The new coalition government is in place, and one thing is clear: a campaign is being waged against those who are already on the margins of society. Cuts are being made to those who have no lobby. Promises are being made that most people in this country will be better off if human rights no longer apply to everyone. The old principle of „divide and rule“: drive a wedge between neighbours, tear families apart, make selfless friendships impossible. Once everyone is fighting only for themselves, the rights of individual groups can be gradually eroded.
As a queer community, it is therefore incredibly important that we realise, now more than ever, that true self-determination for everyone can only exist when no one is being oppressed. 1 May is just as much „our“ demonstration as explicitly queer Pride events. Everything is interconnected.
Workers’ strike against the system
We know a thing or two about strikes; we challenge society’s expectations of our sexualities and genders. To be political, being queer must be understood as a strike against patriarchy. We are walking off the job in this system, which divides people into two genders, recognises only nuclear families and oppresses women. Yet patriarchy is not the only enemy of queer freedom. Self-determination for everyone – and therefore for all queer people too – can only exist without what bell hooks so aptly describes as the various interlinked mechanisms of power and oppression: „Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy“. It is no coincidence, for example, that colonialism and queerphobia are linked; attempts were made to eradicate queerness from peoples who were exploited.
Specifically, on Labour Day, it is also worth considering the links between classism and sexual and gender freedom: our self-determination is restricted by social injustice. By the differing concerns and burdens between those who work and those who merely make others work. Between those who rent and those who let. Between those in debt and those who own property. Between those who are forced to allow themselves to be exploited and those who exploit. Those who are talked about and those who do the talking. Those who are always forced to listen and those who are allowed to teach. Those who are the subject of research and those who conduct research. Those for whom their own name brings nothing but disadvantages and those who bear a title in their name. Very few people can clearly place themselves on one side or the other; it is a matter of fluid transitions and simultaneous realities. What is important is to make these polarities visible in the first place and to consider how they influence the way we interact with one another.
Money for everyone rather than careers for a select few
Queer representation gets us nowhere where exploitation takes place. The cuts to many diversity programmes at large companies should serve as a wake-up call that superficial lip service does not change structures. It was never about sharing power, but about having a gay best friend in a self-sacrificing supporting role for the rich and powerful. At the same time, there is now supposedly no more money for support services, for culture, or for social institutions. Queer young people in particular, who are seeking guidance, but also all queers in precarious employment, are being let down.
For some of us, the past few decades have opened up fantastic career opportunities, whilst the rest have had to watch as their own problems have worsened. Prices have risen in bars, clubs and cafés, and free – or at least non-profit-driven – meeting places have been cut back. The „community“ has no clout if it is merely a loose coalition of disparate individual interests, if it is driven solely by personal pleasure or even the pursuit of profit. It can stand up strongly for its interests when it unites against its oppressors.
This is nothing new; discussions about conformity or resistance have always been part of the debates within LGBTI* movements. The question of the movement’s relationship with the government and the system is also viewed in different ways: Time and again, the focus has been, on the one hand, on the struggle against the state and its violence (Stonewall as an uprising against police measures, the repeal of Section 175 of the German Criminal Code and the Transgender Act) and, on the other hand, on the recognition of the state and its institutions (marriage for all, tougher penalties for hate crimes, LGBTI* people in the military and the police).
Risks of poverty and diversionary tactics
Anyone who follows one or two trans people online will often notice that fundraising campaigns are repeatedly being organised to cover the costs of urgently needed operations. When individual cases occur frequently, there is a system at play. Differences in financial resources mean that not everyone is able to cover the costs of their own surgery. Transitioning can become a poverty trap; there are also costs involved in obtaining new documents, co-payments for medication, and job loss due to discrimination. What does it mean for trans people to have to navigate so many visits to government offices and doctors, and to overcome so much red tape, that they are left with hardly any time to pursue career goals or focus on their education?
If the only political demand that remains is simply acceptance – the plea to be allowed to stand on the winning side too – then we will miss the chance to create a fairer world in which everyone can be better off. So: join forces, help one another, break down inequalities of opportunity, create access, and question power structures and the significance of wealth and social background.
Meanwhile, no one must fall for diversionary tactics: racist policies targeting refugees and migrants fuel violence. Security can only exist in a world where the gap between rich and poor is narrow. A world that invests in education and a good life for all, that extends trust rather than sowing mistrust. Authoritarian states claim that, with harsh punishments, sanctions and deportations, our patience with those who harm our society has run out. But who is really harming this society? Who can sit back and relax whilst we’re at each other’s throats? For whom do special rules apply? A female gender marker in a passport is supposedly meant to ensure that laws punishing harassment or sexualised violence no longer apply. This transphobic claim distracts from the fact that there is, in fact, a group of people who are almost never held to account for their crimes and their abusive behaviour: billionaires.
