New Forms of Organization Arise to Meet Homohatred

by Jennifer Pen, Julia Jones, and David L. Anderson

San Francisco, Cal. -- The hideous murder of Mathew Shepard in Wyoming this past October, far from silencing les-bi-gay-trans people, has seen a vivid re-awakening of queer activity and thought around the country. In New York and San Francisco, marches were called for Halloween night. Traditionally a night for partying, it was transformed into righteous anger and deep pride, against both anti-gay violence and police abuse. In both cities, the groups called themselves the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Liberation Front, harking back to the earliest revolutionary groupings of 1969-1970 period, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).

In San Francisco, the group has since renamed itself the Queer Liberation Front, and is planning a series of actions against gay bashing and corporate targets, including United Airlines, which refuses to abide by the domestic partners ordinance of the city. Unfortunately, the energy of the QLF has also been diverted by having to fight off the ISO’s attempt to hijack the group through controlling the call list, the steering committee, and using "parliamentary" proceedures to control voting on key issues.

The same weekend as Mathew Shepard's murder, there was a "Queer Theories" conference in Reno, Nevada, that showed more than mere resistance to assimilation. In a session on "That Queer Word," Dean Pierce explored the 'conversational closet' that wants us to blend into conventional society. University officials had objected to the word 'queer' as not being polite'. But Pierce countered that the word 'queer' not only covers a range and fluidity of sexuality, but uncovers the radical nature of our 'deviant' sexualities. He encouraged participants to practice a radical social discourse which not only challenges the conservative morals of the heterosexist society, but creates a Queer positive ground for social transformation.

Speakers at this conference drew living links between movements, connecting Queer identity to feminism, environmentalism, anti-racist work and the need to overthrow capitalism. Danne Polk urged the audience to consider "radically different concepts of human subjectivity which open us up to creativity" and move us away from the devestating effects of capitalism. Mitchell Halberstadt (who is also active in the Queer Liberation Front in San Francisco) raised the question of how to move forward from the incomplete and failed revolutions of the 1960s and 70s, and how to incorporate a constant questioning of the norms of gender and sexual identity. Participants responded to the news of Shepard's beating as a summons to revolution, refusing to retreat into a closet of fear. This conference was not limited to academia: the Reno glbt community actively participated and hosted evening events.

In San José, anger over the passive candlelight marches sponsored by mainstream gay/lesbian groups (see N&L, November 1998), led students, faculty and staff at San Jose State University to form a new group, Queer Revolution. One of the students who helped to found the group, Whitney, said it was necessary to combine the words "queer" and "revolution." Another founding participant, Kevin, urged us to "think outside the triangle" to combine queer concerns with all social issues and identities. Queer Revolution also took on a corporate target, Carl's Jr.'s restaurant, which had withdrawn from campus because of controversies over the anti-gay politics of its founder Carl Karcher.

In response to a series of disgusting homophobic letters to the student paper, Queer Revolution set a different ground for an open forum: "The Right to a Burger vs. Homophobia!" Drawing over a hundred people, participants demanded to know why the free flow of capital is so often given precendence over people's lives, and reiterated that we had the power to transform our lives, our campus, and our society. Queer Revolution followed this with a forum on the continued presence of ROTC on campus; the military used extortionist methods to return to campus in defiance of a school non-discrimination policy that includes sexuality. Queer Revolution plans more events in the near future, including a conference on the Queer Left Legacy and how we can extend and expand that in our historic moment. (The conference will be held on April 17, 1999 at San Jose State University, featuring Harry Hay as the Keynote speaker. )

These movements, combining theory and activity, arising in the wake of this horrific butchery, reveal the revolutionary impulses in the queer dimension. The active participation of youth, people of color, and transgenders in these movements demonstrates that a new generation is ready to negate the limitations placed on love. The second negation, to build a new world, will demand the patience, suffering and labor of dialectics. It is a good sign that these new forms of organization, unlike their immediate predecessors of ACT-UP and Queer Nation, appear eager to combine thought and activity, rather than relegating theory to the margins of their meetings and public events.

For more information on Queer Revolution's planned mini-conference for April, 1999, write to Queer Notions, c/o News and Letters, P.O. Box 3345, Oakland, CA 94609, or E-mail queerevolution@hotmail.com .

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