Thanks for posting this.

Great post, Tobi. I totally agree. I get a lot more shit about being bipolar than I do being queer nowadays. And how many time is "bipolar" given the "lame" or "retarded" treatment? I think I'm in pretty good company with some other folks who'd argue against gays as the last oppressed minority...

Excellent post, Tobi. Staking claims on particular identities can and does often lead to a fracture in the whole community (that is, everyone, not just "our " community). I think part of what happens is that we often regard embracing an identity or self definition as the end of a process of self discovery or expression, when really it is the beginning.

"...then, along with the idea that gays are the last oppressed people, that means that blacks and other people of color must be done by now...."

That's because people don't seem to have an understanding of when a civil rights struggle "ends." Electing a Black President doesn't mean that white people everywhere have dropped their prejudices towards African-Americans. Apologizing for the abuses of the residential schools (Canada) doesn't mean that white people are all too ready to accept Native people in their midst, or that the First Nations have recouped and redefined their culture for the 21st Century. Putting in place a law that says you can't pass over an applicant simply because she is female isn't going to necessarily bring about wage parity. Nothing ever ends. Even when steps toward equality are won, they must be protected vigilantly.

"How many are going to celebrate and go home?"

I've said it many times. That is exactly what happened here (again, Canada). SSM was accomplished in 2005, partners' benefits came about at around the same time, and then that was it. One of the local GLB papers declared that the "Last Great Battle" had been won, and then everybody went home. People slipped into suburbia, seeing far less need or use for gay bars, grassroots organiziations -- even donations to the national GLBT organization dropped to a small fraction of what they once were (are you listening HRC?). And while America has had a number of related battles and some successes, trans rights aren't even on the radar here.

"What about people with disabilities? Deaf people? Pagans? Indigenous populations? Trafficked laborers? Undocumented workers? Prisoners? People who don't speak English? Polyamorous people? Practitioners of BDSM? Sex workers? Proud fat folks? Intersex folks?"

It's about self-interest. Since becoming involved in activism, I've moved on to involvement with other things that don't directly affect me, but it is self-interest that initially gets us involved. For many, it never grows past that -- instead, it becomes a bitter kind of "do your own dirty work" sentiment, in part because activism gets rough, and often eats its own.

Yup. I can only "the last civil rights movement" as a statement that some folks are going to give up if we win the on-paper battles, like ENDA, marriage, and DADT.

There's agism, too. I know for a fact that women are less likely to date me because of my age then of me being trans.

While this is a noble sentiment Tobi it ignores the reality that we live in to an extent. We can and should loudly advocate for the right of all minority groups big and small. But time and time again in our community, and more so in the community you grew up in the struggles of all have been hindered by the worries of a small group. As a community we are too often tripped up by the ongoing oppression olympics, the concern about the one disabled trans man of color derailing the entire fight for the thousands of people who don't fit in to that very small box and still don't have rights either. This isn't to say that that one person or that small ground does not deserve rights, deserve a voice. It is only to say that we have be come so myopic that the whole struggle has gone off track. What has really changed in the last 20 years? In they eyes of the law what has changed? Be concerned about poly rights, fight for them, but let us not forget that the majority of the community is without rights and protection. To focus on the large and not the small is foolish, but to focus on the small without the large is not only foolish but damn near impossible.

"But time and time again in our community, and more so in the community you grew up in the struggles of all have been hindered by the worries of a small group."

Um, is this about ENDA 2007/8? Because I can't think of too many other situations offhand in which it was claimed that one group failed to achieve rights because of a smaller affiliated group. I can't see how keeping in mind the needs of "one disabled trans man of color" hamstrings everyone else's cause(s).

The "time and time again" that I've seen in the community is the jettisoning of people because they're somehow considered an embarassment and political liability. The "we're just like you" movement in gay and lesbian activism did it to transfolk in the 1970s - mid-1990s (roughly), the lesbian community did it to "stereotype perpetuating" butch / femme lesbians in the politically correct 1980s and now a small group of transsexuals is vying to generate a movement to do the same to transgender people, transsexuals who they don't like or who don't agree with them, etc. Are we so starved for rights that the moment we catch a whiff of the possibility of attaining them, we're willing to sabotage everybody else in order to secure it?

That has to stop sometime.