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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 12, 1993

Responding to the Right and to racism

Continued from Page 12

benefit? We need to learn more about how cultural values are class-defined, so that we can grow in our own self-awareness, and thus be better able to communicate with people from all class backgrounds toward the common goal of peace through justice. (Breaking through the shame of classwhether we're ashamed to be poor or ashamed to be rich can help us in our personal partnerships as well as in our public partnerships such as the Center.)

There is an economics of coming out-of any kind of self-discovery. The Great Depression of the 1930s was not a hotbed of feminism and gay rights. And to the extent that African-American communities in this country remain in depression, that affects the lesbian-gay liberation movement. What can white lesbians and gay men do to fight homophobia in the black community? We can fight for economic justice in this country.

Another thing I believe we need to do to fight the Religious Right is to re-evaluate our analysis of Judaism and Christianity in the dogma of lesbian-gay political correctness.

One of the bravest moments I've experienced in our liberation movement happened two years ago at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference in Minneapolis. There was a workshop on fighting the Religious Right. It really packed them in-300 people crowded into a hotel ballroom. The leader was a white lesbian who was domineering and repeatedly made unfair-uneducated— statements about Christianity. She made gross generalizations, routinely using the word Christian when the appropriate word would have been Fundamentalist. You could feel the room filling with energy. Unfortunately, it was the energy of hate as those 300 white lesbians and gay men were encouraged by the charismatic speaker to target a lifetime of resentment, anger and hurt at "Christians." I thought I should say something, but I was afraid.

Suddenly an African-American voice was coming out of this sea of white faces. He was a young man in his twenties, still wet behind the ears, almost in tears because of the stress it was causing him to stand up and testify to his truth from the margin of this virtual mob of self-righteous white lesbians and gay men. "If you white folks hope to build any kind of alliance at all with members of the African-American community," he said, "then you must stop this churchbashing, because it was the spirit of Black Christianity that led us to liberation while you were still oppressing us. And if you don't understand the essential, liberating role of Christian spirituality in AfricanAmerican history, then you'd better educate yourselves quick or this ‘rainbow coalition' is going to tear apart and go down." I'll let that brave gay man's statement stand on its own. The point I hope to make is that the divisive politics of self-righteousness within our community will destroy our movement. We must mature into enough

self-esteem to convert our separatist politics of self-righteousness into a coalitionbuilding politics of compassion toward people different from ourselves.

I was in Berkeley, in seminary, in the fall of '78 when the famous "Briggs Initiative" was on the ballot in California. The Briggs Initiative would have required not just that lesbians and gay men could not teach, but that any teacher who talked about homosexuality in the classroom must be fired. State Senator John Briggs was hoping to become governor through this initiative, and his chief opponent in the statewide debate was Harvey Milk.

But the thing that I want to impress upon you tonight, on this eve of a growing Right Agenda in Ohio, is that the Briggs Initiative was defeated in the churches and synagogues of California. For most adults in this country, the only contact with continuing education they have is their church or synagogue. These are the people who vote, and, to a large extent, these are the members of the working and middle classes who wrestle with ethics in our society. The national bodies of every mainstream Jewish and Christian denomination are on record as supporting our civil rights (regardless of their stands on ordination). We need local religious leaders to teach these moral-political positions to their congregations. That can happen if we go home to our parents' synagogues and churches and come out, so that we're no longer a media image the Right can distort, we're the lesbian or gay man who grew up down the street.

We in the lesbian and gay communities must understand ourselves as a Teaching Movement, or we will fail. When we hear spokespersons for our movement publicly complain that they are "sick and tired of teaching," then I believe our appropriate response is to give those people vacations from leadership. If you're feeling sick and tired, then it's time you get some rest and relaxation. Because teaching is all this movement is about.

So what can we whites do in response to Marvin McMickle and the black fundamentalist churches?

We can go home to our parents' synagogues and white churches and come out, which will kick-start collegial pressure on the professional level of the multi-cultural religious community.

We can reform the Center to support African-Americans so that they feel strong enough to come out to their black churches.

We can deconstruct our anti-religious political dogma and reconstruct our analysis to include a place for the Religious Left. We can honor Liberation Movement leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Ben Chavez, the Rev. Andrew Young.

Language is a fluid thing, and I remember in San Francisco in the '70s, in the early days of the current stage of our movement, there was another term for what we now call internalized homophobia. We used to also talk about "oppression sickness."

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Those of us who live in the matrix of oppression are made sick by it. We need to recover from that sickness. Symptoms of oppression sickness include self-hatred and self-abuse, and there is also a misplaced vengeance syndrome. Sometimes this is called "horizontal attack." Under the pressure of oppression, it's easier to attack the differently oppressed person next to us an it is to build a coalition with that person to vertically attack our common oppressor up there in the socio-political hierarchy. The multi-cultural coalition of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is based upon this principle, first articulated by Audre Lorde: "There is no hierarchy of oppression." There is no hierarchy of oppression because we all experience oppression personally. How can we compare and rank it? Pain is pain, loss is loss, sorrow is sorrow. Yes, there is systemic oppression, but we experience it personally. Where does it get us to have a contest over who is the most oppressed? It both keeps us divided against each other and it leads us right back into oppression sickness: this insane competition over who is the most miserable victim. For our own sakes, let us join together to convert our self-identity as victims into a self-identity as liberators!

But this basic principle that there is no hierarchy of oppression only works as the foundation of a coalition-only!—if we are all dedicated to understanding the interrelatedness of all oppressions, and equally committed to fighting those oppressions simultaneously.

An able-bodied upperclass white gay man said to me of the current controversy in our community, "The Religious Right is really well-served by all this division among us." I think his statement is true. But I disagree with his unspoken subtext, which was, "Therefore marginalized people in our community should keep their mouths shut." On the contrary, I believe that people in positions of power in our community need to be quiet and listen to those marginalized voices who are demanding that we change and move into solidarity with other oppressed people in order to become a unified front against the Religious Right.

There is only one way to be in solidarity with one another: to stop the competition between various oppressions and join to-

gether in a unified fight against all oppressions. Being gay does not excuse sexism, being a woman is no excuse for racism, being black does not justify heterosexism, being a lesbian does not entitle you to abuse a disabled person. Our movement is not about grabbing our own piece of the patriarchy. Our movement is about creating a new society-more than that—a New Humanity.

I want to leave you tonight with a true story of courage in the face of oppression that comes out of my Scandinavian heritage, from Denmark during World War II. Right after war was declared, the German troops and tanks rolled north over Denmark, literally conquering their little neighbor overnight.

Because the Danes are blond and blueeyed, the Nazis wanted to use Denmark as a model of peaceful conquest. The fascists wanted the rest of Europe to see that, if they didn't resist, the Nazis would rule over them with kindness. The Danes knew there was no point in military resistance-it would have been like the Nicaraguans declaring war against the United States-and so they suffered in silence.

Then the day came when the Nazis announced over the radio and in the press that, starting the following Sunday, all the Jews in Denmark had to wear the yellow star of David, so that they could be identified on sight.

All the Danes knew that, every Sunday, King Christian took a morning "constitutional,” riding his horse out from the palace through the central park of Copenhagen. It was a little tradition in Denmark-parents took their children out to Tivoli Park to see the king ride by, tourists took photos.

But on this particular Sunday, something was different. When King Christian appeared for his ride through Copenhagen, he was wearing the yellow star of David on his ceremonial military uniform. By that afternoon, all the Danes in Copenhagen were wearing the yellow star. The word spread, and from then on, all the people of Denmark wore the yellow star throughout all five years of the Nazi occupation of their country. And not one Jew was lost in Denmark. Look for alternative ways to resist. Be in solidarity with the oppressed, and you will be liberated yourself.

COMMUNITY FORUM

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exercising our rights as human beings and citizens and taxpayers. To all, come out, come out wherever you are! It took me seeing 24,000+quilts, representing less than ten percent of those who have died from AIDS laid out before me to appreciate the need to secure our rights. Must more human beings die, not only from AIDS but also from indifference and bashing before we take a stand? To borrow, "come the revolution," things will be different; that revolution starts with us and must start now. Our very lives depend on it.

Clues sought in

Jack Power

On January 10, 1993, Christine Markey, 22 was reported missing. She was last seen in her Oneida, N.Y. home that she shared with her lover. The area police officials appear to have given this case a low priority.

To date, there have not been any leads into her disappearance. The authorities are not any closer to knowing her whereabouts than they were on January 10.

Her parents believe that her sexual orientation may be a factor in the way police have (not) handled the case. They have come to GULF hoping to find the answer to that question, and possibly the whereabouts of their daughter.

We can all use our imaginations when thinking of how authorities in a small town would handle the disappearance of a known lesbian.

We are asking you, our friends and fam-

lesbian disappearance ily, to spread the word in whatever way you

To the Editors:

Greater Utica Lambda Fellowship (GULF) is a gay, lesbian, and bi support group based in the Mohawk Valley region of central New York. We work vigorously to answer the needs of our community in whatever way we can.

Recently, GULF was approached by a parent in our area in hopes of receiving support from the gay community in learning the whereabouts of their missing lesbian daughter, and answering several questions relating to her disappearance.

can. Christine is a 22-year old white female, 5'2, 105 lbs., brown hair and brown eyes.

We have a sister out there missing,. If we band together, we can find her, and the answers to so many of the questions that her family have.

If you have any information please call the authorities or her family (315-363-0253). Thank you for your help in resolving this very important community issue.

Greater Utica Lambda Fellowhsip P.O. Box 122 Utica, NY 13503 315-738-0673