[Active-l] I wrote this on Friday.

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

	I wrote the below article on Friday and posted it to my livejournal,  
which gets a lot but not all of the traffic this list gets. I am  
currently deciding, after the ENDA fiasco, what role, if any, I  
intend to have in politics in the future. Whatever it is, it will be  
significantly reduced. Probably not zero; I've been spending more  
attention on the authoritarian takeover of the US political system  
than anything else political as of late anyway.
	This is actually the quite-a-bit-less-bitter version. I posted the  
much-more-angry-and-bitter version behind filters.
	Anyway, this is why you won't be seeing too much out of me for at  
least a little while. I thought I was used to abject betrayal,  
particularly in politics, and kind of inured to it... but this was  
one too many, and one too gleefully executed. For now, at least, I'm  
done.
					- Dara

-----
And today the knives are really coming out
Friday, November 9, 2007

http://solarbird.livejournal.com/568436.html

It has been often noted that an alliance is at its most vulnerable in  
two stages: at the verge of defeat, and at the edge of victory. This  
is an example.

We've just watched the GLB portion of the former GBLT alliance throw  
the transgendered under the bus. That was bad - _real_ bad -  
behaviour, and signals very clearly that the national GLB rights  
movement - particularly the G part of it, if Andrew Sullivan's  
commentary this morning is any indication - has reached a treasured  
milestone in American society: the point where they can say, "fuck  
you, I got mine," and knife the somewhat-more-undesirable  
undesirables in the back to demonstrate that there's someone else  
they're better than. It's kind of the welcome ceremony of American  
politics, really; one of the things you do is turn to some of your  
own and say, "thanks for your decades of work and money and blood,  
now here's a shiny knife for you, right between your ribs. Buh-bye!"

There's been some pretending that this is about incrementalism, but  
that's a lie, and I think the people spouting off about that  
generally know it. Civil unions vs. marriage - that's incrementalism.  
Job protections but not lending? That would be incrementalism. Taking  
part of your alliance and throwing them to the wolves as  
untouchables? That's not. The pretending is just that - a pretense, a  
way of justifying the betrayal, to turn the anger of those they've  
betrayed into anger of their own back at their victims. _How dare you  
complain? How DARE you?!_ they howl. And then they blame you for what  
they've done.

Today, though, the knives are _really_ coming out. The successful  
vote sealed it, I suppose; the Stranger is crowing about how Good and  
Right and Necessary it was (1), tho' this time, at least, there's  
much more argument than agreement in the comments so far. (This  
wasn't true in the previous post.) The _New York Times_ is pushing  
the "incrementalist" lie (2), heaping praise on Representative Frank.  
Andrew Sullivan is going off on how the zomg trannies were never part  
of _his_ coalition, and for that matter, he's not even sure having  
the G and L together makes that much sense either (3). Gay journalist  
Rex Wockner pretends that the transgendered are somehow new to this  
whole struggle, and wants to know who the hell invited them, anyway,  
and why don't they do their own work (4) - ignoring the decades of  
effort running the other direction, of course, and the transgendered  
participation in (and arguably initiation of) the Stonewall Riots, as  
all the people on that side of this maneuver do. And the Stranger  
linked to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog - commending him specifically  
in doing so - who is all for the knifing (5), spending more time  
blasting Inclusive-ENDA backers National Gay and Lesbian Task Force  
than the fundamentalists, and who holds up the 70% number in that  
Human Rights Campaign poll to talk more about how Good and Right it  
all was.

I'm genuinely surprised. I thought that the "normal" queers, having  
so much immediate experience with the politics of betrayal and self- 
sabotage, would forget less quickly, or, at least, might go, "y'know?  
That really sucked. I don't want any part of that." But I was wrong;  
apparently the reaction has been less that and more, "Man, I can't  
wait until it's my turn. That's gonna be _great_."

So. Who gets thrown under the bus next? Bisexuals, who don't _really_  
count, since a lot of them (us) end up with opposite-gender partners  
(tho' not in my case)? It's much easier, having that option; maybe  
they (we) aren't so deserving. Plus everybody knows they really want  
one of each, and that's not what Real Gay People Want, and is kinda  
icky. Kinda _greedy_. Or maybe even lesbians, as hinted at by Mr.  
Sullivan today, noting that he doesn't "really believe there is even  
a 'gay and lesbian community' as such"? All that time lesbians put in  
helping AIDS-stricken gay men in the 1980s? Screw that, there are  
drugs now. Ancient history.

Or maybe nobody. Maybe having played out the political blood rite,  
the HRC and the national GLB community will manage not to shed any  
more letters. It's not like they can afford the numbers. But even  
given the manifest stupidity of such a thing, I don't know how much  
money I'd want to put against it. Not today, anyway. Maybe tomorrow  
it will be different. Maybe Monday. Maybe the NGLTF can displace HRC  
as the queer organisation that people actually know. I guess we'll see.

When people reference that adage about alliances coming apart at the  
edge of victory, they usually forget the part where that's how  
alliances often _lose_ that same triumph.

I know they've just lost me.

--
1: http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/what_they_said
2: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/opinion/09fri1.html? 
_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1194634888- 
FLwGI2CzSiSF5EvMRk0t6g
3: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/11/the- 
lgbtqrstz-c.html
4: http://wockner.blogspot.com/2007/11/trans-wars-doin-it-for- 
themselves.html
5: http://www.americablog.com/2007/11/um-you-do-realize-that-enda- 
could-still.html