Thread by @thrasherxy

Prediction regarding Peter Buttigieg: this candidacy will expose the major faultiness between white gay men and the rest of the LGBTQ community.

Among LGBTQ folk, I have only heard white gay men excited for him. Meanwhile, not only have I not heard any support from him from a single LB or T person (or any LGBTQ person of color), many LGBTQ people I know are openly hostile to what he is offering...

particularly regarding race, economics, militarism, religion, monogamous marriage, and trans issues. In my 5 years of research, I have found that linguistically, "gay" codes as white male & "queer" codes as Black queer/trans, femme queer, lesbian AND poor, marginalized & left.

I also study how and when white gay men overlap and pull apart from queer identity. White gay men overlapped with queer people at Stonewall but pulled away (via policing and gentrification) by the late 1970s;

they overlapped with queer people regarding vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, then pulled away when they got the drugs in the mid-1990s; they overlapped with queer people regarding potential prosecution for sodomy until the early 2000s, BUT...

...they then pulled away after Lawrence-Garner v. Texas made gay sex legal for men in their homes (but not for homeless queer people, sex workers, etc.).

I think Buttigieg is going to be another plot point in which we see white gay men pull away from queer people.

He is going to rise as a very gay candidate in harsh conflict with queer identity, queer politics, and queer people. I think his candidacy will make expose fault lines of race, class, and economics within LGBTQ politics.

Admittedly, my circle is pretty left; still, queer America is, overall, a lot to the left of the white, married, God-fearing centrist mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Many queers know we'd be better off w economic policies of other candidates.

But as a "clean cut," "fresh faced," God fearing centrist lib in pressed white shirts, Buttigieg will go far with the Democratic Party in his quest to be the head of the American Empire.

(For more, sign up for my class, #SexAndTheAmericanEmpiure next fall!)

@jaimewoo

Rod Ferguson wrote the excellent book ONE DIMENSIONAL QUEER about how gay politics were separated a-historically from their connection to the Black Panthers, Puerto Rican independence & other race/ econ freedom fights post Stonewall amazon.com/One-Dimensiona…

This “one dimensional queer” creates phenomena like Mayor Pete by which the ONLY political story is a concept of “gay” segregated from class, race, econ, nationalism & colonialism.

Hence, why white gay men & few (any?) other LGBTQ ppl are excited for him.

I have pretty thick political skin, but I’m already kinda tired of the head patting, “you’re going to elect Trump if you use your critical mind or words” patronizing attitude of establishment Dems.

We don’t lose when we use our minds to understand & apprach the world as it is.

Who do I personally want for president? Like artist Zoe Leonard, I want a “dyke” or a “fag” for president. I want a person with AIDS for president, someone who has lived in poverty and without good medical care.

(Or at the VERY least, someone VERY committed to them.)

PS—Yes, the most viral tweets of mine always have typos. I *did*, in fact, mean "fault lines" up top & not "faultiness," though faultiness also kinda works?! (When I write quickly and don't correct autocorrect, sometimes I'm damn lucky the replacement also works.)