
2005
(15) December 2004 (14) November 2002 (17) October 2002 (19)
September 2002 (22) August 2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May 2002 (21)
April 2002 (21) February 2002 (15) January 2002 (15) December 2001
(17) October 2001 (24) September 2001 (18) July 2001 (19) June 2001
(18) October 2000 (17) September 2000 (21) August 2000 (19) July
2000
(16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21) April 2000 (22) March 2000 (28)
February 2000 (18) January 2000 (20) December 1999 (20) November
1999 (26) October 1999 (25) September 1999 (18) August 1999 (40)
July
1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999 (27) April 1999 (25) March 1999
(26) February 1999 (29) January 1999 (24) July 1998 (12)
Search
View socialistactionusa’s profile on Facebook View SocialistActUS’s
profile on Twitter View SocialistActionCT’s profile on YouTube
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
Category Cloud
Actions & Protest Africa Anti-War Arts & Culture Black Liberation
Canada Caribbean Civil Liberties Cuba East Asia Economy Education &
Schools Elections Environment Europe Immigration Indigenous Rights
International Labor Latin America Latino Civil Liberties Marxist
Theory & History Middle East Palestine Police & FBI Prisons South Asia
Uncategorized Vote Socialist Action Women's Liberation
View Calendar
Blog at WordPress.com.
Follow
