NCF Voices for Planned Parenthood!

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by Hannah Kapp-Klote

In the 1960s and 1970s, queer liberation (what we now call “LGBT equality”) was seen by its advocates as an all-inclusive movement intrinsically bound to other social justice movements: there could be no justice for queer people without justice for people of color, women, workers, those in other nations, etc. Accordingly, queer activistsworked hard to build coalitions with all those determined to fight for justice. 

Nowadays, the LGBT movement does more branding than coalition building. 

Steven W. Thrasher, who has been nationally recognized for his LGBT journalism, called out national LGBT nonprofits and advocates, colloquially referred to by some as the glitter industrial complex, in aGawker article, contending that the LGBT activists and nonprofits “have been bought, paid-for and sold to the highest bidder.”

It’s true: corporate America runs the LGBT movement, or at least the part of the LGBT movement that gets press time and donors. Their sponsorship keeps the LGBT movement from addressing the issues that matter most for the LGBT community and beyond.

Thrasher highlights that many of the biggest donors to the Human Rights Campaign, the multi-million dollar nonprofit that receives the bulk of donations for LGBT issues, aredrone manufacturers. These donors profit off of the United States’ use of drones to killcivilians,including children, with little oversight or accountability. Drone manufacturers are far from the only ethically dark gray to black donors to LGBT advocacy organizations: a brief perusal of any major LGBT organization’s list of donors reveals thatcorporate black hatslike Bank of America,BP,Coke, andNikeall provide major cash to LGBT nonprofits.

And it must be acknowledged that these corporate dollars do some good:  programs that encourage the leadership development and empowerment of LGBT young people, the election of LGBT public officials, and advocacy for greater research into LGBT issues would be practically impossible in the modern economy without significant corporate donations. Yet there is something antithetical about a movement for equality and justice funded by the forces in the world most responsible for widespread economic and social inequality. 

When the LGBT community is not united with social movements that address the issues facing the most marginalized LGBT people, with racial justice proponents (proportionally more people of coloridentify as queer), with those fighting against systemic poverty, with pacifists, are we really making any progress? Or has the LGBT movement been kidnapped by power elites advocating for their own interests?  The dilemma is reminiscent of an image circling some corners of the web: a white gay male couple superimposed over the Human Rights Campaign red equality symbol that dominated Facebook during the gay marriage Supreme Court hearings.

“We’re just like you: racist, homophobic, and sexist,” reads the caption. All that’s missing is “market driven” and “war profiteers.”

Of course, claiming that the agendas of nonprofit executives and corporate leaders are the agenda for the entire LGBT movement is just as misleading claiming that gay marriage is the deciding issue of the LGBT movement. Queer activists around the country, from radical groups likeSoutherners on New Ground (SONG),andQueers for Economic Justice, are connecting the dots between queer liberation, pacifism, and economic and racial justice. Countless more groups and activists, with or without 501c3 status, are fighting to make sure that queer liberation — not LGBT equality — is tied up with justice for all oppressed groups around the world.

Progress for queer people means nothing if it comes at the expense of others also marginalized and fighting for justice. Gay advocacy paid for by companies that poison the land, treat their workers unfairly, and assist in the killing of children from other nations is worthless in the long run. If we truly want a world where LGBT people are equal, we have to recognize that such equality is contingent upon justice for all people.

Not when health care is provided to every same-sex couple, but where health care is accessible to all; not when violent homophobia is eliminated, but when violence based on hatred of any group is eliminated. It might sound Utopian, and it might not be achieved through high profile fund raising dinners. But the alternative, inequality and corporate exploitation draped in a pride flag, is neither progressive nor equal.  

 

cue to a shot of me howling with diabolical laughter. 

not because drones are funny

but because for all the equality red signs i had to stomach, for all the insufferable cis straight people who refuse to apply a critical lens to their “allyship”, for all the horribly constructed arguments supporting the HRC i’ve listened to not only this year, but in past years

congratulations! your desire and push for equality is intersectional in the worst way possible. 

now not only does the HRC screw over people (anybody who is not upper middle class, white, gay cis male), but the companies who back the HRC screw over people WITH DRONES. on top of their other shitty corporate policies because WHO HAS EVER MET A FRIENDLY ETHICAL CAPITALIST?! NOT I! 

i chuckle in your face

i chuckle long, i chuckle hard, and i chuckle loudly

thecsph:

Every Saturday, The CSPH highlights news or recent research in the field of human sexuality. This week we’re looking at a new study from the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy that looks at how transgender adults identify the needs of gender-variant children and the parents of these…

gaywrites:

Lawmakers in Portugal voted Friday to allow spouses in same-sex marriages to legally adopt their partner’s children. It was a close vote, too:

Parliament approved the measure by a vote of 99-94, with nine abstentions, the Portuguese American Journal reports. It allows one spouse the right to adopt the other’s biological or adopted children. However, another proposal, which would have let same-sex couples adopt jointly, was defeated.

Portugal criminalized homosexuality as recently as 1982, but it has come far since then, being one of the few countries in the world with a constitution that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. It has had marriage equality since 2010.

Awesome news; hopefully it’s not too long before we see joint adoption legalized here (and everywhere) as well. 

bialogue-group:

modernbisexual:

This is an excellent read right here.. Have a look.

It’s not uncommon for people to come out as gay after being in heterosexual relationships. But when the gay/straight binary is so enforced, these storylines become a media trope that disregards bisexuality. Because [Ed Note: the show’s character] Drew is now partnered with a man, he must be gay–no one mentions the idea that Drew could be bisexual.

When closeted people only have the option of coming out as gay, as opposed to bi or queer, we perpetuate two harmful tropes: that there are only two sexual orientations, and that the gender of your partner determines your sexual identity.

Biphobia and bi-invisibility are not new concepts. And yet, as we challenge heteronomativity and homophobia in straight spaces, so too must we challenge the bi-invisibility that continues to exist in LGBT spaces.

Bisexual people deserve to be respected, believed, included, and taken seriously by their gay peers.

Biphobia is not that different than homophobia: it’s the fear of the unknown, of the different. As we look to eradicate prejudices and homophobia in straight communities, so too must we eradicate the prejudices we hold onto within our LGBT communities.  CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE

This is the show’s Facebook Page: “The Outs”
Bisexual Men and Bisexual Bloggers are calling for “respectful and constructive comments please”