On the Human Rights Campaign, Gay Marriage and Single-Issue Activism

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) purports to be the largest LGBTQQ lobbying and political activist group in the United States. However, over the last several years since the groups formation back in 1980 there had been a rising tide of discontent within the LGBTQQ community over the work of the HRC. Among the various complains is the seeming promotion and cheering on of corporate and consumerist culture by the HRC, along with the selling of goods and products that were manufactured in sweatshops. There are also accusations of the HRC failing to adequately advocate for the rights of transgender people, queer people, non-heteronormative people, and people of color, and the funnelling away of hard-earned donations from organizations that choose to put the money back into the community. Perhaps the biggest complaint about them though is their single-issue activism. The HRC raises the fight for same-sex marriage above all other LGBTQQ issues, including the crisis of homelessness among LGBTQQ youth, targeted discrimination in health insurance policies against transgender people, the mutilation of intersex infants, and a other equally important human and civil rights issues.

To the first, the HRC has "green lighted" several corporate crooks who it feels are perfectly fine to deal with based on their apparent policies and practices towards gays and lesbians. At the top of the list we have American beer manufacturer Coors. This is a bit of an about face, as Coors in the past has actually been faced with a boycott of it products, which began in the 1970s due to their donor relations with a number of right-wing conservative religious groups, not the least of which was the Heritage Foundation, a far-right, anti-LGBTQQ, anti-woman organization headed by Edwin Feulner. Moving on from the realm of intoxicating liqours, we see that the HRC has given the thumbs-up to NIKE, which, as I am sure you are all aware of, has an absolutely abysmal record on using manufacturing methods like sweatshops. In the area of mass-media one may be quite surprised to find Clear Channel, home of the homophobic and heterosexist (and apparent opponent of autistic children) Michael Savage, listed as having been cleared by the HRC. Next we move onto what is in our gas tank (and in the atmosphere) as we are all reminded to fill up for equality with Shell, BP or Chevron, though it should be noted that while BP and Chevron scored 100% approval by the HRC, Shell got an 85%. Finally we reach the belly of the beast, the global pharmaceutical corporation Merck who, through the patenting of vital, life saving AIDS medication, has ensured HIV positive folks in Brazil and Thailand, and even the US cannot afford Efavirenz. If you couldn't tell I was being somewhat sarcastic above, but the truth is that the HRC's pushing of a consumerist and corporatist agenda is just absolutely absurd. "Buying for equality" solves fuck, and as can be seen, a number of these corporate "friends" of the LGBTQQ community are doing much to actually hurt it. Clear Channel is a launching point for right-wing conservative anti-LGBTQQ propaganda, and Merck is ensuring that LGBTQQ people with HIV/AIDS cannot afford the medication they so dearly need. This must be seen for what it is and combated at all costs by true progressives and radicals inside the LGBTQQ liberation movement.

The next issue with the HRC stems from its treatment, or rather lack or treatment, of transpeople. People in this segment of the LGBTQQ community are particularly focused on the apparent lack of HRC concern as to how the backlash to the push for same-sex marriage specifically affects their lives. At issue here is that the HRC never consulted members of the transgender community for input on their push for gay marriage. However as result of the right-wing religious backlash against same-sex marriage, which has seen some 38 states pass marriage laws banning the practice, transgender people have been hurt deeply. Many of the laws that have been passed get interpreted in such a way by the courts that they have had the effect, in some cases, of eliminating many already existing pro-trans marriage and even identity rights.

The HRC has also shown itself to be highly hypocritical in other areas concerning transgender rights. The HRC pushes for "incremental progress" when it comes to the struggle for transgender rights, while simultaneously pushing for immediate, full legal recognition of same-sex relationships. This mind blowing level of hypocrisy on the issue of transgender rights lead to the resignation of the HRC's only transgender Executive Board member. It would seem that the HRC largely views the transgender community as an expendable one that can get tossed to the flame as it marches in formation towards its unitary goal of same-sex marriage.

The HRC also promotes through its media a heteronormative, white, generally middle or upper-class, non-transgender/cisgender, male image of the LGBTQQ community. This racist, classist, heterosexist, and transphobic. The truth of the matter is that the most common same-sex family unit in the United States is one composed of a black, female couple, not gay white men, as the HRC would have you think. Queer people, butch women, femme men, transgender people, genderqueer people, and transsexual people, are just as much a part of the community which HRC purports to advocate for, yet they are routinely and repeatedly ignored and swept under the rug.

Six or seven years ago I don't think many of us in the revolutionary and progressive movement really could have imagined that same-sex marriage would become the focal point of a national debate surrounding LGBTQQ rights. However that was then, and today it must also be admitted that this is the this is the form of the LGBTQQ struggle that history has provided for us. Is it perfect? No, far from it. It excludes transgender people, pushes a corporatist/consumerist agenda as well as an image of the LGBTQQ community as being all affluent, young, heternormative, gay white males, which is far from an accurate picture of the community. Also, we as socialists must understand the contradictory nature of marriage and its role in capitalism and patriarchy. If I could have had a say in the matter, I would not have chosen this issue as the one around which to wage a struggle in support of LGBTQQ issues as a whole. So it comes to us as socialists that we must take this opportunity and bring a socialist vision and analysis to the debate, while at the same time rejecting the Human Rights Campaign as an anti-poor, racist, sexist, classist, and transphobic organization. We must point out that it is far more concerned with assimilation of the LGBTQQ community into the wider society than it is with effective advocacy and liberation. Only then can we begin to build a multi-issue queer liberation movement that will take part in the formation of a truly inclusivist society.

As I said above, the sheer level of desire by the gay and lesbian community to have their unions recognized in law was unanticipated by many of us. This was gross underestimation by us, and we must learn from our mistakes and not repeat the past. It is our duty as progressives and revolutionaries to recognize the charecter of this movements as a mass one with a very strong grassroots component. Like the Obama Presidential Campaign which has mobilized millions of young people, people of colour and others dissafected and disenfranchised by the current system, we can not, as socialists, pass up this opportunity to inject a revolutionary perspective into the movement. Also like Obama this does not mean supporting the campaign itself, but rather taking the time to directly interact with the rank-n-file who give the movement its strength. Rather than sit on our laurels as we did last time, we must anticipate that this movement will be the spawning point new forms of struggle emerge, especially in light of the successes, both partial and full, in the states of Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island and New Mexico, as well in the international community with Canada, South Africa/Azania, and much of Europe either offering full marriage or civil-unions. We must struggle against the rightist and conservative backlash, especially in the states that will be having referenda on their November ballots.

We must also recognize the timely nature of this discussion around patriarchy and homophobia. We must see that these attacks on LGBTQQ persons is also linked intrinsically to attacks on the rights of women by the patriarchal capitalist state. Given the current global and local climate surrounding LGBTQQ rights, it is more important than ever for us as revolutionary socialists to find ways to link-up in a concrete fashion the various social movements that implicitly challenge the system of capitalism and its ideological pillars. Renewed clarity around the issue of homophobia and patriarchy will strongly contribute to this. It is only by seeing the true nature of the intersections between capitalism, racism/national oppression, patriarchy, and homophobia and heterosexism than we can hope to build a revolutionary mass movement for the future.

Democracy! Liberty! Justice!

In Peace and Solidarity

Rowland Keshena