Limits · of · Sagacity

There have been a couple of interesting essays written recently, one taken from a speech by Urvashi Vaid and another by Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz. Both correctly criticize the current lesbian and gay political and social movements for leaving out people of color, and yet both make the mistake of lumping bisexuals and transgender people in with lesbians and gay men - specifically white lesbians and gay men - when discussing the nature of their complaint.

This division of "sexuality vs. race" is too neat and tidy, and doesn't recognize that their legitimate criticism should really be expanded to include bisexuals and transgender people as those left disempowered by the current construction of sexual politics and sexual liberation. Here's what I said in response to Weiner-Mahfuz's essay, and specifically an observation she makes that I highlighted for comment:

White liberalism strategically and intentionally prevents multi-racial alliances and the full inclusion of people whose bodies and cultures do not fit what is considered to be "the norm".

As a person of color, I'm fully aware of this particular fact. But as a bisexual person, I'm reminded that it isn't just people of color excluded from full participation in the lesbian and gay political and social movements. Bisexuals and transgender people are often trivialized, devalued, ignored, and otherwise left out.

This isn't a "hey, me, too!" reaction - if anything, it is a validation of Weiner-Mahfuz's core point - that the centering of white gay male and lesbian perspectives that is at the core of the white liberal perspective doesn't leave out only people of color, but also all those whose "bodies and culture" do not match the norm of lesbian or gay male sexuality and gender identification. If anything, what I am suggesting is a larger critique of the white liberal perspective within and surrounding the lesbian and gay political and social movements - it's simply too neat to divide this as "sexuality vs. race" when even within the political construction of acceptable sex and gender there are deeply problematic exclusions taking place.

So - speaking for myself - I'm not just reiterating the legitimate complaint of Audre Lorde to Mary Daly. This isn't just about recognizing the contributions of past and present bisexual and transgender activists. It even isn't about making lesbian women and gay men uncomfortable about their silences and shunning of those not like them, whether on the basis of race or gender identity or sexual orientation. What I am suggesting is that Weiner-Mahfuz's and Vaid's critique of white liberalism needs to move past an uncritical identification of "LGBT" as some kind of unified bloc of political perspective to say that - if anything - we should say "lesbian and gay" when attempting to identify the political movement that needs to change. Put another way, bisexuals and transgender people have been excluded just as much as people of color, so let's be clear where that line should be drawn. This entry was originally posted at http://badger2305.dreamwidth.org/2674.html. Feel free to comment here or there, using OpenID.