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Taking back economic power
By Cathy Holt
Black Mountain, North Carolina, June 20— Alternative currencies
— from the shiny one-ounce $10 Liberty dollars to the well-known
Ithaca Hour, the colorful “NC Plenty” and the Earthaven Leap
system — were passed around and admired by about 85 participants
from 8 states and Canada last weekend at the Reclaiming Economics Conference
hosted by Earthhaven Ecovillage. Twenty-one presenters shared their
knowledge and experience about the current banking system, local currencies
and exchange systems, innovative credit plans, community building and
empowerment.
The conference opened with participants acting out their demographics
by moving within the room. Instead of the usual introductions, people
discovered who had ever filed for bankruptcy or been homeless, who had
ever grown half their own food, not filed income taxes, or had a PhD.
Kevin Innes, Asheville’s regional currency officer for the American
Liberty Dollar (a coin and a debt relief specialist, revealed a little
known fact. Once the gold standard was abandoned, the Federal Reserve
(a cartel of bankers) simply created paper money backed by nothing,
and charges compound interest on it. When a bank issues a loan, that
is considered an “asset” (money is created by lending it).
How does peak oil affect the economy? Jim Latendresse, a financial analyst,
explained how oil’s initial return on investment of 100% is dropping
dramatically as oil takes more and more energy to extract. Oil gives
the dollar its value, and Saddam Hussein was considering selling oil
for Euros -- this would have caused the dollar to collapse (one more
reason for the war). The oil use curve shows that the amount of oil
available in 2040 will be as low as the amount in use in the 1930’s,
and that the peak has already occurred; yet demand for oil will continue
to rise worldwide. The human population curve has followed the oil curve,
so far.
The Emma Family Resource Center, directed by Arinda Manning, provided
a lovely example of how a local currency — Emma Bucks — can
help people who are at the bottom. The low income, largely Latino residents
of Emma are regaining their dignity and self-reliance while building
strong community ties. Using the “Time Dollars” model, this
community exchange program lets members swap for such services as auto
repair, transportation, errands, yard work, Spanish or English lessons.
Bob LeRoy, accountant for Ithaca Hours and board member, described how
the Ithaca Health Fund, a nonprofit insurance plan, grew out of the
Ithaca Hours success. For just $100, subscribers can receive care for
broken bones or teeth, stitches, appendectomies, root canals, burn care,
diagnostic checkups, and even vasectomies. Best of all, it’s not
limited to Ithaca residents (although they receive discounts from many
local practitioners). See www.bridgingthegapforhealthcare.org.
NC Plenty (Piedmont Local EcoNomy Tender), an alternative currency for
4 counties in the Piedmont, has been redefining the “Research Triangle”
sense of place. Started just 2 years ago, they now have $8,000 worth
in circulation, and many diverse businesses participating, including
co-op grocery stores, restaurants, farmer’s markets, Community
Supported Agriculture. They have even given small grants and created
a game for learning about their system.
Brad Johnson, who was the chief organizer of this conference, was involved
in starting Baltimore Hours and spoke about BALLE (Business Alliance
for Local, Living Economies). Founded by White Dog Cafe owner Judy Wicks
of Philadelphia, this national organization encourages business owners
to form local clusters that can have significant political clout. Business
owners sign voluntary pledges to pay a living wage, use renewable energy,
buy local, and be socially responsible. Existing clusters such as in
Baltimore have promoted use of local foods in schools, and held educational
forums. Unlike what David Korten of POCLAD (Project on Corporations
Law and Democracy) magazine terms the “suicide economy” (motivated
by love of money instead of love of life), the living economies movement
is dedicated to meeting people’s basic needs.
The Permaculture Credit Union was founded in 2000 in Santa Fe to promote
Permaculture ethics: care for the earth, care for people, and reinvesting
surplus to benefit all of earth’s inhabitants. Anyone who holds
these values may become a member. Credit unions are a nonprofit alternative
to banks, where the money returns to the members. They offer simple
interest loans for cars (with “sustainability discounts” for
high mileage and hybrid cars), home mortgages, solar installations,
and unsecured loans up to $5,000.
Sharon Oxendine, program director of the local nonprofit Mountain MicroEnterprise
Fund, explained how over 600 WNC business owners received training and
startup loans through this totally government subsidized fund.
Jim Schulman, director of Sustainable Communities Initiative of Washington
DC, spoke about reclaiming material wastes — the profit and ecological
benefits gained by skilled deconstruction of old buildings rather than
wasteful and hazardous demolition. Communities can retrieve cooperative
control over waste management systems, gaining better health, financial
and community benefits. Old wood floors, beams, joists will become even
more valuable.
Asheville Playback Theater entertained an appreciative audience, acting
out their stories as well as portraying “sustainability” in
both amusing and profound ways. They received a standing ovation for
their inspired dramatizations.
The gathering closed with a group visualization of an economy that would
be sustainable to the 7th generation, and a singing spiral dance.
Marx in the tangled web of the Middle
East
Review by John Brinker
Eastern Cauldron: Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine and
Iraq in a Marxist Mirror
By Gilbert Achcar
Monthly Review Press, 2004
June 23 (AGR) -- This recent collection of essays written over
the past 23 years presents a sampling of one Marxist writer’s response
to the tangled web that is Middle Eastern politics. Organized by country
– Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq respectively – and therein
chronologically, the book allows the reader to follow the twists and
turns of history as it unfolded, as well as the author’s reactions
to facts on the ground. When Achcar is being descriptive, helping the
reader pick her way through a complicated history full of revolutionary
fronts, mullahs, and duplicitous treaties, he’s as helpful as Virgil
leading Dante through the Inferno. It’s only when he attempts to
be prescriptive that Achcar falls flat.
The weakest spot in Achcar’s analysis is Islam itself. As one who
is – of course – an atheist, the author’s attitude towards
Muslims is that they’ve smoked a little too much opium of the masses,
and that we can only hope that one day they’ll come to their senses.
Without a minimum of respect for the culture of the Middle East, Achcar
can’t be a very convincing expert on the topic. More than once,
Achcar uses the term “backwards” to describe Islamic societies.
The book’s first essay, dating from 1981, begins as a sober account
of the forces that gave rise to the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism
that began in the late 1970s. However, in textbook Marxist style, Achcar
reaches a shrill crescendo, asserting “the duty of revolutionary
socialists is to fight intransigently against the spell [Islamic fundamentalism]
casts on the struggling masses.”
Even Achcar concedes that, since that essay was written, the fight has
been lost or abandoned, and that this “medieval” religion
somehow seems relevant to its millions of adherents. While theocracy
is hardly an appealing concept to this reviewer, perhaps we ought to
start by taking it seriously if we want to understand its appeal. All
of which seems to have become clear to Achcar of late. In a more recent
interview on the subject of Palestine, he states that “As long
as they have no real competitor for the embodiment of the aspirations
of the downtrodden masses, and as long as the social effects of globalization
are with us, the fundamentalists are with us.”
The major quandary of a book on Middle Eastern affairs “in a Marxist
mirror” is that Marxism has had a very limited influence on that
region recently. The history of the Middle East has not obeyed the Marxist
rules of development, which insists that countries must – and will
– become western-style capitalist, parliamentary states with a
European class structure as a prelude to socialist revolution. Achcar
even quotes Lenin on the topic, who said “…we have to wait
until the given nation develops, until the differentiation of the proletariat
from the bourgeois elements, which is inevitable, has taken place.”
The failure to date of Marxism in the Middle East can be partially traced,
as Achcar documents, to the crushing of socialist movements throughout
the Middle East by nationalist regimes, especially those under the tutelage
of the US. But perhaps it can also be said that Marx’s clockwork
theory of history isn’t as universally applicable as his followers
would like to believe.
Where Achcar excels is in making the twists and turns of recent Middle
Eastern history make sense to readers who may not be experts on foreign
affairs. The author has a keen understanding of the nuts and bolts of
international politics, and understands that all governments act in
fairly narrow self-interest. Achcar lays the cards out on the table
in a way that doesn’t play favorites, even with “liberal”
or socialist states.
Several of the articles here were originally intended as primers on
various aspects of unfolding events. Especially useful are the introductory
essay on the US’s history of involvement in the Middle East, and
several essays on the Israel/Palestine conflict that help expose the
so-called “Allon Plan” which is the blueprint that Israel
has chosen to follow in the subjugation of its indigenous population.
In regards to Iraq, Achcar’s analysis is useful, if not original.
As Bush’s rush to war played out, Achcar had little hope the war
could be avoided, but clearly spelled out the real objectives of the
US: control of Iraqi oil, and the seizure of a strategic area from which
to consolidate its military and economic hegemony over the Middle East
and Central Asia. Like others, Achcar’s analysis of geopolitics
sees the US as the only remaining national superpower, but posits the
worldwide anti-war movement as a power of comparable strength with the
potential to stop the Empire dead in its tracks. We can only hope he’s
right.
The man who ate McDonald’s faces
corporate backlash
By Andrew Gumbel
June 19— A few days into his grand experiment of eating
all McDonald’s, all the time, for 30 days straight, the New York
film-maker Morgan Spurlock started complaining of headaches and other
unpleasant side-effects: listlessness, depression, chest pains, shortness
of breath, sexual dysfunction and more. His headaches, however, almost
certainly pale in comparison to the giant, throbbing one his much-discussed
documentary Super Size Me is causing the executives who run Ronald
McDonald’s global empire.
More than five weeks after it was released in the United States, the
film is playing on more screens than ever — 230 nationally and
expanding every week — and has racked up more than $7.5 million
in domestic box office receipts, more than 100 times what it cost
to make.
Instead of suffering the usual fate of documentaries — a limp
roll-out in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by oblivion
and late-night television reruns — Super Size Me is showing every
sign of being a bona fide hit, especially with teenagers, the very
demographic so hotly sought out by McDonald’s marketing managers.
Every night, audiences are confronted with the sight of Spurlock’s
alarmingly deteriorating health as he shovels one McDonald’s
meal into his mouth after another. He eats McDonald’s for breakfast,
lunch and dinner, vowing to try everything on the menu at least once
in the course of his experiment, minimizing his physical exercise
(in keeping with the relative immobility of the average American)
and agreeing that he will “super size” the portions he orders
whenever the server suggests it to him (again, in accordance with
the proclivities of regular fast-food customers).
For the final 15 minutes of the screening I attended earlier this
week, film-goers revolted by the sight of one too many Egg McMuffins
and super-sized side orders of fries were groaning and writhing in
their seats. A food industry lobbyist who defended McDonald’s
was booed when he made the last of several appearances on screen.
By this point, Spurlock was being told by his doctors that his cholesterol
was shooting off the charts, his liver was turning to paté
and he risked meeting the same terminally self-destructive fate as
Nicolas Cage’s alcoholic protagonist in Leaving Las Vegas. The
damage was far beyond anything Spurlock’s trio of specialists
had imagined possible, and they begged him (in vain) to abandon his
stunt.
To say this is a public relations disaster for McDonald’s is
a gross understatement. It is a nightmare that shows no signs of ending.
Spurlock has — almost literally — regurgitated the contents
of his high-fat, high-sugar diet onto the collective desks of McDonald’s
management, and they appear to be at a loss as to what to do about
it.
For the first five weeks, they restricted their responses to little
more than a generic observation that overeating is bad on any diet.
No doubt they reasoned that kicking up a bigger fuss would generate
further publicity for the movie. But that hush-hush strategy clearly
has not worked, and the company has now begun to fight back in more
vigorous fashion. The chosen battleground is not the US but Australia,
where Super Size Me was released earlier this month and broke national
box office records with its opening weekend receipts.
“If someone from America produces a film, and then comes out
to Australia and attacks us, I’m not going to take that sitting
down,” the chief executive of McDonald’s Australia, Guy
Russo, said earlier this week.
Russo has himself taken the leading role in a series of television
advertisements in which he tackles Spurlock head on and calls him
“stupid” for eating a solid junk food diet for 30 days in
a row. In a flurry of newspaper and television interviews, Russo has
explained how he was enraged on seeing the film earlier this month.
“No one eats McDonald’s food three times a day, every day,
and no one should,” he told the Melbourne newspaper The Age.
(He himself says he eats his own company’s meals at least three
times a week, and has done for the past 30 years.) “We believe,
and have always believed, that McDonald’s can be eaten as part
of a well-balanced diet. What Spurlock set out to do, which was to
double his daily calorie intake, deliberately not exercise and over-eat,
was totally irresponsible.”
In an offensive predicated on charm as well as full-frontal attack,
Russo has also argued that McDonald’s takes the issue of obesity
very seriously, having introduced salads, low-fat breakfasts and nutritional
labeling in the past 18 months.
To date, McDonald’s has not challenged the factual content of
Super Size Me, only its point of view and interpretation. But that,
too, could be about to change, after Russo complained in an interview
with Sky TV that Spurlock was “providing false claims to Australians.”
He did not spell out what those false claims might be, and both Spurlock
and the film’s Australian publicists have taken great pleasure
in pointing out that Russo’s opinions on the point appear to
have undergone a radical change. “Less than two weeks ago when
I was in Brisbane,” Spurlock shot back a few days ago, “he
and I did an interview together on a radio station where he said the
movie was important because it highlighted the obesity epidemic.”
Whatever the rights and wrongs of these points of view, it is clear
that a propaganda war is in progress, and that something made Russo
decide that playing nice wasn’t working. But playing nasty is
having boomerang effects of its own.
The Australian distributor, Dendy Films, reacted to the McDonald’s
television advertising campaign by claiming that cinema managers were
having to spend longer cleaning up auditoriums where Super Size Me
has been showing because people alarmed by the dangers of bad eating
presented on screen were leaving behind full cartons of popcorn and
soda cups. In a less contentious climate, it is probably not something
it would have bothered to put out in a press release. Dendy also offered
a free ticket to the film for any employee of McDonald’s Australia.
Spurlock, meanwhile, has taken issue with Russo’s nutrition labeling
claims, saying that the posted signs at point of purchase — which
Russo said were his “commitment” in the interview they did
together — were not evident in most Australian outlets of McDonald’s.
From the fast-food industry’s point of view, there was probably
never going to be a good time for a film like Super Size Me. It has
hit McDonald’s not quite at the worst time — that would
have been 18 months ago, when the company posted its first ever quarterly
loss and its share price lost three-quarters of its value — but
at something very close to it.
When Super Size Me had its debut in January at the Sundance Film Festival,
where it picked up an award for documentary directing, McDonald’s
had just pulled itself out of a hole caused by over-aggressive expansion,
growing complaints about customer service, concerns about obesity,
a volley of lawsuits filed against the fast-food industry and —
to cap it all — fears of mad cow disease.
The company had already recognized it needed to do something about
the health liability of its products. In addition to the salads and
yogurt breakfasts introduced in Australia and elsewhere, it added
low-fat milk and sliced fresh apples to its menus in the US, the UK
and elsewhere. The revamp worked, at least financially, and soon McDonald’s
executives were hailing their turnaround hero, the chief executive,
Jim Cantalupo, as a visionary and genius on a par with the company’s
founder, Ray Kroc. Or they did until Cantalupo dropped dead of a heart
attack in April — hardly the best publicity for a fast-food company
on a health kick.
One of the most galling aspects of Super Size Me, from the company’s
viewpoint, must have been its illustration of the calorie and sugar
content of even these new “healthy” items. The film demonstrates
— using McDonald’s own nutritional data — that some
of the salad dressings are as bad as anything else on the menu. The
caesar salad with chicken première, for example, contains more
fat than a cheeseburger.
Remarkably, just six weeks after Sundance, McDonald’s announced
that the super-sizing that Spurlock reacts to so vehemently in the
film (his first encounter with a mega-portion of fries and Coke ends
up on the asphalt of the drive-through parking lot, along with a double
quarter pounder he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish) was
to be phased out by the end of this year. Even more remarkably, the
company insisted the decision had nothing to do with the film, but
had been under consideration for several months.
Another McDonald’s announcement came on the very eve of Super
Size Me’s US release on May 6: the introduction of the “Go
Active Happy Meal,” complete with salad, free exercise manual
and a Stepometer for customers to monitor their daily walking regime.
Again, the company insisted the timing was a coincidence.
Not everyone in the food industry has responded so bashfully. Even
before the Australian counter-attack, an outfit called the American
Council on Science and Health started ripping into Super Size Me in
a series of press releases, op-ed pieces and capsule opinions offered
by purported dietary and health experts. Another organization, called
Tech Central Station, offered itself as a clearing house of opinion
and factual evidence, condemning Spurlock’s film as a scurrilous,
misleading, “disgusting,” “dangerous” and “dishonest”
piece of work.
The American Council on Science and Health has not publicly disclosed
its corporate donors since 1991, but in the past they have included
potato chip manufacturers, chocolate manufacturers, Burger King and
Coca Cola (a business partner of McDonald’s). Tech Central Station,
meanwhile, is backed by the oil giant ExxonMobil, General Motors and,
yes, McDonald’s.
One op-ed piece, by the food industry lobbyist Jim Glassman, made
its way into a couple of US papers, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch,
which apologized after it discovered his direct links to McDonald’s.
But the counter-spinning goes on. One documentary maker, Soso Whaley,
has filmed her own 30-day McDonald’s diet and claims it did her
no harm whatsoever. Her corporate backers: Philip Morris, the tobacco
company, ExxonMobil and Coca Cola.
Source: Independent (UK)
Settling for the system:
How PunkVoter.Com became just another tool
By Scott Evans
June 10— Although for many of us the last four years
have brilliantly demonstrated the undemocratic nature of American
democracy, it seems that some radicals have missed their cues. Presented
with endemic alienation as a result of the failure of American political
structures, most strikingly expressed in the 2000 election, many activists
have actually chosen to channel residual anger into the very system
that generated it. As the facade of capitalist democracy crumbles,
the usual suspects are rallying the public—and preparing to charge,
full-force, back into the smoldering rubble.
One such vanguard is Punk Voter (www.punkvoter.com), a coalition of
over 130 bands and about 30 independent record labels recently formed
with the goal of registering and mobilizing “punk rockers”
in the 2004 election. Their site introduces readers with a reminder
that, “Punk rock has always been on the edge and in the forefront
of politics.” And what could be more edgy than the ballot box?
A quick perusal of Punk Voter’s website reveals more than a few
ironies. While the layout is typical of the punk subculture —
complete with black on red lettering and DIY cut-and-paste imagery
— the message is constructed in a clumsy attempt to sound “legitimate.”
On one page, the Bush administration’s policies are derided as
“chaotic,” a humorous complaint from a group that cites
as influences bands like the Sex Pistols (“Don’t know what
I want / But I know how to get it / I wanna destroy”). Elsewhere
in a guest column, Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy laments that, “if
there is a prolonged war as a result of American global aggression,
the consequences will come to our nice little suburbs.”
Attempts to reconcile youth rebellion with mainstream politics would
be funny if the underlying message wasn’t so dangerous.
Punk Voter’s goal of mobilizing 500,000 youths for the Democratic
Party is, at best, a huge misdirection of time and energy or, at worst,
a destructive initiative that will serve to strengthen the very political
system that punk has made its reputation attacking. Under the pretense
of being a force for social change, the punk subculture has signed
up to do capitalism’s dirty work by reinforcing the fundamental
mythology of representative democracy: The system works — change
comes from within.
Indicative of the shift away from punk’s tradition of confrontation
with capitalism is the fallout that occurred between radical punk
band Propagandhi and Mike Burkett, founder of Punk Voter.
Last March Propagandhi withdrew from Punk Voter’s Rock Against
Bush Vol. 1 compilation after Burkett requested that they remove a
jab at billionaire George Soros from their song contribution. The
liner notes to the song stated, “This message not brought to
you by George Soros.” Burkett explained his request in a post
on Propagandhi’s website. Although he acknowledged that Soros
was involved in selling weapons of war and had “screwed a bunch
of countries to make his money,” Burkett also noted that Soros
was bankrolling “many great organizations such as Moveon.org
and America Coming Together, and these organizations help support
us.” Finally he noted that, “MoveOn [helped push] the ‘Uncovered’
DVD and it sold 40,000 more copies because of them.”
Punk Voter didn’t want to step on any toes if doing so would
threaten its ability to sell records. So much for punk’s independence.
Many radicals will be reluctantly casting a ballot come November.
Agreed, it might be a good idea to discuss strategic voting coupled
with a robust skepticism of political parties . But the message that
Punk Voter is bringing to its largely politically inexperienced audience
is discouragingly artless. Perhaps most conspicuous is Punk Voter’s
adoption of the “2000-proved-that-every-vote-counts” spin
that is being pushed by the Democratic Party. This attempt to rewrite
presidential history would lead us to believe that Bush won the election
based on 537 votes in Florida rather than rampant election fraud,
voter disenfranchisement, and a break down of the electoral system
— all of which are well documented.
Mike Burkett is the first to admit that political analysis isn’t
his strong point. In an interview posted to AlterNet he confesses,
“I don’t actually read as much as I should because the more
I read the more bummed out I get, when I read political books.”
And so it may come as no surprise that Punk Voter is pushing a perspective
without a significant critique to differentiate it from the right-wing
Democratic Leadership Council.
Young people who browse punkvoter.com, seeking some direction or insight
from the artists that they look up to, will be treated to inane nationalism
(American flag imagery, constant references to “our government,”
etc) and a regurgitation of tired liberal themes (Nader was responsible
for the Republican victory, etc.). Shocking statements like, “We
must remember that today’s politicians are servants to their
constituents...” illustrate Punk Voter’s disconnect from
the reality of Belt-way politics.
Nowhere is there any discussion of the limitations of representative
democracy. Or for that matter, the legal exclusion of 10 percent of
the American electorate (including immigrants, ex-felons, and the
homeless), corporate dominance of the political system, the Democratic
Party’s history of imperialism and warmongering, the Help America
Vote Act and the problematic shift toward paperless ballots, or even
Kerry’s own position on domestic and foreign policy issues.
Senator Kerry’s abysmal record has been well covered by a variety
of sources, but apparently some people aren’t listening. His
foreign policy is virtually identical to that of Bush. He supports
first strike and unilateral military action in defense of American
“interests” (read: “business interests”) and has
openly called for an escalation of the Iraqi occupation. As a senator,
he voted for Plan Colombia and NAFTA. On the home front Kerry supported
the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, and No Child
Left Behind—policies that many of the bands endorsing Punk Voter
have vocally rejected!
But Burkett says he thinks Kerry is “all right” because
“he’s a snowboarder and used to play in a band.”
Is this what punk is about? If not, it is time that politically conscious
music fans hold artists accountable for their duplicitous support
of fascism — be it the “conservative” variety espoused
by men like Bush or the “liberal” brand of men like Kerry.
Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 sold 20,000 copies in its first week, but
one is left wondering what punk icons have really accomplished, self-promotion
aside. In a particularly disturbing moment of clarity, Burkett told
CNN that, “Bush getting elected was good for punk music. Now
people have something to get pissed off about.”
Over 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed, but record sales are up.
Source: Counterpunch
Remembering the lessons of the Stonewall
Rebellion
By Finn Finneran
June 23 (AGR)— This past March eleven queer rights activists
were arrested in Asheville at City County Plaza while counter-demonstrating
at a “sanctity of marriage” rally opposing gay marriage.
As one of the eleven arrested that day I distinctly remember sitting
in the paddy wagon, across from a few boys in skirts and thinking,
“Huh, not much has changed since Stonewall.”
The Stonewall rebellion began June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn,
a gay bar in Manhattan. That night police raided the bar. These raids
happened frequently in gay bars, but this time the crowd fought back,
eventually locking the police into the bar until backup arrived and
the riot was temporarily dispersed. Over the next four days two thousand
people went wild in the streets of the West Village after years of
repression, finally bringing gay rights into the spotlight.
Flash back to the scene in the paddy wagon in March. One of the arrestees
asks everyone aboard if any of us actually care if gay people get
married. Silence. Everyone felt that gay people should have the same
rights as everyone else, but we were more concerned about the sentiment
that queer people should hide their existence.
Now gay people can marry in Massachusetts and many queer and transgender
activists are nervous that married, middle-class gay people will take
this to mean that the gay movement has “arrived,” thereby
leaving behind some of the most oppressed people in the queer community.
AIDS is still prevalent. In North Carolina there are no discrimination
or hate crime laws that include gay or transgender people. Transgender
people are rarely acknowledged as exisitng, much less given any rights.
Transgender people have experienced discrimination, ostracism, and
hate crimes. At the time of the Stonewall rebellion drag queens and
butches were often harassed, arrested, and beaten by police.
The rebellion mostly consisted of and was initiated by drag queens
and butches. In short, the very thing that sparked gay rights activism
would not have happened without the aid of trans people. Unfortunately
many of the strides gay advocacy and lobbying groups have made leave
out trans people, often for fear of de-legitimizing their group.
“For 30 years I’ve been struggling and fighting, and I still
feel like an outcast in the gay community,” said Sylvia Rivera,
a transgender woman who participated in the Stonewall Riots, on NPR.
Many gay rights groups attempt to show that gay people are normal
like straight people, thus excluding anyone who is not “normal.”
Patrick Califia, a contemporary commentator on sexual politics, says
in an essay on gay marriage, “In some ways, we are like everybody
else. We fall in love. We want our lives to be happy and comfortable.
But in other ways we are not like straight people. The ‘queer
family’ is a diverse community that includes some sexual behavior
and gender identities that look weird and scare the hell out of heterosexuals…
Everybody has a right to be left alone and work out their own life.”
There are divides in the gay rights movement to be bridged. Luckily,
this weekend people all over the nation of all sexual orientations
and gender identities will come together to relish our diversity and
to remember the beginning of it all : Stonewall.
Here in Asheville there will be a Stonewall Celebration on Sunday
at City County Plaza, full of speeches, drag shows, ice cream, DJs,
marching, and bands including The Black Lung Brass Band and Weapons
of Massturbation. The gathering will meet at 3, march at 5, and hang
out and eat ice cream at 7. Despite the criticisms queer people often
endure from the outside world, and each other, this weekend’s
festivities marks another chance to come together and be proud.
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