Assignment #5: Strategies and Tactics

     

    Part 1

    The Stonewall Protest in 1969, in which GLBT people attacked police when raided, was the first large-scale violent protest that the GLBT community participated in.  Stonewall was a reaction to built-up frustration within the LGBT community at being victims for so long, and not being protected under the law.  After this event, local gay and lesbian underground groups came out of the woodworks and fought for liberation.  Gay and lesbian liberation in the 1970’s sought nothing less than affirmation: queer sexuality is morally equivalent to straight sexuality.  The “homophile” movement as it was termed in the 60’s and 70’s became early divided over issues concerning the strategy of the movement.  The homophile movement was practicing single-issue politics in that the only issue it concerned itself with was homosexuality.  The movement became divided, because many people felt marginalized due to multiple oppressions they felt in their life, and the homophile movement was simply not meeting their needs. 

    Other instances of violent protests include the “White Night” riots in the spring of 1979, spurred by the lenient jury verdict in the murder of the gay mayor of San Francisco, Harvey Milk.  However, for the most part, the Queer Movement has abandoned such tactics and really concentrated on going mainstream.  This meant calming down a little and doing more peaceful protests and marches.  One cannot assimilate by becoming violent against the group you desire to join.

    The Queer Movement has almost always used nonviolent tactics as a way to achieve movement goals.  The Queer Movement does not feel that violence should actively be pursued to reach movement goals, although acts of violence have been committed upon gay and lesbian people regularly throughout the 20th century.  Police raids, hate crimes, gay bashing, etc. have been a harsh reality for many gays and lesbians.  Since the media has given attention (finally) to acts of violence committed against people because of their sexuality or assumed sexuality, the Queer Movement does not feel the need to use violence as a means to get media attention or sympathy from allies.  The best image that can be portrayed at this point is that of the passive victim.  Let Matthew Shepard's killers look bad.  Instead, of reacting with violence, the Queer Movement concentrates on acceptance within society through petitioning, court cases, lobbying, and peaceful marches that concentrate on love and acceptance.

     

    Part 2

    Organizing grassroots advocates to build political strength and create strong coalitions is a major goal of our organizing work.  Because states are now crucial in our struggle for equality, strengthening state and local organizing efforts will remain our single most important task during the next few years.  The Queer Movement has worked directly to strengthen and unite the organizations working at the state level.  We want people to feel comfortable in coming out, and this requires local support.  The nationalization of the Queer Movement makes people feel distant from the whole issue, and we want to bring it home. 

    For the protest event, the Queer Movement plans to have a peaceful march that is intimately connected to our ideology of non-violence and total assimilation.  We feel that local marches as well as a national march are desperately needed.  However, for the assignment, we are planning a national march, which could be applied locally.

    The 2001 March's theme would be "We are your brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, best friends, and co-workers."  With the aid of media attention, people would start to realize that other forms of sexuality do exist beyond heterosexuality, and that even your closest relationships can be BGLT and that be accepted.  This march would force people to really question their prejudices and homophobic views.  For the most part, this would be a peaceful festival type of gathering with workshops covering various issues.

    Workshops would be held to educate people on LGBT issues.  Gaining and recruiting allies is a very important concern facing the Queer Movement; therefore, education on current oppressions experienced by GLBT is necessary. When discussing the controversial issue of gay marriage, it is important to first educate people about the fact that gay and lesbian people living in America today are not protected from discrimination and are denied the most basic rights under the law.  Today, you can be fired from your job simply for being gay or lesbian.  No federal law protects people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.  However, Americans do believe this type of discrimination is wrong as exhibited by public opinion polls.  Despite different opinions about the morality concerning other forms of sexuality other than heterosexuality, the vast majority of Americans believe that gay and lesbian people should not be singled out for discrimination or denied basic human rights.  A fundamental American value holds that every person should have an equal opportunity to a good job, a decent home and a loving family. 

    Also, other workshops would discuss how to combat homophobia in everyday living to how to fight heterosexism on a larger scale.  This includes more radical forms of protest such as a mock Queer wedding or kiss-ins.  The same-sex marriage and kiss-ins would shock the public and force people to question the normalcy of heterosexuality.  Since queer people are under-represented in government and institutions, such innovative and effective protest techniques are a constant concern the Queer Movement has.  Doug McAdam terms the process of trying to compensate for one’s powerlessness as tactical innovations.  These have proven to be very effective in our movement. 

    Constraints used by some activists include “outing” or threatening to “out” influential economic and political figures.  Another very powerful constraint that would be implemented is the creation of a sway vote for elected officials.  Aligning themselves only with the Democratic Party in the past, the Queer Movement has set itself up for let-down after let-down.  This is because the Democrats, realizing by ideology they are more liberal than Republicans are able to only show marginal support and still look good in comparison.  Therefore, the Queer Movement needs to work with both parties and become a large voting block that both sides vie for.

    Voter registration workshops would be a very important aspect of the march.  Proposition 22 is a recently passed statute that bans marriage to same-sex couples.  The failure of Proposition 22 to pass in California, a known liberal state demonstrates the strong public opinion against same-sex marriage.  This also demonstrates the need for more gays and lesbians and their supporters to vote on such initiatives.  Fliers and mailings would provide information to subscribers about who and what to vote for.

    Finally, the Queer Movement would also like to align itself with other movements, since it sees itself as intimately connected to other oppressions such as race, class, and especially gender.  By becoming active in other movement protests, we would like to show our support to ending all types of inequality since many people experience more than one type of oppression.  This means participating in any protests or marches these groups might organize.