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Respectability Politics and the Rights of Queer and Transgender People: Critiquing an Obsolete System in the 21St Century

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Respectability Politics and the Rights of Queer and Transgender People: Critiquing an Obsolete System in the 21St Century Politicus Journal Respectability Politics and the Rights of Queer and Transgender People: Critiquing an Obsolete System in the 21st Century Matt Finley [email protected] Introduction the marginalization of queer and trans people For many, the quest for gay rights end- —especially those of a racial minority— can ed with the advent of marriage equality; yet in part be attributed to the concept of ‘re- while the issue monopolized the movement’s spectability politics’ in the LGBTQ rights financial and social resources, it was not the campaign. In its simplest form, respectability sole item on the LGBTQ advocacy agenda politics espouses the view that minorities who (Rayside 2016, 263-64). In the long protest act in a ‘respectable’ manner will persuade wave that swept across Europe and North the dominant group to extend the same rights America in the 1960s, few activist movements protections to said minority that they extend to can claim as great an impact on public poli- themselves. Furthermore, the argument that re- cy and popular beliefs as advocates fighting spectability politics will have to be abandoned against the social and political marginalization in the quest for truly effective queer and trans of sexual minorities. This is particularly true rights is supported by literature on LGBTQ in Canada, where the lesbian, gay, bisexual, rights and Black rights advocacy. Naturally, transgender movement secured major gains it would be reductive to compare the margin- from the mid-1980s onward. Although I do alization of Black people to that of LGBTQ not claim that the LGBT movement has elim- people simply based on their status as histor- inated inequity and prejudice based on sexual ically disadvantaged groups; as such, that is difference, or that all observers agree on how not what this paper argues. Rather, this paper much has been won, the Canadian case raises seeks to illustrate that the doctrine of respect- important questions. Prioritization of marriage ability politics —widely applied by the civil equality caused certain voices within the com- rights movement of the 1960s— is extremely munity, namely queer and transgender people, similar, if not identical, to strategies deployed to be silenced and ignored. This marginaliza- in the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement. tion has not been without material effect with Through studying the limits of respectability regards to said groups, whose rights claims politics for the Black rights movement, we can have been considerably complicated legally, draw inferences regarding its (in)effective- and relegated to the ‘back burner’ socially. ness for LGBTQ rights claimants, specifically This paper will seek to illustrate how queer and trans people. 28 29 This paper will first discuss the pitfalls is good or acceptable: this key characteristic of respectability politics with regards to the is instrumental for our understanding of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, specifi- limits of respectability politics, as it elegant- cally the strategy’s tendency to silence voices ly sums up what the doctrine can and cannot who fall outside a slim ‘respectably Black’ accomplish. subgroup. Following this, the historical treat- Proponents of respectability politics ment of Black LGBTQ people within the would argue that it acts as a vehicle for the Black community will help illustrate the link deliverance of rights, while uplifting rights between respectability politics and support of claimants in the process. This way of thinking marginalized subgroups. Subsequently, this is not some ‘antiquated’ conception of rights: framework will be applied to the fight for even President Obama chose to focus more LGBTQ rights, to show how the same phe- on the respectability of actions rather than the nomenon has occurred within the LGBTQ underlying issues that caused them when he community (regarding both racism, and trans said that Black citizens over the years have, at and queer ideas). Finally, using the concept points, “lost our way” (referencing riots and of homonormativity, this paper will argue that other ‘non-respectable acts’) (Harris 2014, respectability politics is no longer compatible 37). We must not entirely discount the use of with true queer and trans rights protection, just respectability politics, as it has been effective as it is no longer ‘simpatico’ with the mod- in the past; however, it has only been effective ern-day Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. for the portion of Black citizens who were able to mould themselves into a White-approved Section I: Essence of Respectability Politics form, a key issue. The dominant White system Respectability politics, taken to its most during the 1960s rights movement held some base roots, is quite a simple concept: groups fairly exclusionary values, and those values who seek rights should present themselves as became reflected in what Black citizens had ‘worthy’ of respect from the dominant class. to embody to become ‘respectable.’ This pro- If they can prove said worthiness, rights will cess included correcting for traits that did not follow. For the civil rights movement, the doc- reflect an adequate level of ‘civility,’ reinforce trine of respectability politics took the form the notion of the nuclear family, or any num- of Black people calling out and eliminating ber of other social phenomena that reflected the “bad” traits present in their community a different norm than that of the predominant (Harris 2014, 33). This strategy was designed culture. to uplift Black people through the elimination Such a preoccupation with countering of stereotypes of inferiority, and it would be negative stereotypes resulted in narrow rep- executed through the careful cultivation of the resentations that ignored the complexity of Black citizen as successful, moral, and gener- Black culture, pushing marginalized groups ally “upright” (Obasogie and Newman 2016, such as women and LGBTQ people to the 546). As Obasogie and Newman note, respect- periphery (Griffin 2000, 34). While both ability politics is about “incorporation into the Black men and women had to edit aspects of hegemonic normativity of whiteness” (2016, themselves to appear respectable, the pres- 548). We can read this as seeking inclusion in sure placed on Black women was particularly an existing system, without seeking to change intense. This is often illustrated by the extra pre-existing norms and parameters for what requirement for Black women to abandon their 30 Politicus Journal natural hairstyles, uphold even higher stan- negative) of the entire racial group (1999, 12). dards of behaviour than their male counter- Members of the group who experience strug- parts, and to hold important places in organiz- gle outside of this relatively privileged sub- ing the civil rights movement while oftentimes section, often considered “marginal or a blight operating in the shadows (Ford 2013, 632). on the community,” must fight for recognition The treatment of Black women would there- in Black politics (15). Since these groups are fore come to mirror the treatment of women in often stigmatized by dominant systems, the general as the ‘subordinate’ gender, as respect- Black body politic is forced to choose between ability politics often required the men to ‘take legitimacy accorded to them by dominant in- point’ in accordance with White European stitutions, or the protection of their vulnerable culture. minorities; this often results in the Black com- Here we encounter the core critique of munity separating its “respectable” members respectability politics: though it was successful from its “deficient” members, as Cohen puts it as a tool for gaining civil and political rights (15). in the 1960s movement, it failed as a vehicle Cross-cutting issues —those affecting to address the general subordination of Black only a specific portion of the Black popula- people that continues today (Harris 2015, 34).1 tion, and at an intersection with another part Respectability politics is fundamentally a tool of their identity— were dismissed on one of for inclusion in an existing system, rendering two grounds: that ‘respectable’ members of it ineffective when attempting to change the the Black community would not engage in terms upon which a system is predicated. In such un-respectable behavior; or that the issue other words, it is ill-suited when the task at was primarily one belonging to the other part hand is changing dominant structures of au- of that group’s identity, making it an issue of thority to view ‘un-respectable things’ as wor- gender or sexuality rather than of race, for ex- thy of rights protection, rather than changing ample. (Spence 2019, 194). The rights claims those things to match existing rights protec- of these secondary groups, also known as tions. Of course, the term un-respectable here subgroups, could not be accommodated by the means not objectively undesirable behavior Black political agenda of respectability be- or identity traits, but rather what is not con- cause they were not seen as respectable in the sidered acceptable by the dominant class and eyes of the dominant White system. Choosing institutions. to aid their marginalized subgroups would, in Cathy Cohen, in her oft-referred to piece effect, destroy the credibility painstakingly es- surrounding AIDS and marginalization in the tablished by members of the Black community Black community, notes that certain members who were able to mold their identities to White —middle-class, heterosexual men— are taken norms. For clarification here,
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