Thursday 11 September 2014

Walking Away

This summer has been a catalyst for making me do something I never thought I would - turning my back on LGBT activism.
It started with Sparkle, continued with the Liverpool and Manchester Prides, the meeting between Stonewall and Trans activists and now the vilification of Trans Pride.
If the attacks on LGBT activism were coming from the outside, I would be willing to defend what I believe to be right. The horrific fact is, though, that the attacks are coming from within and I will not stay to watch what I cherish being torn apart by ignorance and stupidity, especially when I know I am powerless to stop it. Why expend all that emotional energy on such a pointless quest?
My experience this summer indicates overwhelmingly to me that the vast majority of LGBT activists cannot respond to criticism or advice without bile and vitriol, that they are only too willing to see the LGBT community become nothing but a tourist attraction, that they think to impose and conspire with exclusionary policies somehow makes the LGBT community more inclusive, that they have such low self-esteem that they will accept assistance from an organisation that has no interest in letting them set their own agenda, and that they will champion uneducated and extremist views in some warped vision that they somehow make the world more fair and equal.
In short, I see the world that LGBT activists are currently shaping one that will have absolutely nothing to do with equality and everything to do with power politics and personal privilege.
To see this in action you might be forgiven for not being aware that LGBT people are amongst the most impoverished people in the world; that homelessness is rife amongst them; that they are almost certainly the most disadvantaged group on the planet; and that millions are beaten up and thousands murdered every single year.
Certainly, when you see the campaigns of the major LGBT organisations, you might think all is rosy in LGBT land and all we need now is the cherry on the top instead of basic human rights.
You perhaps may also feel that the rise to power and influence of "The Far Right" across the world is no threat to LGBT people.
But none of this is the case.
The very existence of LGBT people is debated upon - let alone our right to anything!
Just how on earth debating LGBT life is the route to equality is beyond me and, yet, this is what we do - even in the LGBT community.
It is sickening to see equality take a back seat to personal power and privilege and the tragedy is that this is tearing the LGBT community apart; leaving us with less power to tackle those that oppose us.
Yet I am powerless to stop it as I can not help those that do not want and will not accept my help; and, if I argue and fight for my beliefs, I simply contribute to the infighting that is tearing the LGBT community apart.
Thus, I feel that I am left with no other course of action than to walk away from LGBT activism.
I will obviously always be Queer and Trans - nothing will ever change that - but I can not, in good faith, fight for something I feel is in direct opposition to what I believe in.
All that there is left for me to do now is to be true to myself and, if I can, help those that ask for it.
That is all.