Author: Fran T.Y. Wu, 24 October 2012
The LGBTQ march in Taiwan is now in its 10th year. Looking back, we can see that over these ten years, the movement has made considerable progress in terms of the accumulation of movements, social visibility, and even political participation. Of course, this period has also seen a fair amount of backlash from the religious right and conservatives, as well as the tragic loss of some young lives before the world became a better place. All of this is a reminder that the outlook is still not optimistic, although progress is definitely possible, but perhaps still some way off.
In recent years, with the increasing number of participants in the LGBT rallies, as well as the community's internal reflection and revision of the consumerization of the rallies, the rallies have gradually returned to the axis of expanding the political influence of the LGBT movement. For example, in 2010, the theme of the "Vote for LGBT Policies" was "Vote for LGBT Policies", which had three out gay candidates; in 2011, under the strong suppression from the religious hegemony of the "Alliance of True Love", the theme of this year's "Rainbow War" was "Revolutionary Marriage - Equal Rights for Marriage and Diversity for Couples". In 2011, under the strong suppression of the religious hegemony of the True Love Alliance, they shouted "Rainbow War, Discrimination Go Away", while this year's theme was "Revolutionary Marriage - Equal Rights in Marriage, Diversity in Couples", which called for equal rights. All these can be seen as the accumulation of the movement's efforts over the years, which may have been slow, but is still solid.
What is even more valuable is the presence of marginalized and underclass comrades, such as the "Disabled Children" taking to the streets in 2008 and the "Voices of the Doubly Disadvantaged" in 2010. Be it physically impaired, hearing impaired or infected comrades, they are all our comrades. Of course, this year, we should also thank Big Bing who has supported the march every year, not only because we are both marginalized gender subjects suffering from social stigma, but also because comrades who are addicted to drugs are naturally our comrades, and also because of Big Bing's support all the way, regardless of his favoritism or humiliation.
In fact, I often feel that this awareness/sensitivity to and inclusion of social stigma, awareness of social control/regulation, and resistance to social exclusion are important connotations and underpinnings of the entire LGBTQ movement, regardless of whether this marginal/underlying gendered subject refers to a composite of race, class, physical appearance, age, or infected, polyamorous, drug-using... ...and so on.
Therefore, I would like to remind myself and all of you that as we begin to fight for the "Holy Grail" of the LGBTQ movement (the right to marry), it is perhaps inevitable that in the discursive battles of the culture wars, we will be too eager to "prove" that LGBTQ people are also "worthy of/deserving of" the right to marry, and that we might accidentally be hit by a stray bullet (e.g., dividing LGBTQ people and excluding marginalized LGBTQ people).
In other words, we should be more careful not to mistakenly think that a "clean gay" image in line with heterosexual middle-class values can win the recognition and support of the mainstream society, not to mention the fact that the homosexual movement does not end here/therefore, and that the consequences of excision are not to be underestimated.
Secondly, as the theme of the march is "Revolutionary Marriage", it also points out that what gay people are fighting for is not only "equal rights to marriage", but we also hope to "deconstruct" the ideology of marriage, which has been monopolized by heterosexuals and patriarchal thinking. In other words, yes, the right to marriage or the right to free association is part of the gay movement, and the same movement is part of the sexual liberation movement, and gay people's fight for the right to marriage or free association is part of the sexual liberation movement.
Whether it is the "cohabiting partner system" or the "multi-person family", we are hoping to "subvert" the existing "heterosexual monogamous and monogamous monogamous couple system" and the so-called "traditional family values", especially when the norms or presuppositions of the "traditional family values" are in fact based on stereotypical gender role expectations and various kinds of exploitation of women, for example, the use of womanhood as the reason for restraining women, or the requirement for women to give up their personal career plans and take up the role of family caregivers, and so on, not to mention the crime of adultery, which is a completely disguised punishment for women. The role of women as family caregivers, not to mention the crime of adultery, which penalizes women in a completely different way, is a common practice in the United States.
Finally, we must not forget that the institution of marriage, monopolized by the state/law, is fundamentally an element of social control. In particular, social welfare, which is supposed to be separate from the marriage/family system, is "linked" to the marriage/family system through various "licenses" for the sake of social stability. This not only circumvents the state's responsibility to establish a complete social welfare system, but also provides an incentive for people to enter the marriage system (in an attempt to exercise social control), and penalizes the disadvantaged, especially the poor, sick, and weak, who are not able to enter the brutal human flesh market of mate selection, not to mention that the system of capital succession, which is based on direct lineage of blood relatives, is the biggest culprit of class duplication. All these should be taken to heart in our campaign for equal rights in marriage, and we should make the dismantling of the government's packaging of social welfare as a licensed right granted exclusively to the institution of marriage the goal of the next stage of the campaign.
In other words, I think the so-called "Revolutionary Marriage" should mean that we are fighting for both equal rights and freedom of marriage/union, and that the fight for equal rights should not be simplified to mean that we are being co-opted by the heterosexual system, but rather that it is part of the anti-discrimination movement. At the same time, "Revolutionary Marriage" also means that we will not be satisfied with just obtaining the right to marry, but that the existing gender oppression and arbitrary rights in the institution of marriage will remain the goal of the gender liberation movement and the gay and lesbian movement.
Last but not least, I would like to wish the 2012 LGBT Rally a successful outcome!
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