The Dyke March, in Their Own Words. Rebecca Fox
and Nicole Levine, organizers of the June 8th D.C. Dyke March,
penned an op-ed for the Washington Blade titled "D.C.
Dykes Will March for Revolutionary Movement," in which they
state:
For us, a revolutionary queer movement would address injustice in all forms. It would demand reproductive rights on demand and without apology and health care for all. It would challenge the prison industrial complex and our wars at home and abroad. It would demand equality, but not just the watered-down on-the-books-only equality that many gay and lesbian organizations are forced to settle for.
Clearly, the true barriers to gay liberation are too few
taxpayer-funded abortions, prison sentences for criminals, and the
war against terrorist murders. They continue:
The Dyke March is in part a response to the male-dominated, corporate-sponsored Capital Pride events, but even if the pride festival were more inclusive, we would still need a dyke march. Sexism, racism and transphobia are alive and destructive in the gay movement. We want our gay brothers to know that you can't simply get more women or more people of color to be involved and assume that the event is more inclusive. You have to look at how your meetings are run and how conflicts are negotiated.
Yes, getting more women and people of color is only superficial
inclusion; "real" inclusion means altering how everything is done
so that no female or person of color can in any conceivable way
feel that they are being denied the preferential treatment they are
entitled to. And finally:
We organize as a feminist collective, without hierarchy, without corporate sponsorship. We do this to show that our community does not need to rely on corporate money or mainstream acceptance to be empowered or to make our voices heard.
Yes, capitalism is clearly the enemy of gay rights because, well it is. And so is organizational "hierarchy"; much better to have an unstated power structure that only insiders can fathom. Otherwise, you never know what sort of non-progressive, non-socialist, non-revolutionary sorts might try to make a place for themselves in our movement.
Bigots, Bigots, Everywhere. A full-page ad
appearing in many gay newspapers, paid for by the coalition
supporting the continued boycott of Coors beer, claims that
"Coors money founded the Heritage Foundation, America's premier
far-right think tank." Heritage, of course, is a conservative
policy institute that could be described as center right; it
opposes gay rights efforts, but it's hardly the klan. Calling it
"far right" simply shows an ignorance of mainstream conservative
politics. But worse, the ad goes on to declare that "Massive Coors
family funding of right-wing homophobia continues today,
including"the Center for
the Study of Popular Culture"." On the contrary, David
Horowitz, the head of the Center, is a gay-inclusive conservative
who has frequently scolded other conservatives for homophobia; he
also features articles by gay authors (including, in the past,
myself) in his publications and on his website. But, to the gay
left, anyone to the right of Jesse Jackson must be part of the vast
"far right" homophobic conspiracy.