Gay Inc.

I Hate Inclusion

With yet another vote on “police participation” coming up Tuesday night at Pride Toronto – after Pride TO has contravened Pride TO membership votes TWICE in the past two years to ban institutional police participation, an utter (and probably illegal) abuse of process – it’s time to debunk the rhetoric of “inclusion” that is now consistently marshaled to EXCLUDE queer and trans people from LGBTQ spaces.
 
The rhetoric of “inclusion” is now frequently used by non-queer and trans people (and some LGBT collaborators) to allow the very institutions that pride was established to protest – for example, police and heteronormativity – center stage in LGBT spaces.

(more…)

Share
By Kami Chisholm, ago

Wedding or Prison? Rentboy.com and the Privatization of Queer and Trans Sex

One of the major problems with the push for same-sex marriage, as I wrote about in somewhat more detail before, is the complicity with the privatization of sex, which has been at the core of most of the so-called major gay “civil rights” advances since 2003 when the US Supreme Court overturned anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas.

Queer and trans sex, at least since the late-1800s, has been routinely conflated or associated with sex work both culturally and legally, and anti-sex work laws have in many places been used to target and criminalize queer and trans sex, both public and private. Toronto’s 1981 police bathhouse raids are a great example, where almost 300 gay men were arrested by police and charged with either operating or being “found in” a “bawdy house,” the Canadian legal term for “brothel.” Today, trans women, especially trans women of color, are still routinely harassed and arrested by police for “looking like” a sex worker, simply for existing-while-trans.

Bathhouse raids protests, Toronto, February 1981.

Bathhouse raids protests, Toronto, February 1981.

(more…)

Share
By kamichisholm, ago

Why I Won’t Boycott STONEWALL (But Will Support Indie Queer & Trans Film)

I think many of my friends may be wondering why I haven’t yet commented on or shared numerous articles condemning the new Stonewall (Roland Emmerich, 2015) film or calling for folks to boycott it that have circulated in the last few days since the release of the film’s trailer. It’s not because I’m incredibly busy finishing my own documentary about the whitewashing of LGBT politics, history, and pride events (though that is really what I should be doing right now instead of writing this). Nor is it because I don’t have any thoughts or concerns about the film. It’s because… wait for it…

I haven’t actually seen the film yet.  And neither have any of the people who have written criticisms about Stonewall or called for a boycott of it, as far as I can tell. (more…)

Share
By kamichisholm, ago

All I Feel Right Now Is Shame: The High Cost of Marriage “Equality”

Two days ago, an undocumented Latina transwoman risked her own personal well-being to disrupt a self-congratulatory love fest between so-called LGBT leaders and Barack Obama, an event celebrating the “success” of the inclusion of some lesbian and gays into the fold of US citizenship. Jennicet Gutierrez interrupted Obama’s press conference, calling attention to the abuses of the US immigration detention system, including the disproportionate harms experienced by LGBTQ people caught up in the system. This was the response of Obama and the LGBT leaders in the room:

(more…)

Share
By kamichisholm, ago