Queer'd Liberalism : Ch. 1
I. PREFACE
We are approaching the fifty-seventh anniversary of the 1969 rebellion at the Stonewall that— at least in popular memory— served as the launching-pad for the righteous and glorious struggle for the ability of Queer people (gender, sexual, and romantic minorities) to not only publicly live as themselves, but to also exercise their independence and shape their own destiny for better lives. At the same time as we are approaching such a jubilant occasion, we are living in a time of heightened struggle against Queer people’s independence. In 2025 alone, twenty-nine American states passed over 120 new laws meant to attack and curtail the rights of transgender Americans to live as themselves. Among these are laws that specifically attack transgender and Queer people along line of class distinction. If gender affirming care is unavailable in the area in which a working-class person lives; if the discussion of topics relating to our lives is prohibited, vast strata of the working-class are simply unable to “pack up and move” to a safer area— as is often recommended by some as a weak bandage over the gash that has been inflicted upon the collective community of Queer people.
This being said, the violence perpetrated against Queer people in general and the Queer working-class in particular has been covered at great length, and arguably with superior analysis than we may be able to provide here. What must be discussed in the era of heightened struggle is that there exists an internal contradiction among the Queer masses to which little effort has gone into addressing. The psychologically poisoning and castrating ideologies of liberalism and puritanism have creeped their way into much of Queer space. Our goal here is not to attack those who carry these wrong ideas, but to engage in a “ruthless struggle” so as to weed out the backwards and dangerous ideas that permeate a vast swath of discourse surrounding Queer people. It may be argued that any such criticism of Queer discourse is but a bludgeon against our own and that to criticize these ideas merely provides aid to the enemy forces wishing to destroy us. However, as the great comrade, Mao Zedong once said,
“To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms […] This is one type of liberalism.” [1]