How Women's and LGBT Rights Are Intertwined

[aviv_b_artwork]

Here's an link to an interesting article that appeared on Change.Org Blog. This expresses what I believe far more eloquently than I would be able to.

How Women's and LGBT Rights Are Intertwined

by Alex DiBranco

In August, Michael Jones reported on Change.org's Gay Rights blog on the disturbing practice of "corrective rape" -- also known as trying to rape a queer person, most often a lesbian, straight. Because all a woman really needs is a real man between her legs to realize what she's missing out on, the reasoning goes.

In South Africa, it has been an epidemic, with hundreds of queer women reporting corrective rape every year -- and many more silent in the shadows. The rapes are fed by a deadly cocktail of misogyny and homophobia; as this phenomenon makes all too clear, women's and LGBT rights are intertwined.

Yesterday, Abbie Kopf blogged on the Gay Rights blog, "Why Every Gay Rights Advocate Should Be a Feminist." And the sentiment goes both ways.
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Read the rest of the article here:  http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/how_womens_and_lgbt_rights_are_intertwined

The article by Abbie Kopf is also worth reading.
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Your are free to comment as long as you are respectful.  Unfortunately due to recent events, I will be screening comments.

Yes, I agree with the position.  I've been active in human rights advocacy, including gay rights advocacy for 35+ years. I've been writing fanfic for six months. So before you start making assumptions that I'm a slash writer who 'thinks' they support gay rights, you might want to realize that I was involved in this issue before a lot of you were born. Long before it was fashionable to have gay friends, or participate in gay rights events. Long before AIDS, during AIDS and God-willing after AIDS. I have friends and family members who are gay and I'm not going to apologize to anyone for that.  If you have a problem with that, really that's your problem, not mine.

And if you don't agree that straight women should work for gay rights, that's fine. You are free to explain why. But you are not free to make personal attacks or judgments about the motivations of others unless you know them personally, send hate messages to my PM, or any other nutfuckery that you think up.  Instead take all that negative energy and make something positive out of it.
 
Go do something meaningful.  Write a letter on behalf of a political prisoner in another country. Attend a rally supporting rights for immigrants.  Open your checkbook and help kids who are homeless, feed a hungry child even if they aren't the same race or religion that you are.  There a dozens of things you can do to make the world a better place, that don't take a whole lot of time or even much money. Its fine to stand up for yourself, but if you only stand for yourself and don't stand up for others, then you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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This message was not approved by my feminist friends, my gay friends, political prisoners, immigrants, hungry children, or anyone else.

Comments

[freekydj.livejournal.com]

Once again, proof that bigotry provokes violence. The idea that rape is going to "fix" a gay woman is insane. I just don't understand how rape could be considered acceptable against a gay woman, but not a straight woman.

It is an act of violence and emotional trauma regadless of a person's sexual orientation!

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that rape is often tolerated when it involves straight women. A man forcing his wife to have sex with him is not considered rape in many parts of the world.

And a small, but very dangerous subset of men do not consider 'date rape' (I hate that term, rape is rape), to actually be rape. See this article:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2009/11/12/rapists-who-dont-think-theyre-rapists/

Recently a woman who had written about group sex fantasies on her journal found the DA in her group rape case essentially dismissing it because of what she had on her journal. I saw this over on WTF_sexism.

[freekydj.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it seems there are so many situations in which rape is "validated" due to circumstances and/or lifestyles, even the clothing a woman wears can be questioned.

Rape is rape. Although things are changing (much to slowly as far as I am concerned), there is such a long way to go.

That doesn't even touch on societies in which even if it is believed that a woman was raped,and it was truly against her will, she is marked as a woman to be ashamed of, and even punished for being assaulted.

No wonder so many women never come forward.

[kelticbanshee]

Given the attitudes I've been seeing recently from a lot of people, wise thing to screen comments.

I've had a couple of rants recently about all of this, and about some people's attitudes when the topic comes up for discussion. I can't remember where I read it but I've come across "women who think they know what they are talking about when it comes to LGTB rights really don't have a clue, cos there's no connection between both issues" more than once. *sigh*

I'm sure I'll have more sensible thoughts when I'm not falling asleep... :)

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

For me the connection is that its about 'human rights.' If we allow any group to be treated as 'less than' then we end up diminishing ourselves.

And let's not be naive, groups that hate one group of people rarely restrict themselves to just that one. It's exactly what the poem you posted on line says..if you don't speak up for someone else, who's going to be around to speak up your behalf?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone believes straight women shouldn't work for gay rights or that the issues aren't intertwined (because they are and gay people should also care about feminism for this same reason). The problem, as I see it, is when straight women say they experience the same type (not quantity, TYPE) of oppression as gay men or gay women (who experience some different types of oppression themselves) and argue that they are somehow more legitimate participants in this civil rights battle than the people who are themselves directly affected. We need straight allies, not straight rescuers.

These same issues come up in anti-racism work. Yes, white women experience oppression. That is not the some oppression as people of color experience.

Allies need to take their cues from the people they are working with and for. It means not just being an activist, but being a good listener even if sometimes it is uncomfortable or feels unfair.

It's the listening part where people of all sorts in all sorts of fights tend to fall down.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

I think you raise some excellent points.

I know if someone who wasn't Jewish told me that they knew how it felt to be Jewish, I'd be a little annoyed. And I'd feel differently based on my perception of whether that person was more/less oppressed based on group identity. Mainline Christian - very annoyed. African American, only a tiny bit. I don't know if that's fair, I'm just being honest.

However, if they said they were more aware of ISSUES regarding Jewish rights worldwide, they might very well be right. And if they said they were more involved in fighting for Jewish civil rights worldwide, they would certainly be correct. And I wouldn't be offended.

I think that's a fine distinction for some but a valid one.

I do agree about listening carefully (and I freely admit I'm not the best listener even in RL). Let's add reading carefully and asking questions before jumping to conclusions.

Unfortunately, I think on-line communication is inherently problematic because you have no voice, or facial or body cues to determine if the person is serious, sarcastic, or anything else. So there's a tendency to grab onto a sentence and take it out of context, or twist it around a little or make a lot more of it than it merits.

Your thoughts are always welcome and worthy of consideration. Thanks for reading and commenting.