Thread by @AlexPetrovnia

I wish we discussed more how class intersects with queerness — because my cultural and class background puts a massive social and intellectual void between me and much of the mainstream queer community at large, and absolutely isolates me to this day.

I truly believe that one of the major divides currently in the queer community is along the basis of class (other major ones include race and disability). We see it manifesting in the battle lines that have been drawn in the sand recently.

It’s crucial to understand that this isn’t new. Assimilationist movements within the queer community have existed since the beginning. Each time, assimilationism dictates that only those “respectable” enough to be perceived by cishet society relatively favorably are worthy.

The qualities that make a queer person “respectable” come down to where you fall on other axis of oppression. Those who are “respectable” enough are overwhelmingly white, abled, and affluent.

Assimilationist viewpoints overwhelmingly come from those for whom queerness is the primary axis of oppression in their lives. Assimilationists understand that their movement towards acceptance in society is determined by the *lack* of other oppressive factors.

Assimilationism is selfish, narrow sighted, and for this reason leaves behind the most vulnerable of our community.
I have a personally interesting perspective into how assimilationism works, because visibly I am often claimed by assimilationists as respectable enough.

I am a white trans man who is relatively passing. My disabilities aren’t visibly apparent. I am learned and adept at disguising my class background when I choose to.
For these reasons, I have usually initially accepted by assimilationists until they learn more about me.

Assimilationist rejection is portrayed as a personal, moral failure. I need you to understand that that is a lie. By placing blame on the individual for not being “respectable” enough, assimilationists avoid the uncomfortable realities of addressing multifaceted oppression.

This thread is about class in the queer community, especially in the trans community, and how that status alone dramatically divides our experiences. Affluent queers ignoring those of less affluence is not only cruel - it is hypocritical and antagonistic to queer liberation.

The trans community in particular has a massive class issue. A huge amount of this is tied to the fact that a great number of us require medical intervention that is often portrayed as “cosmetic” or “luxury”. As such, the systems set against us are only workable through affluence

Those vocal or seen as “representative” of the trans community are overwhelmingly white, abled and affluent. I have frequently seen the excuse that those people can “focus” more on trans issues. This is the problem. Intersectional liberation is the only liberation.

There is a lot of discussion within the community about how the queer experience varies with regionality. This is often done by openly demonizing less affluent areas, and blaming those who live there for their lack of respectability.

“Ugh, of course it’s the south”, “lol this is why I don’t live in Texas”, “rednecks are just bigots”, etc etc etc is all a larger scale of this phenomena — painting axis of oppression as a moral issue of individuals rather than a systemic issue of prejudice.

I see this issue perhaps particularly sharply because of my background, but it is absolutely endemic in the queer community.
Affluence (or perceived affluence) creates an entirely different queer experience, regardless of regionality. Regionality isn’t the problem.

I grew up in a college town around one of the largest research universities in the United States. This area is also highly rural, and deeply Appalachian.

There is a stark cultural divide here between the people who live here because of the university and the people who are the descendants of people who colonized this area hundreds of years ago, and have lived primarily in rural poverty since. I am of the latter group.

However, unlike the majority of my peers, I came from parents who believed cultural assimilationism would be our way out. And for them it was. My mother went from growing up in government housing to getting a masters degree.

My perspective on this class divide comes from being someone who does not comfortably belong in either group. I was bullied for my “hick accent” but still fought my way to the competitive levels of academics in a university feeder school system.

The vast majority of my friends’ parents were professors or deans of colleges, while my parents worked in the family business that I helped out at. I was regularly competing with kids who had private tutors, whose parents were both called doctor, and whose houses looked like tv.

This thread is happening because I saw this tweet yesterday and it rang so true for me and I realized it’s the same myth of assimilationism.

https://twitter.com/thensheappears/status/1403021016960581634

Good grades and working hard *did* save my parents, because class was the only factor they were resisting. The majority of the conflict between us in my life has been them not accepting that my path can’t be so straightforward, because of the axis of queerness and disability.

Similarly, my affluent queer friends consistently were frustrated that I was unable to be self-accepting or out. They were often intolerant of the fact that my class heavily influenced my ability to be involved with the queer community at large.

I was often accused of being “ashamed” for being closeted, or of cowardice. I was often accused of not being queer enough. The culture of interrogation of identity (where self determination wasn’t enough) meant that a huge number of queer spaces were inaccessible to me.

Coming out day is a perfect example of this phenomena — it ignores that the safety and accessibility of being out is highly dependent on other axis of oppression, and so excludes those who are multiply discriminated.

These multiple factors have massive impact. I was a senior in high school in 2015, when the marriage equality ruling was passed. I remember working on keeping a composed face as I read the news on my phone, so that my family wouldn’t notice my excitement.

My gf at the time and I texted on an invisible locked app, for fear that our families would find us. We faced a very real threat of homelessness if we were caught. I learned to drive with my headlights off when they would sneak out their window at night to see me.

My best friend’s mother threw a party in celebration, and the vast majority of my queer friends attended without worries.
My gf and I had to make cover stories.

Tw hate crimes
A friend who was invited but couldn’t come out of fear was nearly beaten to death not a week later. He was not affluent. He was rural. He was white. He, like me, had been one of the few hick kids that ran with the affluent kids.

My affluent queer friends were excitedly sending me pics of the White House lit up rainbow — and I was scared for my life.

I suspected I was trans for a full decade before transitioning. I held off acknowledging my truth for as long as I possibly could. I refuse to be shamed for this. I refuse to allow this to be construed as a personal or moral failure.

My closeting is only weakness, or immoral, when viewed through the lens of queerness alone. When other factors are included, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And it saved me.

This is why I am entirely intolerant of the argument that trans people who have only recently self-realized are less worthy to speak for our community. Selecting those who have had the privilege of being out the longest selects those who do not face other axis of oppression.

Marriage equality in the US, gay celebrities, and Elliot Page do not mean queer liberation is here. It does not mean Pride is not still an active protest. Liberation for those who are only oppressed by their queerness is not queer liberation. Assuming that it is is deadly.

If we allow Pride to become a memorial, we allow the movement to die where it stands. And we allow all those who are not already liberated to die with it.

link.medium.com/hkGggRap0gb