An Oppression That’s Aimed at Everyone
“Jeanne D’Arc,” International Liberation Reference Person
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgender People
My group is the LGBQT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgender] group—and apparently also our allies (that’s not official, but I kind of take charge of some of you).
In this era, Gay oppression is aimed at absolutely everyone—to make everyone smaller and more careful, tucked in [restrained], and well behaved. It has affected every single one of you. And, then, of course, it’s aimed at LGBQT folks. We get targeted and scapegoated and blamed. Basically, the system says, “You don’t want to act like them, because that mistreatment is going to happen to you!”
In the current period we are living with the effects of what happened in the past. In the past, it was illegal and “immoral” and you were “sick” if you were LGBQT. That is what happened. That is why we are weird, and you are weird. And that’s why the culture is weird about us. It’s what we are all climbing out of.
Gay oppression is alive and well, and vicious—it kills people everywhere. And the threats against us are used to distract people from the real issues. My job is to try to make that not the case. It is also to move the stuff [distress] off the allies and the LGBQT folks, so the historical oppression doesn’t continue to make us smaller; doesn’t keep us from being the big, wonderful intelligences that we are.
USA