against white picket fences

it's tiring, the drowning of the queer rights movement in the quest for hetero-normative assimilation, currently known as "marriage equality". ugh. for more on this read what the adorable lil miss hot mess has collected here, in the aptly titled post: marriage vomit.

and hurray for the queers holding down the radical politics! the ones who recall the pre-stonewall riot at compton's cafeteria in the tl, which saw working-class drag queens unleash years of pent up fury on homophobic cops. the ones fighting every day for decent & affordable housing, for immigrant & workers' rights, for universal healthcare. the ones who shut down the ny stock exchange to protest a pharmaceutical industry shamelessly profiteering from human suffering. the ones who continue to call out sf mayor gavin newsom as the defender of the ruling class that he is, who aren't blinded by his blatant political opportunism in the form of bestowing "marriage rights".

as tommi says in the introduction to his excellent anthology on the early years of the queer rights movement:

As long as queer people are homeless, hungry and without jobs or medical coverage, as long as LGBT workers don't receive a living wage, as long as the wealth of this country is in the hands of a few, as long as the means of production are owned by that very same monied class, we queers will never truly have achieved what gay liberation set out to do four decades ago.

: tommi avicolli mecca

thanks to jonathan for sending along this performance by jamaica-born stacyann chin. it's brilliant! the best & most well-spoken articulation i've seen in a long time of what's gone wrong with a movement that started with a riot (take your pick, stonewall or compton's) & is currently racing towards the white picket prison...

stacyann chin at culture project soho :