It is painful to see the global LGBTQI rights movement co-opted by white LGB people, neoliberal ideology and a politics of respectability and assimilation – which attempts to portray queer sexualities as normal and respectable, stressing their similarities to heterosexuality. Instead of challenging the oppressive division of people into heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, this kind of politics seeks integration into the heteronormative system, which remains intact.
It focuses on issues such as equal marriage rights for same-sex couples and LGBT integration into the US army, rather than challenging these historically problematic institutions. Marriage is a system based on – and which sustains – heteronormative gender and sexuality. The army is a tool of imperialism, death and suffering.
In contrast, the mere existence of transgender people is itself a form of resistance against the false ‘naturalness’ of a sex-gender-sexuality system that produces gendered and sexed bodies and identities in a binary and hierarchical manner, often defined through seemingly mandatory heterosexuality.
Reinvigorated attempts to marginalise trans people in the UK are another unfortunate illustration of what many LGBTQI movements have become: new places of exclusion for trans and gender non-conforming people, poor queer people, queers of colour, immigrant queers. Serving the interests of a few privileged lesbians and gays.
The results are devastating. While white, middle-class, cisgender lesbians and gays have gained protection from the state and more social acceptability, other queer people, especially Black trans women, have faced disproportionally high rates of violence, police brutality, poverty and homelessness.
It is essential to criticise transphobia among feminist and LGB movements. Social justice movements must be places where the most marginalised voices are centred and amplified and where demands for queer justice are made – from transforming education, police, healthcare and immigration institutions, to democratic and equitable sharing of power, resources, wealth and respect.
