Please take 4-5 minutes to watch this video.
Nicely done, overall.
One thing I'm concerned or this made me think, not necessarily just this video but also in any other anti-anti-gay arguments, is that we often get caught up in explaining why we are natural and normal, thus deserving of respect. I mean, I guess we may really be natural and normal, as we believe. I don't argue against that.
What I really want to highlight is that these kinds of arguments can be extremely able-ist. This video points out that homosexuality is not considered as a mental disorder. What does it say about people who have different mental/emotional/psychological abilities? If we are to say that homosexuality is normal because it's not a disorder, we are essentially pathologizing various abilities and perpetuating the idea that mental disorders and disabilities are unacceptable pathogens in society that need to be controlled.
Decades ago, middle-class White gays and lesbians tried to gain respect from society by emphasizing how "normal" they are. They would wear nice clothes and behave themselves, peacefully marching around with signs in their hands. They even called themselves "homohphiles" to divert attention from the "sexual" part of "homosexual." During the Stonewall uprising, those gays and lesbians in the homophile movement went around telling other Queers (including drag queens, Queer people of color, and trans folks) to calm down, shut up, stay home and act like respectable citizens because they believed that as long as they act "normally," they would be respected and assimilated into the heteronormative society. This politic is called assimilationism.
Not only this video but also many other political acts within Queer communities still show the tendency of assimilationism. Take "movements" for same-sex marriage or open military participation for example. They're saying that they just want to live like "normal" heterosexual people. But the questions is, do we want to be assimilated into a society that's already fucked up, ultimately excluding someone else who would never be included?
This is why social justice movement must be holistic and revolutionary. If equality means that we're getting the same thing as what they have, I don't want such fucked-up equality. I would like to build a society where we can be and love who we are no matter how "abnormal," "unnatural," and "perverted" you are. I would like to build it with you.
1 comments for this post
I thought the video was interesting in that it didn't even bother to address certain counter-arguments regarding the nurturing aspect of development. I think, at times, people don't give enough credit to formative stages in childhood, although I understand how difficult that would be to quantify and measure.
I also think that any approach to equality is laudable. I don't think the assimilationists want a different kind of equality than you. I also don't think their method is wrong. While it should not be our duty to PROVE that we are human, ultimately, the power to decide what is accepted and what isn't is in the hands of the majority. It's important to know a) what will be the most convincing argument and b) how truthful is the content of this argument. There's nothing wrong with the state of equality in the world (as, in a sense, discrimination stops us from eating poison berries). I don't think there needs to be a revolution: I simply think we need to try and understand.