I'm game for this meme Courtney posted over at Feministing, where she listed the four most overrated and the four most underrated things related to feminism. What about when it comes to the queer community and politics?
Here are my lists; feel free to share yours in the comments.
Overrated
- Marriage
- Politicians' promises
- The gay-straight binary
- Dieting/starving/fat-shaming/being thin
Underrated
- Local organizing
- People who work to prevent and ameliorate queer homelessness
- Feminism
- The opinions of people without a lot of money
I posted these lists at Bilerico this morning, and there were a few questions about what I meant on a couple of these items. I do have to say that writing in list form instead of my usual 2000-word essay format means that some precision will be lost. :)
About the gay-straight binary, I responded to a commenter:
I meant that the idea that gay people and straight people are two different camps with no overlap and no space for anyone else.
So I mean that the line isn't as powerful and rigid as some people think it is. Bisexuality and straight dudes who give hand jobs and people whose sexuality changes over their lives and lesbians who date men occasionally and all that exists.
And about marriage:
As someone else in a committed relationship with a non-American, I'd say that I do have some investment in legal recognition of same-sex couples.[...]
But, you're right, I do regularly denigrate the importance of marriage because I think that that's an institution that has far too much power and that that power comes at the expense of women and people who don't live in traditional relationships. Part of the Religious Right's argument against same-sex marriage is that marriage is very, very important. So important, that the fact that people are divorcing more and marrying later than they were in the 1950's (i.e., "marriage is under attack") is supposedly responsible for increased crime, the black/white income gap, unhappiness, poverty, even the financial crisis.
I think that the gays follow by saying that marriage will be a solution to all our problems, everything from bullying in schools to HIV/AIDS to poor self-esteem among LGBT people. And it's taken a disproportionately large amount of the resources from the movement as well.
So, when I'm saying that it's "overrated," I'm not saying that it's unimportant. I'm just saying that people stress it a lot more than they should.
DOMA's a good example. The rhetoric coming the Religious Right in support of that law was the whole "marriage is the foundation of society," "if marriage is destroyed, Western civilization ends," etc. Even if we were to agree that same-sex marriage is an attack on marriage, I'd still tell them to chill out, that marriage isn't the center of the universe.
The point of posting these lists isn't to say that I'm right and everyone else is wrong, but to get people thinking about where are priorities are and where they think they should be.
RNC Chair Michael Steele said this in an exchange with Mother Jones's David Corn at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner:Good evening, Chairman, I said, how are you doing these days?MC Steele stuck his foot in his mouth again over the weekend, admitting that his party is the haven of bigots, saying what we all know -- the Base rejected Mitt Romney because he of his religion. Steele said this while guest hosting the Bill Bennett radio program."Just great," he said, upbeat all the way.
"Well, I have to say, thank you," I said. "You've been good for business." I was, of course, referring to all the not-so-smart things he has said or done that have become fodder for political journalists and cable news pundits.
He leaned back, pulling himself to his full height, and, laughing, proclaimed, "I'm the gift that keeps on giving." Almost as if he were proud of that. Certainly, he was just engaging in that self-deprecating humor that pols are taught to deploy. But it struck me as odd that he would beam so much as he said that. I wondered about the guy.
STEELE: Yeah, but let me ask you. Ok, Jay, I'm there with you. But remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitch, Mitt, because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you're talking about. So, I mean, I hear what you're saying, but before we even got to a primary vote, the base had made very clear they had issues with Mitt because if they didn't, he would have defeated John McCain in those primaries in which he lost.That didn't go over with the res t of the party, since it doesn't like its bigot bloomers exposed. Steele's press secretary had to clean up behind her self-humilating boss:
"Chairman Steele regrets the way his comments have been interpreted. Chairman Steele believes Mitt Romney is a respected and influential voice in the Republican Party and looks to his leadership and ideas to help move our party and our nation in the right direction."Wait -- note that MC Steele isn't apologizing for his comments, merely that they were misinterpreted. So what other way can you interpret "It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism"?
There has been a lot of talk on Barack Obama's first "100 days of silence" regarding the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (and associated law). First we go back to a recent article about the changes on the White House website which first featured the wording "changing" in regards to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The White House quickly did an about face that evening and adjusted the site to say "repealing."
With two high profile discharges this month of two Asian Americans, including Army Lt. Dan Choi and Army 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, Barack Obama can't afford to remain silent on this issue. A break in the silence came May 7th in the form of a hand written letter from the President to 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao in which the President promised "changing" the policy as a response to a letter she wrote him back in January on the day she came out to her command.
I think it's great that President Obama has said something promising to keep his promise. However, I'm still concerned with the wording. "I'm committed to changing the policy" doesn't mean the same as repeal. And while we can all give him the benefit of the doubt on his true intentions it doesn't escape the fact that the White House website initially said "changing," the officials in the Administration are saying "I don't know," and Nancy Pelosi is saying "What we're focused on is jobs, jobs, jobs." One gets the feeling their not even on the priority radar of our elected officials other than as a pariah to generate campaign donations to all sides of the argument.
One option the President may have as < a href="http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/10924/report-obama-can-stop-the-discharge-of-openly-gay-and-lesbian-service-members-now">explained by Pam below is an executive order suspending enforcement of the policy, which could easily be re-instated by the next President. Or the President could use his "bully pulpit" and really get out in front of his issue.
In a recent exclusive interview with me for the Blend, Aubrey Sarvis, he said his "concern is, if the president remains silent, Don't Ask Don't Tell is going to become his law... silence [will] and in fact, will okay, the continuation of Don't Ask Don't Tell enforcement and funding."
And the question becomes "Will the President allow this to become his law? Will he allow Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be defined by his almost deafening silence?" The right wing has startetarted to take notice as well. This, today's missive, from The Peter.
It is interesting that the White House through its official website retained Obama’s promise to repeal “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” (thus allowing open homosexuality in the armed forces) even as it removed his pledge to repeal DOMA–one of the top goals of his homosexual activist allies.
Obama has a lot to gain and nothing to lose for standing his ground on his ORIGINAL campaign promises. This game of "change" needs to turn into something real.
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