Not My Community

Attend any number of “queer events” in the Pittsburgh area and you will hear a lot of rhetoric about how supportive, welcoming and non-judgmental the community is. The comfort people describe as feeling within the number of spaces that host these types of events may lead you to believe that the Pittsburgh scene is one of the most unified and cohesive in the country, but I can say that the image that is projected by those waxing poetic of the “community” is a far cry from the reality that I encounter as a trans identified person.

One of the reasons for this may be that the queer community in this area is still very young and is only but a year old. (I say “queer” community not “gay,” as the gay community has been around for a long time). I have come to this conclusion myself because I consider its birth to have taken place during Pride Fest of 2003, in the form of the attack on Gay assimilation and co-optation organized by a group by the name of Resyst. Resyst is a collective of radically conscious queers who were determined at this time to bring the margins of the struggle to the forefront, and criticize mainstream gay movements’ increasingly conservative direction. Since that momentous day it seems as though the style and vernacular have mobilized, but not the politics that founded them. This comes as no surprise to me, as most individuals will choose image to substance any day of the week because the latter actually involves effort. These events are not unique to Pittsburgh by any means; many cities have a core of queers who spend their time doing a variety of awesome projects such as anti-oppression, anti-racist, and anti-classist workshops or trans-101 workshops. This creates an environment based on understanding, which then creates the atmosphere for support as participants have begun to educate themselves on the issues. On the other hand, you have your “fashion queers” who just show up to all the events that fall under the banner of “queer” mostly to see and be seen, in my opinion, and collect their “points” if you catch my drift.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the politics will gradually come as time goes by. This could be the trying on the clothes before the actual purchase, if you will. Take into account that I am by no means saying that if you don’t dedicate all your time to activism then you are a wannabe or poser. What I am saying is that self-educating yourself so as to become an ally of those marginalized within your own community makes a world of difference and is just as activist as any open mic or a workshop.

How many times have I received transphobic remarks in the company of other queers and had to battle it out with some ignoramus while my friends just sit there with this “you’re on your own” look across their faces? The truth is they can’t say anything, because they don’t know what to say. These people consider themselves to be my partners and friends in struggle, but allow me to suffer transphobic attacks within the walls of our supposedly safe community. Let’s not forget that the queer movement came out of the lack of camaraderie within the gay and lesbian movement to address the issues of its most marginalized participants. Let’s not have to create a movement in response to the queer movement’s negligence. One of the most inexcusable things I’ve seen is outed sexual assaulters and abusive, formerly significant others just walk around in an area deemed “safe” or community space, as the survivors of their reprehensible acts have anxiety attacks so severe they have to be taken to the emergency room. Meanwhile, their friends who knew of this persons’ actions just allowed them to be there, and didn’t contact the owner of the establishment, or assemble a crew on the spot to escort this individual out of the space. Allies and “community” members do not display this kind of careless and indifferent behavior.

A realization that has come to me is that most people who use and abuse the term don’t even know what queer means. Many just see it as a more youthful and cooler way of summing up “gay and lesbian” in one word. “People didn’t start saying queer because they got tired of saying gay,” is what I always say to those who use the words synonymously. Queer is on another level from most mainstream gay and lesbian consciousness, which can’t seem to understand the interconnectedness of different struggles. Try bringing up the fact that oppression has many nuances once you factor sex, gender, race, class and sub-culture into the equation and you are most likely to receive a comment somewhere along the lines of “you’re being divisive,” or “you’re needlessly splitting hairs.” These are some of the ones other revolutionary-minded queers and I, with a more well rounded understanding of oppression, have encountered over the years. Among those ranks with me are profound social critics and thinkers such as bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Silvia Riverra, and Leslie Finberg.

“Queer” came as a reaction to the narrow focus, and often race and class motivated direction of the gay and lesbian movement. We work to build a movement that will address the needs of the most marginalized among us, that will not give us some spiel about how we are all oppressed the same way and race, gender and class make no difference. A movement that will not tell us (trannies, crossdressers, welfare class) to wait as they advance the interests of a select few (white, class and gender privileged), and that they will come back for us. I have yet to see this in action. I guess the reason I am so touchy about this is that I feel that something I have claimed as being part of me is being co-opted and turned into this rummage sale where you can just dissect my culture, pick and choose what is cool at the time and ditch the politics behind you. I will not sit back and watch my movement turn into a fashion accessory.

My definition of queer is that it is purposely amorphous — it has fluidity and continuance unlike the more rigid categories of gay, lesbian and straight, womun* or man. It can be defined loosely at best (as that’s the whole point), which allows everyone who chooses to identify with it the flexibility to incorporate their own values and personalities. But by no means is queer a new movement come to lay rest to the old. The two movements exist simultaneously and overlap in many areas. My take on queer movement, as a black trans person of underclass background, is a political analysis that recognizes the nuances of oppression, forges coalitions across the political spectrum as a result of understanding the interconnectedness of struggle, and never says any area of our community is too taboo to be publicized at this time. “Oh! But we’ll come back for you.”

Forgive me if it appears that I am condemning the other identities listed above, for that was not my intention, as they work for a great number of individuals in all reaches of our society. It is just that in my experience, and the experience of those who have shared with me, we were tired of trying to “look gay” or stopping to think of what would be the witty gay response to a sexual joke. The whole thing just gets so tired. You soon realize that you have come to fit your life into a formula rather than allying yourself with an identity that works for you, and as a trans identified individual I could not mold myself to that formula no matter how hard I tried, because there was no room for me in their** movement, I was too hard to explain to mainstream society. Their movement has forgotten about the B.T. in GLBT. So I forgot about them.

Got Queer?

* The spelling of womun is not incorrect. It is a conscious refusal to acknowledge the experiences of womyn in relation to men -- to not view womyn through a male-centered lens. (a.k.a. androcentrism)

** In the use of the word “their,” I am not grouping all of those who choose to go under the banner of gay and lesbian, but rather those who steer the movement in an assimilationist direction such as lobbyists, interest groups, and all those who subscribe to that kind of racist, classist, transphobic movement.

- Khalia Latte is a trans-identified individual who considers punk to be her ethnicity. She’s currently working on a ‘zine dealing with Revolutionary Queer Studies and Trans Politics.