Rainbows and Weddings

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4697
Date Written:  2016-07-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21457

It is utterly ironic that not a hundred years ago the West tried to "civilize" us by criminalizing homosexual conduct, and now the West wishes to "civilize" us by decriminalizing the homosexual conduct that it criminalized in the first place, all the while producing us as the "barbarians" that they have the duty to correct.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The argument here does not seek to trivialize marriage equality. The decision will definitely benefit many people. However, that should not erase the politics of marriage equality: how marriage equality became the funding priority, how it is embedded in capitalism and the corporations that profit from the struggles of queer people, how it represents the ideology of the mainstream Gay Rights movement and how it caters to imperialism.

Such legislation allows the state to extend its control over queer bodies and regulate their sexualities and gender identities. It erases the anger that disenfranchised queer people feel because many organizations have redirected funds towards getting marriage equality approved, while queer people are dying because of racial violence and poverty.

The mainstream Gay Rights movement has allowed people like Tim Cook (the head of Apple) to become CEOs of massive corporations that exploit cheap labor, and politicians like Hillary Clinton to pinkwash themselves and market their image for their presidential campaigns. However, this movement mocks disenfranchised minorities. A protest that led to the emergence of Gay Rights was started by working class transgender women of color against police brutality - and even today 72% of victims of anti-LGBTQ homicide are transgender women, and 89% of victims are people of color.