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Hi, y’all.
In a previous watercooler I wrote about LGBTQ pride events and how they’ve become increasingly driven by the “pink dollar” of corporate sponsorship, and divorced from the real origin of the event — the anger of queer people at a long history of oppression based on orientation, gender identity, and race.
Sadly, the anniversary of Stonewall comes close on the heels of a tragic reminder of the struggle still ahead: the shooting of a young lesbian couple in Portland, Texas. Though there are apparently no suspects and the motive is therefore still unknown, police are quick to dismiss the potential hate crime angle:
“A motive in this case has not been established,” Portland, Texas, Police Chief Randy Wright said in a statement late Tuesday. “However, there is no current evidence to indicate the attacks were motivated by that relationship.”
Regardless of the particulars of the case as they develop, is this the world we want to live in — where some of our youngest and most vulnerable minorities are preyed on while mainstream Pride celebrates the small donations of a few big corporations? Though not as serious as the Texas case, there is violence everywhere. Shortly after the Seattle Police Department created their own It Gets Better video, an officer pepper-sprayed a peaceful LGBTQ street party then charged the victim with assault.
We have to keep fighting. When we’re bashed, we must bash back.
On Thursday, the Occupy Austin OccuQueers will Occupy the Austin Stonewall Rally. Then on Friday, Austin will host a candlelit vigil for the victims of the Portland shooting in solidarity with the vigil occurring in Portland, Texas.
See also: Why Occupy Pride
Update: Mary Christine Chapa, the surviving half of the couple, is making an extraordinary recovery but lacks health insurance. GetEqual TX reports that solidarity vigils are planned for 18 cities in North America.
This is tonight’s open thread. What’s on your mind?
5 Comments
Is there a WePay page for donations for her care?
Yes, a few options for contributing are linked from the ‘Vigil’ link in the paragraph you quoted.
Not to politicize this tragedy, but her situation (uninsured) is another example of how the struggle for queer rights is also the class war.
Thank you. And, yes, I most definitely agree on that second point as because of it queer/GLBT folk and their chosen family are just flapping in the wind on pretty much everything.
Another example: The much-lauded election of a lesbian woman as mayor of Houston, Texas led to new laws banning feeding the poor, and studies show a disproportionate number of homeless people are queer…
Until we get a decent, socialist society, Pride celebrations are always going to have a dual nature. They express not only our struggles and our pride in our community but the fact that our communities are awash in the sewer of capitalist society.
Right centrists like most Pride group leaders, GLBT Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud and the self appointed leaders of many state and local equality groups and LGBT centers have no problem swimming in the sewer of capitalist society thinking it validates them and they make money off it. Those who criticize the growing trend of turning pride celebrations in one long commercial are correct . Criticizing the quisling view that we somehow ought to like capitalist incursions on our communities is a good thing. Criticizing the rightward trend among mostly the Democrat dependent and self appointed leaders of HRC, Pride groups and state Equality organizations is more than just a good thing, it’s vital.
In terms of Pride groups we have to ask how much of the money from corporate sponsors goes to pay the salaries/stipends of movement hustlers and how much of it goes to send them on long retreats at posh resorts to ponder the ‘logistics – read money making potential – of the next Pride. Just a few days ago the Bronx LGBT Center was forced to close its doors because it’s former executive director was arrested for embezzling over $338,000 from the group she once headed. “The former head of a Bronx gay and lesbian center was busted for allegedly scamming $338,000 from the non-profit outfit to pay for vacations and a dog walker, authorities said Tuesday. Lisa Winters, 42, who was let go as head of the Bronx Community Pride Center in January 2010, used the dough to pay $25,751.74 to Eyes on Africa for a personal trip and $15,953 to a dog-walker, authorities said. She also paid thousands of dollars for trips to the United Kingdom, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Carolinas, according to the criminal complaint.” NY Daily News
Along with other activists I tried to get Pride hustlers to support the fight for equality since the struggle against Briggs Initiative in 1978 but they’ve become increasingly resistant and more open to adapting to the conditions placed on those eager to take corporate bribes. I suspect that’s true everywhere.
The right wing of our movement, and that often includes self-appointed ‘leaders’ of Pride groups should be criticized but calling for the abolition of pride celebrations because their leaders are sellouts is as wrongheaded as calling to the abolition of unions because their leadership are lap dogs of the Democrats. Trying to abolish pride celebrations is not a good thing and politically not very smart. Counter-culturalism is a joke, the LGBT equivalent of ultraleftism as described by Lenin in “Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder”