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mihangel
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Likes it here |
Location: UK
Registered: July 2002
Messages: 192
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A while back there was a thread on the murder of Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands. In this connection, there was an interesting column in the Guardian a week ago (15 May) by Richard Goldstein, editor of Village Voice (Greenwich Village NY?), entitled Queering the Pitch. It discusses the political rise of the conservative gay right (to which Fortuyn of course belonged), and underlines the strength of the movement in the US - apparently, and astonishingly, at least a million gay people voted for Bush. Their strength seems to lie in promoting individualism; and the article has ideas about how the radical gay movement must counter them. Here is a specimen:
"Will a new generation, raised in the sway of American mythologies, accept the gay right's insistence that we are each
solely responsible for our own destiny? Much depends on the
future of another concept central to the democratic left:
empathy. Progressive politics hinges on the ability to
understand how race, class, gender and sexuality intersect to
produce a social hierarchy. Gay liberation draws its meaning
from a similar analysis of the relationship between sexual
repression and social oppression. The very word queer connotes
an affiliation with other outcast groups.
"It is impossible to imagine any other country where such a gay
gay politician could have got as far as Fortuyn did in the
Netherlands. But his saga must be regarded as a sign of what
could occur in other cultures as gay people rise. That is why the advance of gay conservatism underscores the importance of
reinvigorating the rich connections between progressive thought
and queer sensibility."
The whole thing's worth reading (www.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,11981,715744,00.html). Can anyone, especially in the US, comment?
PS. I'm a bear of very little brain, and don't know how to make a link in a mail live. Could some kind soul please enlighten me, in the simplest of language?
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