What Does it Mean to Stand Up?

Recently I opened an ad solicitation with an enclosed demographics sheet on the status of the gay and lesbian market. Just who are these homosexuals, one may wonder? They apparently have high incomes, high levels of education and they’re owners of major credit cards. Amazing. I never knew that the working poor and the entire homeless population are heterosexual. Or has some shady math been involved in calculating these exciting statistics? Is it just that these "undesirables" are not the kind of people the gay market wants to sell, address, think about or identify with?

As June approaches, it is time again for Pride Fest, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender celebration of identity and the struggles of the LGBT civil rights movement. That’s a noble thing. But what exactly has Pride become? Are we proud of the whole group of LGBT individuals in this world or only certain LGBT people? This year’s Pride theme is "Stand up! Stand proud! Stand together!" Who is encompassed in the term "together?" Even those LGBT folks who are disowned when it comes to "the market?"

Last year, the radical queer group RESYST organized a presence at the Fest to show that queers could not be sold. That we are proud of our identities but that they don’t fit into the elite, exclusive, narrow boxes that shows like "Will and Grace" and "Queer As Folk" have set out to newly define what it means to be queer. RESYST members made clear that we don’t want to perpetuate a capitalistic world (effectively oppressing others by its inherent nature) and that we will not comply. That there are more "gay" issues than how vibrant the drag scene is. And that liberation does not equal assimilation. That we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance – even if so many eager gay couples, on the rise up the corporate ladder, have long forgotten. That Pride has come to stand for many things we can’t be proud of.

This year, I am not aware of a local organized attempt to challenge the co-optation of queer struggle and the safe, easy complacency of celebration in a vacuum. But that’s not the only thing lacking in our current socio-political atmosphere. Connections aren’t being made. While the country is distracted and abuzz with hopes that the state will finally validate a union between two people of the "same gender," the US government plows on ahead with the "War On Terrorism." And it continues to come at the expense of basic support service for LGBTQ people. Community organizations that provide support for queer youth, HIV/AIDS counseling, and referrals have experienced extreme budget cutbacks, while government spending on the military has skyrocketed.

And some gay activists continue to fight for the right to be part of the killing overseas – without realizing that war and the entire concept of the military is oppressive to the core. Militarism continues to perpetuate rigid gender norms. At its most basic level, it’s rooted in traditional, heterosexist ideas of gender that define masculinity as physically powerful and aggressive, and femininity as meek and passive. These gender norms have historically been used to marginalize and criminalize queer people who often challenge the legitimacy of these norms. Increasing our dependence on the military and making war a priority strengthens the heterosexist, patriarchal culture that promotes war, intensifying the stigmatization of those who defy that culture.

As people struggling for liberation, we don’t consider it "equality" if we too can participate in the killing of thousands of innocent people for oil or any other reason; we don’t want to participate in the oppression of others for a misguided, assimilationist approach to freedom. We don’t want to be admitted into the military – we want to abolish it. And we demand an end to America’s imperialistic warmonger tactics.

While many struggles exist, there is one struggle for liberation, that of humanity against all those who seek to exploit, oppress, restrict and restrain for their personal power and gain the freedom of others, and it is as a part of this liberation movement that we fight. We cannot be satisfied with challenging the surface issues that leave others behind, denying the intrinsic links between specific struggles and challenging power in its most basic forms. Whether that means we must fight for health care for everyone, for the right of the Iraqi people to determine their own lives now, or the right of local Pittsburghers to home rule. We feel that no group should be the scapegoat for the government’s racism, bigotry, or capitalistic greed. When standing up, we can’t leave anyone behind.

Last year's TMC/RESYST contingent at Pride Fest. If people are interested in marching with the TMC this year, contact Tim Vining at tim@thomasmertoncenter.org or 412-361-3022. (Photo by David Meieran)