The marriage vacuum and the future of the LGBT movement
I've been doing some thinking about the Uniting Against Hate conversation I was involved with last night. It's led me to some reflections -- not altogether uplifting -- about the state of the LGB[sometimes]T rights movement, and where we might go from here.
At some point in the conversation, I noted that lesbian, gay and bi people have been known to be especially transphobic, and haven't really been the advocates for trans rights that they could be. An audience member questioned me about that observation, and expressed an alternative view. In my response, I noted that there were, indeed, abundant examples of the LGB leaving behind the T, the 2007 debacle over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act chief among them. My critique was (and is, and has been for some time) that the focus on marriage rights above all else has done a huge disservice to other, frankly more important fights. Marriage is a policy goal of the relatively well-to-do who can afford such things. Sadly, too many in the LGBT community (such as it exists), have other, far more pressing issues to deal with. I constantly harp on the four issues that the Sylvia Rivera Law Project so poignantly mapped out: healthcare, education, employment, and housing.
