He further writes:
Our attention is increasingly being diverted to so-called “intersectional” issues outside the shared realm of essential matters of LGBT equality or community-centric concerns – accompanied by the attendant presumption that sexual orientation conveys proscribed political perspectives. Moreover, this implies there is now a lot less on the “gay agenda” commanding group attention.
We witnessed this dichotomy last summer when “No Justice No Pride” radicals pilloried wholesale the LGBT community and local Pride celebrations in multiple cities for not protesting pipelines, prisons, police, and the lending policies of banks.
And he adds:
If we’re to expand our sights on issues of community concern, we are notably casting our gaze in the wrong direction.
Given that LGBT entrepreneurs and small-to-moderate-size enterprise owners and operators are widely estimated to represent fully 10 percent or more of our demographic cohort, much higher than that of the population as a whole, community leaders might better turn their attention toward issues of concern to those engaged in business.
9 Comments for “Grievance Collection and Victim Portrayal”
posted by Jorge on
“I know that for a lot of people, including a lot of women, the movement for women’s equality exists largely in the past.”
Sometimes even I ask how could such a smart woman lose to Donald Trump? Then again I do some pretty dumb things, too.
I don’t like that snipe about her “lingering lament” wearing thin. I don’t respect her ambition to be president, either. But I respect how she went about it, I respect that she sincerely believed she could make the country a better place, and I definitely respect the multiple whammy that this was her last chance to be president, she lost to someone she understandably thinks is loathsome personally, politically, and professionally, and that this loss has had terrific socio-political consequences. Mitt Romney or Al Gore would be ruminating on how to “resist” while using the power of the possibility that they could run again, learning from their failure. Clinton does not have that hope.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Given that LGBT entrepreneurs and small-to-moderate-size enterprise owners and operators are widely estimated to represent fully 10 percent or more of our demographic cohort, much higher than that of the population as a whole, community leaders might better turn their attention toward issues of concern to those engaged in business.
Although an increasingly hostile-to-enterprise leftist Democratic leadership doesn’t appear to care, it was not long ago that the business community was much more magnanimous toward the party. Today, however, surveys indicate that an overwhelming supermajority between 3-of-4 and 4-of-5 business operators now consistently support Republican candidates at the local, state, and federal levels. This widespread opposition to Democratic policies includes a sizable, if largely silent, contingent of lesbian and gay enterprise leaders.
Hello, Rip Van Winkle, and a warm welcome to you!
An “overwhelming supermajority … of business operators” have supported “Republican candidates at the local, state and federal levels” for as long as I can remember, and I’m 70 years old. Lee might be well advised to study the political campaigns, rhetoric and voting patterns from the 1950’s through 2000’s before he goes all wide-eyed about his discovery.
On the question of “intersectionality” (an overused ten-dollar buzzword for “logically connected”), I see a strong connection between the LGBT rights movement and the Civil Rights movement (a connection denied by our opponents), and between the LGBT rights movement and other movements seeking “equal means equal” for themselves and others.
On the other hand, I don’t see a strong connection between the LGBT rights movement and issues/causes unrelated to “equal means equal”, on either the left or the right.
Both left and right engage in broad-scale “intersectionality”, however, and, while I disagree with expanding the focus of the gay rights movement much beyond “equal means equal” (we have plenty to do on that score, yet, and more to come in the future), I’m not in charge, and I don’t plan to spend my life whining about it if the gay rights movement expands its focus outward.
We are seen as desiring to exact revenge for, or at least restriction of and recrimination against, even the slightest divergence outside a groupthink political posture and cultural attitude. There’s no pause anymore in the impatience of some for absolutist behavior. No slight is too small or no offense too minor, with no modulation or accommodation permitted.
I think that this is a case of “if wishes were horses” on Lee’s part.
Conservative Christians and their political allies certainly hawk the line that gays and lesbians who resist conservative efforts to legislate government-sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians are “sore winners” at best, and Nazi-like oppressors seeking to crush/destroy Christians and Christianity at worst, but I don’t see any evidence that Americans outside the conservative bubble have bought into the argument.
posted by David Bauer on
Different LGBT groups have different focuses, goals and works views.
posted by David Bauer on
Should be “world views”, not works.
Seriously, WTF!? I didn’t protest a pipeline and the only criticism I got was from gay conservatives. The pipeline issue in North Dakota was never going to end well. I think that the relevant tribes had valid complaints, and I think that the oil industry is an important part of our economy.
I get lots of complaints from gay conservatives when I don’t want to be their “dont ask questions, just do it prison b#itch”. Far more then I get from liberals or even actual libertarians .
posted by Tom Scharbach on
I get lots of complaints from gay conservatives when I don’t want to be their “dont ask questions, just do it prison b#itch”. Far more then I get from liberals or even actual libertarians .
In theory, libertarians have a high regard for individual conscience, and are probably less likely than either liberals or conservatives to demand that others rally round and support the flag, so to speak. In theory, anyway.
posted by Polymath Level8 on
I’m not for intersectionality mine self. But I love it that 99% of the ‘broad gains’ that Lee notices was brought about by the liberal left. Now he has the gall to tell use where the movement should go from here. There seems to be no limit to republican arrogance.
posted by Kosh III on
” Now he has the gall to tell use where the movement should go from here. There seems to be no limit to republican arrogance.”
Nannies and bullies always think they know what’s best for others and are willing to use the coercive power of the state to compel others to obey their commandments.
posted by David Bauler on
Homophobia hurt the feminist movement, especially in the late 1960s/1970s when the gay rights movement began to be noticed.
When women said, “Im not a feminst but…” they were often saying “im not an evil lesbian vampire, but”
posted by Lori Heine on
The phenomenon you’re talking about is, unfortunately, still present. The mental health movement (it doesn’t even have a name yet–it’s the movement for liberation for those with mental health issues) is running headlong into the same sort of thing.
The Left should be our allies–or so we would think. But people feel funny in their tummies about “crazy” people, because they’ve seen all the horror movies and think they know all about the issue.
The parallels are remarkable. A seemingly-insurmountable taboo exists, and the grass roots are rising up to overcome it–with almost no help from organized “progressives.” Because so much of the stigma and prejudice is used to justify heavy-handed government control (often merely because those being controlled are dissidents from the propaganda of the powerful). libertarians are really getting on board with the movement.
This libertarian former leftist is all in. But I see how much work there is to do.