an open letter to lgbt communities

[polexa]

I got this by email yesterday, it's in reaction to this column in the Advocate. Incidentally, I was at the Phlly rally yesterday and it was amazing... so many community groups and groups there in solidarity, although I was confused by the presence of the ASPCA who decided it would be a good idea to hand out rubber bracelets and tell everyone that

Comments

[zanyassmask]

oh god she's so dumb. it even reads like a second grade report.

how can she even argue that people are 'breaking the law' in one breath and that the laws are unjust in another? i bet she broke all kinds of sodomy laws.

[starstealingirl]

Oh, man. That article gave me a headache.

Immigration reform needs to get in line behind the LGBT civil rights movement, which has not yet realized all of its goals.

Um... okay. And, by that logic, the LGBT movement should get behind the people of color and feminist movements, because they haven't realized all of their goals yet. Because it's all one neat line of enfranchisement. And nobody is ever part of multiple disadvantaged groups. And we couldn't, gods forbid, work on eliminating all injustices simultaneously. Because they're not connected or anything.

Thank goodness for this open letter. And thank you for sharing it.

[polexa]

You're welcome, I figured, being an open letter, that it best be spread around as much as possible, as open letters should :)

I could hardly even get through the original Advocate column, it was making my head go *explode*.

[starfrosting]

I missed Cannick's article but it sounds unfortunately right in step with a lot of liberal lgbt politics I've run into. Thank you all for writing such an eloquent and impassioned reply.
-Oli

[anonymous]

The quote from Audre Lorde is spot-on, of course.

Yes, an individual has finite energy--if someone chooses to put that into LGBT issues only, or immigration reform only, or conservation only, that's their choice. Focus can be useful, given finite energy and the value of research in activism. But that's not an argument for everyone doing the same thing.

[kubla42]

In line with the above comment; I did a whole crisis thing when I came of age and realized just how much injustice still exists EVERYWHERE. And it was overwhelming, and it occurred to me that I, personally, would do best to choose one issue to focus on. That being said, to utterly SHUN any others, or to insist that the issue I settled on is for some reason more important...that's honestly kind of disgusting.