US, Detroit, Organize to Resist Anti-Gay Attacks and Violence! by First of May Anarchist Alliance - 1MAA

In Order to Live and Love We Must Fight! ---- There has to be maximum resistance to 
anti-gay ideas, ideologies, attacks and violence. The solution isn?t in gay cops or a 
pro-gay government. The police and the System they serve are perpetrators of institutional 
violence and injustice. We have to be in the struggles for LGTBQ freedom and equality. 
Whether as LGTBQ folks or as allies, we must be connecting with the millions of people who 
are fighting for personal and social dignity and justice. As attacks and murders are 
committed, we must work to either highlight and encourage or organize ourselves those 
initiatives and projects that mobilize and act ? whether in outright street based 
self-defense or in mass organizations that confront government and social laws! We need to 
make it rough for anyone who thinks they can bash us!


Organize to Resist Anti-Gay Attacks and Violence!

In Order to Live and Love We Must Fight!


Summer?s here and that means celebrating; from annual Pride festivals and street parties 
to the recent Supreme Court?s striking down of the Federal anti-gay Defense of Marriage 
Act. There is a growing sense that people everywhere can be who we are, love who we 
choose, on our own terms and in our own ways. But a string of attacks and murders in New 
York City against gay men and women has shocked us!

No one thinks that homophobia and anti-Queer prejudices are gone, but the recent attacks 
should make us step back and take a close look at what is going on around us. In one 
horrible incident on May 17 of this year, Mark Carson, a young gay man was followed, 
harassed and then shot to death by a homophobe. This happened while Mark and a friend were 
walking in the neighborhood of Greenwich Village, NYC. Since Mark?s murder several other 
outrageous attacks have happened. One attack included a man being yelled at and taunted as 
being a ?faggot? before being smashed in the face. In another, a gay couple was attacked 
in the SoHo district just hours after thousands marched to protest Mark Carson?s murder 
and anti-gay hate. In one of the most recent, a woman in the Brooklyn neighborhood of 
Greenpoint was assaulted at knife point by a man claiming he was raping her for being a ?gay?.

Being gay can be dangerous in New York at any time. Some of these attacks involved 
anti-gay persons apparently set off just by seeing two gay men walking together. In other 
situations gay men have been attacked by a ?drinking companion? or a gay man who left home 
without ID at midnight and was in a car with three men?suggesting pickup and cruising 
situations.

It?s all these attacks that remind us of how often situations can trigger sexist violence.

It?s a jolt when we hear about anti-gay violence in big cities like NYC, San Francisco or 
Chicago. There has been a great sea change in popular consciousness, where more and more 
people either have open minds and embrace Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) folks 
or in other ways don?t care what someone?s life, identity or sex preferences are. We 
welcome this! As anti-authoritarian and anarchist revolutionaries who are fighting to 
break down hetero-patriarchal social norms, some of us LGBTQ ourselves, we have and will 
continue to fight for everyone to be who they want to be and love how they want, whether 
it?s LGBTQ, straight, or off the grid gender bending without identification. On this we 
will continue to unite with others in the struggle for both individual and social freedom.

But while we welcome these open and pro-LGBTQ moves on the parts of millions, the 
realities are that anti-gay hatred and violence is as rampant as ever. Major shifts in 
society are happening and there is a polarization between what is seen as ?liberalization? 
on one hand and a conservative patriarchal and heterosexist reaction on the other.

This System we live under is an authoritarian, hierarchical, racist and hetero-patriarchal 
capitalist order. It has established itself through slavery, colonization, war, 
exploitation and an anti-human violence perpetrated against the masses of people ? the 
working classes and poor. It both incorporates age old social values when it?s necessary 
and adopts and absorbs new ideas when it?s in the System?s interests, thereby co-opting 
the more radical dimensions. This dual tendency of a system attempting to transform itself 
to stay alive creates conflict and confusion. In regards to anti-gay attacks, large 
sections of the population who feel they benefit ? socially, economically, or 
psychologically ? from the system see being gay as a danger to their status and the old 
system itself. These people want to attack the enemies of their way of life. What?s even 
more confusing is that large sections of the population see pro-gay popular culture as 
being part of the current ruling class and the Democratic Party. The conservative reaction 
sees the Government as endorsing gay culture. Loads of people feel that the current ruling 
classes are part of the destruction of traditional societal values.

And as the system faces a growing social-economic crisis, and more and more people feel 
abandoned and losing out on what they think of as being a more stable (and often 
mythologized) past, anti-government sentiment gets wrapped up with hatred of anything and 
everything seemingly associated with it. This is the popular danger.

As the crisis deepens and we see more anti-government opposition, a major section of it 
will take on a reactionary, racist and anti-gay character. It?s not anti-government ideas 
we?re opposed to, just the opposite. What we?re for is an anti-government, anti-system 
politics and program that is fighting for justice, dignity and freedom. What we are 
against are politics, ideas, and movements that are racist, anti-LGTBQ, patriarchal or 
national chauvinist. On this you better bet we?re serious and we don?t cringe or cower at 
any would be oppressor?s fists and bashings!

So what is some of the thinking behind these anti-gay attacks? An incomplete view is,

1) It is an out and out defense of the System?s long held values and practices. As society 
changes it throws the old order into a type of chaos. Being against LGBTQ folks is seen as 
a defense of the old order.

2) It is a way to enforce hierarchy. Being gay is seen as non-masculine. Attack, rape, and 
murder are ways to terrorize people (gay, perceived gay and even straight folks) into 
hetero-sexist social structures. There is a long history of ?straight? men raping and 
sodomizing other men as a way to enforce a hierarchical discipline. This rape is based in 
macho traditions and happens in various hazing within sports, gangs, fraternities and 
military institutions. It is part of a Masculinist culture that reproduces a gender-sexual 
binary: men and women. Masculinist culture is ego driven and prizes a dominant and 
domineering masculinity. Femininity is considered its opposite: submissive. Rape is used 
to enforce this binary and establishes a hierarchy.

3) It makes the individual homophobes feel somehow reassured, that they are fine and 
normal and not somehow less of a ?man? (or ?woman? for those female identified homophobes).

Carson?s murder is part of a larger more bloody history. From big cities to small towns, 
from the streets to the classrooms, anti-gay thinking is still here. Through coercion, 
threat and force those of us who are gay or don?t conform to society?s expectations of 
love, sex and heterosexism, have been forced to hide and mask our true selves. We have had 
to pretend we are someone else because to be open and honest has risks. In the past these 
risks could be government sanctioned attacks like laws banning homosexuality and 
queerness. This has resulted in the locking up of gay people in jails or institutional 
facilities. Or as is often the case, anti-gay violence is independent of the official 
State. Whether alone, or in mobs, gay people have been the targets of violence. Many gay 
people have been assaulted outright or living with the threats, have succumbed to these 
pressures. Mental health issues and suicide are real risks for LGTBQ people. The overall 
issue is that for a long time in the United States, being gay was a crime. And when the 
laws changed, the conservative reaction didn?t. As the laws change here, we must expect a 
backlash.

Needing to be put in to the bigger picture as well is the international attacks and 
repression of LGTBQ folks. From mob attacks on Gay Pride marches and celebrations in 
Russia and Macedonia, to Uganda?s proposed ?Kill the Gays? legislation which calls for 
life in prison, and in some cases death, for people with ?the intention of committing an 
act of homosexuality,? there is a violent campaign against gay people and their allies.

In France this past month, the Far-Right conservative and quasi-fascist, National Front, 
has staged protests and riots against legislation that allows for same-sex marriage. A 
French fascist committed public suicide at the historic Notre Dame Cathedral saying that 
homosexuality and same-sex marriage would destroy French national identity. Several days 
later, French neo-Nazis attacked and murdered a 19 year old antifascist organizer, Clement 
Meric. Clement was a dedicated antifascist, student activist and had helped organize 
recent LGTBQ solidarity actions. He was also affiliated with the French section of the 
international anarcho-syndicalist (union), National Confederation of Workers/Conf?d?ration 
Nationale du Travail (CNT). Clement?s death brought thousands of striking workers, 
students, radicals and everyday people into the streets in his memory with the vow to 
fight the fascist and anti-gay movements.

In another high profile case, an attack was met by defense! CeCe McDonald, a Black 
Transgendered woman, was attacked in Minneapolis while walking past a bar. A group from 
the bar confronted CeCe and her friends for being Black and Trans. CeCe?s attackers 
shouted racist and homophobic slurs and then smashed a bottle across CeCe?s face. 
Attempting to defend themselves, someone in CeCe?s crew pulled out a pair of scissors 
(because of the risks and history of anti-gay violence many working class and poor LGTBQ 
folk carry any number of items to defend themselves). During the fight, one of CeCe?s 
attackers was stabbed and later died. Unfortunately, CeCe was arrested and charged with 
her attacker?s murder. CeCe was subjected to a biased, transphobic prosecution. CeCe 
accepted a plea deal in an attempt to escape spending decades in prison. She is serving 
out her sentence. Despite her unjust imprisonment, CeCe is alive and receiving ongoing 
support!

That she and her crew defended themselves and fought back is a big example of what we 
need! Self-Defense is No Offense! There is only one answer, Organize and Fight Back!

There has to be maximum resistance to anti-gay ideas, ideologies, attacks and violence. 
The solution isn?t in gay cops or a pro-gay government. The police and the System they 
serve are perpetrators of institutional violence and injustice. We have to be in the 
struggles for LGTBQ freedom and equality. Whether as LGTBQ folks or as allies, we must be 
connecting with the millions of people who are fighting for personal and social dignity 
and justice. As attacks and murders are committed, we must work to either highlight and 
encourage or organize ourselves those initiatives and projects that mobilize and act ? 
whether in outright street based self-defense or in mass organizations that confront 
government and social laws! We need to make it rough for anyone who thinks they can bash us!

We need movements that fight for independence, autonomy, self-organization and freedom! We 
need broad based social movements based on solidarity, defense, and resistance! LGTBQ 
folks have to rely on ourselves and forge active and organized relationships with any and 
all who can be allies. In the schools, workplaces, the clubs, and on the streets, we need 
to bring together and create a diverse, militant and uncompromisingly pro-gay movement!


For PDF version of this statement in broadsheet form please download here:
http://m1aa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/First-of-May-Anarchist-Alliance-broadsheet-Organize-to-Resist-Anti-Gay-Attacks-and-Violence_text.pdf

Related Link: http://m1aa.org/?p=682