False inclusivity

Posted on: July 26, 2008 - 11:43am
False inclusivity
So I get an email sent out to the community from an employee at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). An organization that claims to represent all of the LGBT community. They officially changed their name to just Task Force on their organizational documents but they still use NGLTF on most of their materials and on their web site. They are asking for input from all community members who have felt marginalized within the movement. Guess whiuch marginalized group they left out of the request for input..... bisexuals..... again.
NGLTF is characteristic of one of those old school organizations which are inclusive in name or claim only and which actually reach out to the B and T part of the community only when they need money and want more donations. As you become able and these organizations ask for your time and money make sure that you look closely at the organization and restrict your gifts and work to organizations that either directly represent you or which inlcusively represent the entire LGBTQ community. If an organization claims to represent the entire LGBTQ community make sure that it actually does so and not just in claim or name only.
One of the things that gives me hope is that as the younger queer generation grows and replace my own generation and the generation ahead of me in leadership these organizations either chgange or disappear.
You guys are so much more integrated and inclusive than we were. My generation is changing slowly. Ou guys should help by speaking up and demanding that those olf silly political loines between the various subgroups need to go.
End rant.

Posted on: July 27, 2008 - 10:52am #1

Not that I'm discounting the importance of such organizations now, but the day I'm really looking forward to is when we don't need such organizations, when acceptance becomes second nature.
Posted on: July 27, 2008 - 2:55pm #2

Haha. "End rant".

You'd think that marginalized groups would be more inclusive after seeing the kind of damage that exclusivity and discrimination can do to people. But it doesn't happen that way. Marginalized groups tend to marginalize others just as much as anyone else, and it's quite sad.

Lol! "Makes me a sad panda..." (I'm sorry.. South Park just jumped out at me.. XD)

The GLBT community still seems to have a heavy focus on gay males, and it doesn't seem to be changing much any time soon. I mean, just look at the definition of beauty: male, white, muscular, young, etc...  Yups. Makes me sad, indeed.

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"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived."
- Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod 
__________________

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: July 27, 2008 - 3:10pm #3
I think part of the problem some of the "old fashioned" gay groups have with bisexuals is that they only see them as being "half-marginalized". I mean, if you look at it, it doesn't make much sense, but it's as if they consider bisexuals as being half-straight, thus not marginalized in the same way that "pure gays" are. Again, it doesn't make much sense, but that's how it is with most of our rationalizations...

It's interesting how abuse can perpetuate abuse. I wonder why that is? It's like since it's the only way people have known, it's the only way they know how to respond...



"That which is to give light must endure burning"
- Viktor Frankl
Posted on: July 27, 2008 - 3:28pm #4

I remember many conversations on chat places like Mogenic.com (which is down at the moment.. -.- stupid thing-thing..) where there was some "bi-bashing" going on. It was silly. Here you are, teens who are gay or lesbian (usually guys seem to be more apt to bash bisexuality) and who have gone through all that homophobia bashing bisexuality. They use on bisexual folks many of the same "arguments"  that homophobic folks use against them. It baffles my mind.

But then again, I think there's a trend in that bullies are usually people who were once bullied. So instead of reflecting on the abuse they endured and decided to act against it, they seem to embraced that kind of abuse (or be trapped by it?).

One of the strangest things I learned was the rampant racism within Chinese communities. (And here you thought that white vs. black racism was bad.) Apparently, there's racism betweem the slightly different ethnic groups that make up those who we call Chinese (or east Asian for that matter). Forget the obvious differences in light and dark skin colour. People seem to find reasons to hate if your nose is too long, or your eyes are farther apart or that your hair is coarse. And these are the same Chinese folks that have endured all that discrimination in North America in the form of head taxes and whatever. Silly, eh?

I guess people seem to always been creative enough to find reasons to hate.

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"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived."
- Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod 
__________________

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: July 27, 2008 - 10:21pm #5
I have a lot of hope for things as your generation takes over..... mostly that is. I listen to my son who was able to come out with no pressure and catch no crap from family friends or at school and yet he can be phenomenally biggoted.
I have watched querr activities for a long time and i have been part of them for a long time and yes things are getting better, a lot better. But After queer theory has been with us long enough now to have a generatiuon who are so much less biggoted I jst get so frstrated when I run up against people who are biggots and should know better.
Posted on: July 28, 2008 - 11:13am #6
Well, it seems like throughout history groups think they can gain 'favor' or 'acceptance' through otherizing others. Whether it be for social, economic, or political gain..no one wants to be at "the bottom", obviously. As for bisexuals being half marginalized, if anything they're double marginalized- by the gay and straight community.

I agree with what the.watcher said about bullies. Its not uncommon for those who are abused to then "pass it along".

All I gotta say is that song.."people are people" lol


"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."- Oscar Wilde
Posted on: July 28, 2008 - 7:36pm #7

*sigh* people are people.. =(

Now.. if we could make people not people! >XD Bwahahaha...We'll order the world à la Brave New World! (And sex will become a social activity as a side-result.. XD)

------------------------------------
 

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived."
- Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod 
__________________

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: July 28, 2008 - 9:56pm #8
I knew that bi people were marginalized by the GL community, often simply because they are forgotten about in the struggle, but I had never known of so much blatant bigotry!  I think it is because at my school, there are more openly bi than gay people, and these people all intermix and date and don't get their knickers in a twist over the other's preferences.  That just goes to show that you can't judge the entire world from personal experience.  Also, trans people are almost never mentioned by those who profess to be for the LGBT community.  The transgender community has many different issues, and I can understand a group of LGB people not including it because they don't know anything about it, but they should at least be honest and say LGB.
Posted on: July 29, 2008 - 9:53am #9
Exactly Mr. Fox, your generation has a completely different attitude toward these issues. When it happens with younger organizations it usually is oversight. When the older groups do it it is often intentional. The history of the various groups not getting along for the last four decades is intense. Now things are slowly melding into a strong and inclusive community. But we have to continue to do that with intention so that momentum isn't lost.
Posted on: July 29, 2008 - 2:13pm #10
Of course. And its really sad when 'groups' of people who should be working together fight about who's got it worse, instead of for progress.


"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."- Oscar Wilde