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stella41b -> RE: Communication does not create "Community" (4/29/2010 8:27:22 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: leadership527
This, I suspect, is a problem in ANY alternative grouping. The problem is that some of the participants are more into the alternativism of it than the actual thing. They don't WANT to find the points of commonality with the larger society. They don't want to build the bridges. They want to make themselves out as alien and different and that all important "extreme". All of which is fine by me... up to the point where they start asking for acceptance. I just don't think you get to say "fuck you all now love me". If someone wants to be a wild-child, deviant, extremist, non-conformist, whatever that's all fine. But don't expect everyone else to like it. They won't. Fundamentally, if some group insists on drawing the battle lines, then the "THEM" folks are going to be hostile... as they should be.
Well Jeff in a way this is true. But it's not the complete picture.
Back in 2006 whilst being homeless myself and being in a hostel I was subjected to constant daily harrassment from hostel staff simply for being transgendered and i stood up to the hostel manager and made a formal complaint of discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
I won. The homeless charity who ran the hostel, St Mungo's conducted an investigation and changed its policies, which in itself explains the somewhat iconic position I have among many members of the homeless community in London and it was an event which directly led to my setting up my own charity to work against social stigma.
St Mungo's is the oldest among the UK homeless charities and it supports other charities, for example Stonewall. As a result I was asked to work with Stonewall to add the 'T' to their LGB organization. This has been a request made on a number of occasions and each time Stonewall has refused. This is in itself somewhat ironic because if it wasn't for the drag queens, the activism of the transgendered community there would never have been a Stonewall in the first place.
I was then asked to set up a focus group in West London, supported by St Mungo's, the NHS and the local authorities which I agreed to. Now it's my personal belief that a very necessary component in the struggle for wider acceptance of the LGBT community is the BDSM community - which is arguably more diverse that the LGBT community for it involves many different people with every imaginable sexual orientation - and that wider acceptance can only be achieved with the active support of the heterosexual community. On a very personal level there are many gays, lesbians and transfolk who are supported emotionally by at least one person who is heterosexual, and therefore this change just requires a different perspective of looking at someone, i.e. overlooking their differences in sexual orientation but instead looking at them as another human being.
The LGBT community isn't a minority, nor is the BDSM community - both are too diverse and are made up of people across a wide spectrum found in society, the only minority are the people who persecute, harrass and harm other people simply because they are different. Take the Catholic Church for example. Those who are advocating hatred and persecution of people for being different are those who have the power, the Pope, the priests, and not necessarily the people who regard themselves as Catholics or who attend Mass.
And so I went out and gave talks, speeches and spoke to people outside the community, out in wider society. I visited hostels for the homeless, community associations, residents associations, political meetings, and have even met with mullahs in the Islamic community. Via another activist, an older lesbian who ran her own charity for the older LGBT community we were able to gain the support of other charities such as Age Concern (for the elderly) and MIND (for the mentally ill).
But yes there were divisions from within the group. Lesbians were divided over whether they wanted to mutually support bisexual women and transwomen, gay men had similar issues, and this in effect prevented me from reaching out to ethnic minorities. The LGBT staff association also didn't like the fact that heterosexuals were attending our meetings looking for information and help on how they could better support people who were close to them (family and friends) who were gay, lesbian or transgendered. This is what caused me to quit the group.
So yes I would agree that a minority prefer to be a minority and a persecuted minority. This is no different from wider society where some people choose to remain victims rather than make the effort to become survivors.
But this isn't just about being alternative. Please don't think that I am being motivated to form one big happy clappy society where everybody is accepted and we all get together to sing 'Kumbaya' round camp fires. This is also about basic human rights, the right to express oneself freely, the right to form happy, personal relationships freely, the right to be able to work freely, the right to be able to travel freely - basic human rights that the vast majority of heterosexuals take for granted.
I am a transgendered female, and I don't come here to be alternative, I come here to be me. If some people want to perceive me and the way I live as alternative then let them. They have a right to do so. If someone doesn't accept me for being transgendered then let them, for that is their right.
I am simply being me, and my work comes out of the Polish Solidarity movement. From the twenty eight people who sat down together with Lech Walesa in the Round Table talks with the former Polish 'communist' government I have had personal dealings with seven of them, including the late former President Lech Kaczynski. In fact it was he who when president of Warsaw blocked funding for my work to create a theatre of professional actors who also worked with the homeless, causing me to leave Warsaw.
Bear in mind it was the same people who supported my career in Poland who were instrumental also in my downfall in 2005. Bear in mind that I am also under heavy restrictions which prevent me from entering the United States put in place by the US authorities, and bear in mind that the UK government have also denied me welfare benefits for being transgendered. Trust me, this isn't about being alternative at all, this is purely about basic human rights. I have spent the last five years regaining all those rights and through this have decided to devote the rest of my life to working towards regaining these basic human rights for other people who have been denied them simply for being different.
There's a lesson in the Polish Solidarity movement that I personally feel we need to learn in the West. The success of the Polish Solidarity movement is of course those nine years spent in bringing everyone together for the same common objective - to achieve social change through non-violent activities and struggles. However the Polish Solidarity movement also failed, because it did nothing to end the oppression of the LGBT community nor did it help people at the very bottom of society and both today - 30 years after Solidarity was formed in Gdansk - have little opportunity to unite and share in the solidarity with other Poles but remain excluded.
The reason why I feel that this is a necessary lesson for people in the West is that very few of us actually want commonality with the rest of society - and I would even suggest that the vast majority of us would prefer the freedom to be able to express ourselves and live our lives being the individuals we are but still be free to enjoy basic human rights such as the right to live somewhere, the right to work or have some sort of an occupation and the right to form successful, happy relationships.
It's kind of interesting in that back in 1980 we could be forgiven for believing that we lived in a free, democratic society and feel sorry for those in Eastern Europe who were forced to live under a totalitarian regime. Kind of interesting to see that 30 years on the situation appears that it's been reversed and that, unlike many of the Eastern Europeans many of us are quite happy living under a totalitarian regime which has effectively removed many of the subcultures in favour of globalization and the illusion of a unified society which isn't very unified at all.
Yes there are people who have the freedom to choose to be alternative but there are many others who are deemed alternative by other people in society simply for being themselves, and who don't have that choice or freedom. They would love more than anything to be accepted by others in society just for being human beings - irrespective of what you think about their way of expressing themselves or their lifestyle - but instead of getting that acceptance they are getting hatred, hostility and exclusion.
And here is the point of the lesson. If we focus on the differences that separate us and try to resolve those differences we will never achieve solidarity. Each and every one of us is an individual and it is unrealistic to expect everyone to conform to a set social standard. Not only is it unrealistic, but it also undermines any effort spent in working towards the objective, which is solidarity.
We have to look beyond those differences, and beyond the people who believe that those differences are important. This is why political correctness failed - the focus of political correctness was on the differences. The differences have always existed ever since people existed and they will always exist for as long as there are people.
This is why I have spent time recently supporting a Glasgow priest who made homophobic statements to his congregation. I do not agree with the statements he made, I also don't agree with his decision to abuse his position as a priest to advocate social division and hatred, but then again I also disagree strongly with him being prosecuted for exercising his freedom of speech.
However I do believe that when we focus on the three things which we all share - that we are human, that we are individuals and that we all desire the freedom to be different and to live our lives as individuals - and when we respect that other people are different from us, then the objective of finding solidarity with others becomes very possible.
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