2-4-6-8, We Will Not Assimilate! Many gay left
activists are adamant in their rejection of "assimilation" into
mainstream society, seeing it as a threat to "progressive" identity
politics, and even to their "queer" identities. Consider the
following attack on gay assimilation in Richard Goldstein's
notorious Fight the Gay
Right essay in the June 14 issue of The Nation:
"It's a painful, warping performance"And for the large contingent of gay people who were middle class before they were queer, acceptance even on these stilted terms is a seductive offer. The gay right is a broker of this deal. It provides a training manual in assimilation". Homocons abet this recruitment drive by urging gay people to qualify for membership in an assimilated elite, and that means leaving the tribe behind. By pitting personal ambition against communal values, they hope to wean gay people from the institution that has played a major part in their rise. The queer community still ties its members to the left, which is why it has been targeted by homocons."
Ironically, a similar anti-assimilation view is held by anti-gay
Muslim fundamentalists. For example, here's how Sheikh Abu Hamza,
the Egyptian imam of London's Finsbury Park Mosque and head of the
Ansar Al-Shari'ah organization, views cultural assimilation (from
an interview with the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, posted by the Middle East
Media Research Center):
Q: "Do you consider yourself British?"
Abu Hamza: "I consider myself British to the extent that I use my British documents to move around.... I live here and I hold a passport. It is a superficial identity; real identity is in the heart and in the mind, and this is the [identity] that drives a man. This [identity] is Islam..."
But while gay leftists reject assimilation as a threat to the
gay "tribe" and its "communal values," Islamists reject the
mainstream in part because of its very acceptance of gay folks and
others:
Q: "But in Britain you are respected as a person."
Abu Hamza: "And who said that we do not respect a person?! But must we respect a person even when he wants to be an animal?!...There is a difference between a man of intelligence and a man who is crazy or a pervert; [there is a difference between] a natural man and a criminal man... Must we respect someone who boasts of his bestiality? This is inconceivable. This is incompatible with Islamic religious law, or with reason.... Every man... [can choose] whether to be a human being or an ape. For example, if a man wears clothes, he is respected; but if he takes them off, he should not be respected. An adulterer should not be respected. Anyone who attacks little children should not be respected. Anyone who tries to turn himself into a half-man, half-woman should not be respected..."
If the mainstream is a bulwark against the enemies of gay
equality (or, let's face it, of the "right" of gay people to even
exist), then that seems all the more reason to embrace and defend
it, while still working to expand the arena of personal
liberty.