Where Have all the Activists Gone...

M. and I came of age in the early nineties. We completely missed the AIDS crisis. We watched the dying throughs of Queer Nation and Lesbian Avengers with a sense of glee. We shunned the label of 'activist'. After all, no one was going to get anywhere by being militant.

We were not activists.

I was not going to take on the lable, with all its connotations and negativity. Other people were activists, you know, those people. The ones hold mock funerals in the street and block traffic. The ones who put themselves up for ridicule, who feed the fears of our opponents. The ones who polarize, not galvanize. I was NOT going to be one of those people.

I was wrong.

Some time in the last ten years the queer activist died. He or she was swallowed by our desire to trot out celebrity queers and supporters as proof of our progress. He or she was engulfed by our desire to portray our lives as slick media productions. We turned our back on street actions and marches, because we thought that the only way to win was to be acceptable and the only way to be acceptable was to be quiet.

I believe it is time to stand up again. We have spent too much time aiding our opponents by becoming docile and searching for acceptibility. We will never gain acceptibility. Partly because it has never been their goal to give it and party because it is also not theirs to give.

It is time for queers everywhere to take on the mantle of activist with pride. It's time to rediscover outrage. If standing up against injustice is militant, than I hope the world is filled with militants. It is a sad day when people are criticized for standing up for their rights. It's a sadder day when we stand down in the face of that criticism.

Yes, I'm fired up tonight. I'm pissed. I'm ashamed at my own part in the oppressive silence that has been created around queer activism. I am not silent now but I have been silent in the past when I shouldn't have been.

See, I promised to talk about something besides impending baby.