Gay Politics
The gay community can’t even agree when gay activism started – was it stonewall in 1969? The Mattachine Society in 1946? Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, 1933? How about 1923?
As you’d expect, with such a diverse and global community, we can’t agree on politics, or history, either.
Broadly speaking gay politics falls into three camps.
The assimilationists start from the premise that, apart from our sexuality, we are the same as straights and should integrate into society; we should come out, and through education, culture and legislation defuse the fear and hatred of our community. We should conform and integrate and become full members of society. An example of this camp is Stonewall, which campaigns within society to persuade people to lead by example and increase our perceived value in the wider community. Because they regard themselves as citizens who happen to be gay, assimilationists tend to belong to conventional political groups and parties.
The radicals are the opposite; our sexuality makes us completely different from straight people and instead of assimilating and integrating we should be allowing our culture and identity to develop free of the inhibitions of the straight world; through that we will transform straight society from what it is now to something else which will be better; through that we will reach our full potential as individuals. An example of this camp is the Radical Faeries started by the late Harry Hay, or the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Queers work within the system to effect change, but at the same time value and promote queerness and queer culture, and sit between the two extremes. They have adopted the methods and processes of the governing system but confront and challenge it with provocative campaigns which raise awareness. An example is Outrage which outed people, campaigned against hate music, and developed ‘queer politics’.
Whatever your individual politics, change is achieved when someone takes a lead and others follow. Once the change is set in motion it is then a matter of persuading others to come to terms with it.
