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Title: Queer Oppression
Author: Workers Solidarity Movement
Date: October 2011
Language: en
Topics: queer, oppression, homophobia, transphobia, gay liberation, position paper
Source: Retrieved on 15th October 2021 from http://www.wsm.ie/c/queer-oppression-lgbt-wsm-anarchism
Notes: Workers Solidarity Movement position paper on Queer Liberation as re-written at the October 2011 National Conference. This position paper sits under the Sex, Gender, and Sexuality paper and does not repeat that material here.

Workers Solidarity Movement

Queer Oppression

The WSM opposes all oppression of, and discrimination against LGBTQ

people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people; referred

to simply as ‘queer people’ in the rest of this document).

Homophobia and Transphobia divide the working class against itself and

also serve the ruling class as a mechanism of enforcing rigid gender

roles on people of all sexualities. If anyone steps outside their

prescribed gender role, especially as a child, the first weapon used

against them is to label them queer. It is used against heterosexual as

well as queer people.

These gender norms do not flow from nature, but rather are a product

of the gendered division of labour which developed as part of the

emergence of capitalism. The ‘male labourer’, the ‘housewife’ and the

nuclear family are social constructs which solidified according to the

demands of capital.

Anarchists believe that true liberation for queers will only come

about with the abolition of capitalism and creation of a society that

gives everyone real control over their lives. This does not mean,

however, that the fight is put off until then. Queers are entitled to

full support in their struggle for equality.

The WSM recognises the right of queer people to organise autonomously.

LGBT organisations and social spaces help queers to become confident and

out, and to take full part in mixed-sexuality organisations such as

trade unions, community groups, campaigns and political organisations.

It has often been useful for queer women to organise separately from

men because of sexism and from heterosexual women because of homophobia.

Bisexuals have faced discrimination from lesbian and gay people and

organisations as well as homophobia from heterosexuals. Trans people

have had to fight to be included in queer organisations and in

anti-discrimination laws. Queer people can judge for themselves when

they need separate and autonomous organisations and what forms these

will take.

The WSM recognises that the overwhelming majority of queer people have

to work for a living, or survive on benefits and are an integral part of

the working class.

The WSM supports the celebration of Pride with marches, parades and

cultural events, as a challenge to homophobia and transphobia, and

commemoration of the Stonewall riots. We oppose the incursion of

corporations and LGBT police and military organisations into Pride

celebrations, which merely serves to promote consumerism and ‘pinkwash’

reactionary agendas.

In the context of existing social structures, the WSM believes that

LGBT people should have exactly the same partnership and shared custody

rights as heterosexuals including the right to civil marriage. To this

end, the organisation is opposed to civil partnership as inadequate. The

organisation sees civil partnership as another example of institutional

discriminatory legislation.

However, we see the expansion of civil marriage to include same-sex

couples as ultimately insufficient as a goal for the queer or anarchist

movements. We recognise the historical origins of marriage in patriarchy

and sexual repression. Moreover we see the existence of an

institutionalised normative form of relationship as inherently

exclusionary to those whose sexuality doesn’t fit with that standard,

and instead call for a society which is inclusive of all forms of free

and consensual sexual expression.

Transgender people should be entitled to change their birth

certificates and other documents to reflect their actual gender. Trans

people’s choices about their own bodies is to be defended in the same

way as women’s right to choose. Trans people’s access to medical

treatments such gender-realignment surgeries and HRT should not be

dependent on their economic circumstances, but should be available as a

right.

We support physical self-defence by queer people against ‘queer

bashers’ and the police where necessary. We also commit to a

zero-tolerance by all anarchists of homophobic and transphobic violent

attacks in a similar way to anarchist zero tolerance of racist attacks.

An injury to one is an injury to all and it should not just be up to

queer people to resist queer-bashings.

We are sceptical of anti-hatecrime laws, which are often used as a

substitute for changing attitudes, end up giving more punitive powers to

the police and prison system, and can be used by the state to obfuscate

institutionalised discrimination. Much anti-queer violence is suffered

at the hands of the police and in prisons. We call instead for

community-level action to confront homophobic and transphobic attitudes

and develop safe spaces for queers.

Until sexual health provision reflects the needs of lesbian and bi

women, specific lesbian health provision need to be established. Current

cuts in and newly conservative and moralistic approaches to gay and bi

men’s health services need to be resisted. Free condom distribution

should instead be extended to everyone.

In Ireland, the Catholic Church has sweeping exemptions from equality

legislation. It controls most schools and hospitals. The Catholic

hierarchy is poisonously and openly homophobic and this means that queer

teachers, nurses and doctors are vulnerable and must be defended through

the trade unions. The Church’s exceptions from equality legislation, and

their control over hospitals and schools, should be abolished.

We reject the appropriation of queer struggles by conservative and

reactionary ideologies. Specifically we oppose ‘homonationalist’ ideas,

which characterise certain ethnic, racial, religious and social groups

(in particular Muslims) as being intransigently and inherently opposed

to queer liberation in order to ‘pinkwash’ imperialist wars and

exclusionary and racist immigration policies. (In particular, Israeli

military action against Palestine and Lebanon is often justified by

commentators in terms of defending the only pro-gay State in the region

against Muslim homophobes.) We reject the mischaracterisation of

working-class and poor people as particularly homophobic in order to

foster class hatred.

We recognise that queer immigrants and refugees are particularly

victimised both by the state and by racists and homophobes. Deportations

of queers need to be resisted. While legally those in danger because of

their LGBT identity in other countries are entitled to refugee status,

in practice it is very difficult for them to prove this to an

institutionally acceptable standard. We regard this as a form of

institutional racialised homophobia and as part of a wider effort by the

political establishment to delegitimate refugee status.