Thoughts from the Post-Scriptum

i delivered my paper friday morning, it got mixed reviews i think critiquing same-sex marriage in the states is incredibly politically charged in ways that it isn't in canada (at least not any more).

let me elaborate:

i'm not against same-sex marriage, or at least not as much as my audience seemed to think so. i understand why queers get married: citizenship rights, tax breaks, and a relationship that can be "understood" by the mainstream (because it copies dominant ideologies that surround family structures).

i get mad when people compare the same-sex marriage movement to the issues faced by first nations people, or people of colour. when a (largely) white middle class group of citizens thinks they are being oppressed in the same way.

don't get me wrong, i think homophobia remains a systemic issue and there are a lot of fucked up problems that queers face but don't compare it to the racism faced by other minorities especially when you are implicated in these issues. why aren't we (and i'm including myself in this) more concerned with at-risk queer youth? hiv/aids issues in the community? the growing problems with crystal meth? the government's biased age of consent laws? right, because we're too busy looking at martha stewart wedding magazines.

le sigh.

i spent last night having dinner with some colleagues from ComCult who were also at the conference, it was nice to sit down over a shared meal and just talk about nerdy things in a non-nerdy way.

more on this later, i'm still working through a few things.

in reply to matt's comments on my blog... enjoy!

My one serious comment on your blog, please bear with me and don't hold it against me: I am not sure if your wording here is correct. Why shouldn't we compare homophobia with racism - is it not a type of racism? While I agree that individuals who do compare same sex marriage issues to ideas of racism is wrong, it strikes me that there are a lot of more blatant and serious issues surrounding homophobia. Having a young man beaten to death because he was seen holding hands with another man is a form of racism. Laws against legalizing same sex marriage, while not as serious as the overly disgusting laws against Natives that still limit many of them to reserve land in Canada, or with hold their right to land that was once theirs before settlement is certainly not the same thing.

I would argue that they aren't the same thing, similar yes, but fundamentally different in many ways, I would probably draw on Fanon's comparison of the Jew and the Black Man if I had the text in front of me and could articulate it any better. I do not get discriminated because of the way my name sounds, or the colour of my skin or because I have an accent when I speak in English. I can at least "pass" in ways many visible minorities cannot, is this problematic? Definitely, but I see the two as being different (although related) discourses.

But I can't help but feel that to suggest that homophobia - unless you mark out exactly what kind of homophobia it is you are making reference to here - is not akin to racism is rather limiting.

I would argue that conflating racism to homophobia is problematic and ignores issues of racial discrimination within the queer community (and vice versa).

Forgive my comment here - I am in a head space right now where I cannot help but think about homophobia and anti-gay violence. This is especially akin to the Religious right and their desire to continue to view us as the "dirty other. It is the very language of homophobia and hate that makes this similar to racism.

I didn't say the weren't similar, both forms of discrimination stem from systematic oppression, patriarchy and colonial/imperial discourses. I said there were differences and that to ignore this is incredibly dismissive of two very complex social issues.

I agree with you on almost everything you say about same-sex marriage, but the little activist in me is giving you that Matt look.

I disagree with you about the conflation of racism and homophobia, the angry little faggot in me is giving you the Marcos look.

An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

I don't know who you are. Or whether you're a man or a woman. I may never see you or cry with you or get drunk with you. But I love you. I hope that you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better, and that one day people have roses again. I wish I could kiss you.

~Valerie Page

soy mi familia / i am my family

I found this while at work the other day... enjoy!

"To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother."

~Pedro Almodovar

"I've got to do something about the way I look. I mean, a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face."

~holly golightly

i was lucky enough today amidst the rest of the raining poo that seems to be falling lately to see Guillermo Gómez-Peña do a performance at York today.

he called himself "a dangerous misunderstanding"

i like that.