03 November 2006

chalkings and 'sex radicals'

so coming out week came and went, and i'm not sure yale even noticed. sigh. at swarthmore, as i recall, MUCH NOTICING inevitably occurred, usually accompanied by strange intra-lefty, intra-queer or intra-allied-community political fratricide.

i don't care much for sheltered conservatives who feel offended by their "subjection" to the mere existence of The Gays, but as timothy burke notes, there is something wrong when an activist community begins to exclude or officially disapprove of all but its most radical members, and something even wronger when the only dialogue that's going on is (a) public and (b) rude.

indeed, if what is important is maintaining queer identity as inherently transgressive, one wonders what the point of activism is at all. every time there's an advance, the folks who benefit from such an advance must be pushed out of the movement altogether or pushed to adopt new, more transgressive -- and thus possibly inauthentic -- identity. where "identity" is now defined as "behavior." hmmph.