Op-ed: How San Francisco Pride Has Failed Bradley Manning
Writer Victoria A. Brownworth believes San Francisco Pride’s messy grand marshal debacle makes a mockery out of the tradition of pride in general.
My review of Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is now available.
Overview: “Ultimately, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots is not only an eye-opening educational read, but it is a much-needed call to action for the queer community to get their shit together. In Sycamore’s own words, ’Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots re-invokes the anger, flamboyance, and subversion once thriving in gay subcultures, in order to imagine something dangerous and lovely: an exploration of the perils of assimilation; a call for accountability; a vision for change. We are ready.’ I could not agree more with those words, and after reading this anthology, I feel that I AM ready.”
Read my full review here.
My review of That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies For Resisting Assimilation (by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore) is now available.
Overview: “This book is not only an important call to action for queer folks, but an engrossing and inspiring read that motivates folks to question all forms of authority, reject assimilation, and fight for revolution—not equality. Moreover, this book is not just a worthy read for queer activists. I believe it is a necessity. I give it FIVE/FIVE stars.”
Read my full review here.
The assimilated homo doesn’t understand why I don’t protest the Boy Scouts of America for being homophobic, or why I don’t give a shit about gays in the military or—gasp!—legal marriage rights. I presume that the assimilated gay world finds it very divisive of me, protesting my lesbian and gay sisters and brothers instead of the straight world at large. What they don’t get is this: I don’t give a shit about the straight world. Sure, dominant society is just that: DOMINANT. No consent here. But, you see, I’m not trying to make room for myself in it. We fagulously freaky queerbos are not looking for a seat at the table of normality.
Josina Manu Maltzman - “Revolting” (via riley-ferretboy-konor)
The growing trend of ‘tolerance’ demands that leaders direct funds into the legalisation of gay marriage, which could otherwise be used to fight hunger and homelessness; the benefits of gay marriage, like tax breaks and healthcare, only benefit a particular minority of LG (lesbian and gay) people who hold a majority of power. Why fight for the ability to receive health benefits through a state recognised partnership when we should be pressuring the state to pay for everyone’s healthcare? Who benefits most from partnership tax cuts and will that bring an end to financial inequality? These are the questions that are never raised when the subject of gay marriage is discussed.
Ali Abbas - “Death By Masculinity” (via riley-ferretboy-konor)
I don’t want to give up the term ‘queer’, because it still bugs people like the middle-class gay homeowners in the Castro who have halted plans to open a shelter for homeless queer youth in their beautiful neighborhood. I use it because every time I say it, I get an unpleasant jolt of memories of being called vile names or bashed, and I guess I hope that if I say it with enough aplomb and nonchalance, those memories will lose their power to subdue and terrorize me. The jaws of assimilation have closed around the word queer, but they haven’t managed to crush it into dust just yet.
Patrick Califia - “Legalised Sodomy is Political Foreplay”
Gay assimilationists have created the ultimate genetically modified organism, combining virulent strains of nationalism, patriotism, consumerism, and patriarchy and delivering them in one deadly product: state-sanctioned matrimony.
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (via riley-ferretboy-konor)
Look what came in the mail! My copy of That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies For Resisting Assimilation and 500 pink studs that I am going to use to make my vest!
As soon as I finish reading the book, I will post a review and encourage discussions about the contents with folks who have also read it.
I just ordered That’s Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform. I have been waiting to order these for some time now, and I cannot wait to read them and discuss them.
Like, I get wanting to fit in and feel socially accepted and all, but why must we assimilate in order to be accepted?
In regards to passing, I do not want to change who I am to feel more like a guy.
I AM a guy. I do not need anyone else to tell me how to be what I am.
I AM who I am.
I AM what I am.
If folks do not want to accept me for being a genderqueer trans* guy, I do not want their acceptance. I do not want their blessing or approval.
I am a proud genderfuck. I do not want to change a thing about myself to make OTHERS more comfortable with my appearance, behaviour, etc.
Fuck assimilation.
Fuck heteronormativity.
Fuck gender-conformity.
Why should anyone have to do that?
EDIT: I realise that some folks strive to pass for safety and self-acceptance. To each their own. You feelings are valid. I am raising these questions, because I am genuinely curious about why these things exist - the gender binary, social constructs of beauty and gender, etc.
I have my own battles with my gender presentation daily. For a long time, I stressed passing until I questioned why it was so important to me. I truly want to hear/read from everyone else’s point of view. Please do not think that I am guilting anyone here.
Besides the whole ‘trans* enough’, body-policing bull shit that has been going on within the trans* community, the issue of ‘passing’ is really bothering me.
Why are folks reinforcing gender-normative/binary stereotypes?
I see this happening especially in the trans* male/guy/masculine-identified communities. Why is it so important to ‘pass’ in a society that guilts you into doing so? Are you really trying to pass for yourself or…?
I am genuinely curious. Why is this so important?
Assimilation Versus Liberation: Envisioning a Trans Politics Based in Desire
Assimilation versus liberation: this is the central issue of transgender (and most) civil, political, and social rights movements. This piece pivots on that tension and aims to determine some contours of a critical and liberatory trans politics. While the knee-jerk reaction of many of us located in this camp might be to opt out and/or create dissent around the established institutions, structures,and relations that created and maintain transphobic ideology, discourse and actions, often, as trans people, we are left with no other option but to navigate those very institutions (ie. hospitals, social services agencies, the criminal punishment system) in order to get what we want.
As someone who values desire over prescription and happiness over conformity, I am interested in figuring out how to actualize those values. I want to think about when to work within such dominant spheres and ask: must we only work in solidarity and coalition with groups and people whose politics are aligned with ours? What sacrifices are worth making, and who and which institutions and structures do we make them for? What does it mean to have a critical and liberatory trans politics, and how can we put our politics into praxis?
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