[-empyre-] David Chirot: Queer *Is* Violent: Response to Part of Judith'sPosition/Statement

[Robert Summers]

Hi David,

I have some questions and comments re: your post:

You state, "... a fighter -- i remember at the time what an immense
moment and example this was, like the lid had been blown off the
streets, the sewer lid, and suddenly swarming forth from the degrading
darkness into ful view were these gladiators, tough guys, men on the
move with weapons against the forces endlessly making them stay "in
the closest" or bars, behind the scenes ..."

I like the metaphor (but is it?) of the "sewer lid being blown off"
and the "monstrosity" emerging: a swarm (a "war-machine"? fueled by a
superhuman love).  I think this could be a
corrective-as-a-return-to-radicality in "queer politics" and "queer
action/s" that would counter the conservative turn in the major "gay
and lesbian movements" in North America (esp. the USA) -- for example
Equality California and the HRC, which in many aspects just has
bisexuals and transsexuals as tokens.  Such "gay" and "lesbian"
movements are "fighting" more for "gays in the military" and "gay
marriage" then AIDS/HIV, queer youth, rethinking kinship, etc.  Prop 8
in California passed, in large part, because the gay, white,
middle-class "community" did not reach out to the working class, the
working poor, and people of color -- as well as the places outside of
there comfort zone: East LA, South Central, the Inland Empire, etc.
With regard to Stonewall, I want to add that "queers" -- or then
"gays," in the broader sense of the term, -- of color, trannies (of
color), dykes (of color), and drag queens (of color) were also at
Stonewall and involved in the revolt/revolution, and a similar event
took place in LA approx. two years earlier; thus, complicating the
narrative, the history of the "gay and lesbian movement" and
problematizing the "masculinist" actions taken during the 3 day (?)
up-rise.  I would like to know more of what you think of "queer
friendship," "queer kinship," and "queer politics" -- then and now.

Also, you write about "queer" and the class issue.  What does "queer
theory" and "queer politics" have to say about class?  Has it done a
poor job in addressing this issue: the class issue -- not to mention
the race issue, which often dovetails into the class issues of the
poor?

Finally, for this email to you (and others), you write, "i [would]
read Genet aloud to him and his mangy dog -- while he cut up the meth
-- the cutting it was also a form of violence against the middle and
upper class customers -- working kids and women like ourselves got the
good stuff ..."

This reminds me of a story by Foucault (?).  He and Jean Genet were in
a protest and the police arrived, and as Genet was thrown to the floor
by the police, he was drawn to the shiny, leather boots of the police.
 This is interesting to me because Genet (as in his writing)
eroticized power, and he reversed (if only momentarily) the movement
of power, by turning the Subject (the Police) into objects (of
perverse pleasure and desire).  This also shows the power of
disidentification, if you will.  I just love the fact that the
brutality of the police was eroticized -- turned in another direction:
one unrecognized and unstoppable by the police, the State apparatus.
This is similarly played out in _Funeral Rites_ and even _Un Chant
Amour_ -- as well as the play of _Un Chant Amour_ in Todd Haynes's
_Poison_.  Here is a link to a brilliant essay on _Poison_ and "queer
cinema": http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/issue1/bryson/bryson.html

Thanks for your intriguing post; there is much there what needs
further discussion, I think.

As Ever, Robert ...


Robert Summers, PhD/ABD
Lecturer
Art History and Visual Culture
Otis College of Art and Design
e: rsummers at otis.edu
w: http://ospace.otis.edu/robtsum/Welcome