How the respectability politics of fairness will lead us nowhere

"Because equality politics demands respectability politics. Rather than tear down or smash or, even more kindly, transform the patriarchal institutions of marriage and the military, gays sought inclusion into them - the impulse of heteronormativity and the democratic ideal of equality too deeply conditioned into their mindset. The gay politics of respectability reasoned that formal inclusion in the nation's institutions was tantamount to, or at least would induce, societal acceptance. (To wit, the gay defense of marriage proffers nonsensical arguments that marriage is necessary because the marriage contract prevents their kids from being bullied at school for having two mothers.)"

"The resulting equality politics excised the movement's liberatory and revolutionary demands and instead positioned the LGBTQ+ community in the subservient and submissive position of asking - politely, of course - for what the straights have. Recall the popular marriage campaign mantra of "same rights, not special rights" - we don't want more, we don't want different, we just want the same."

Fairness functions as a contemporary form of respectability politics that has shaped LGBTQ+ equal rights strategies for decades. Leadership across the political spectrum weaponizes respectability, placing marginalized people at risk. Equality politics prioritized formal inclusion into institutions like marriage and the military rather than dismantling or transforming those institutions. That prioritization excised liberatory and revolutionary demands and positioned the LGBTQ+ community to seek acceptance through conformity. Equality framed as neutrality or fairness requires capitulation to supremacist and capitalist systems that operate through oppression and extraction. Legal and policy definitions of equality remain shaped by those in power, limiting transformative change.

Read at Advocate.com