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one States, this symbolic victory has limited police violence. The persistence of these important social benefits to married indi- problems points to the inhumanity of cap- viduals who are citizens. As socialists, we italism and to its particularly devastating fight to extend these benefits to all kinds effects on LGBTQ people of all colors. of “families” and domestic arrangements, including those that are not recognized and sanctioned by the state. 4

Our Leaders Have Failed Us 3 The self-appointed “leaders” of the LGBTQ Socialists Provide A Queer movement in the United States, mean- Working-Class Perspective while, have pushed an agenda that does little to nothing for working class people of all backgrounds. They have prioritized The fact is that the overwhelming majority a politics of representation that simply of LGBTQ people are working class, and elevates a few prominent figures into the that our struggle is the struggle to cre- ruling class. They have adhered to a politics ate a sustainable and just economy that of respectability that upholds a right-wing is organized on a democratic basis. So- idea of “family values” and de-sexualizes cialists recognize that LGBTQ issues are, LGBTQ individuals. They have engaged to a great extent, the same as those of all in “pinkwashing” - that is, enabling the working class people - inadequate hous- American military state to manipulate ing, the unavailability of good-paying jobs, and utilize “gay issues” in the service of meager social insurance and welfare pro- Islamophobic foreign policy discourse, re- vision, unaffordable healthcare, crushing gime-change adventurism, and armaments debt, substandard education, a punitive production. They have poured all of their criminal justice and carceral system, and supporters’ resources into the fight for police brutality. At the same time, we ac- marriage equality at the expense of many knowledge that certain issues dispropor- other important issues. And finally, they tionately affect LGBTQ people, in many have uncritically supported Democratic cases further compounding their economic Party centrists and their corporate back- marginalization and hardship. Such issues ers, who do nothing to advance the inter- include: homelessness, particularly among ests of most LGBT people. LGBTQ youth; discrimination in employ- ment and housing; unmet needs for indi- viduals living with HIV/AIDS; and targeted

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three 7 Suggested Reading

Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”

John Lauritsen and David Thorstad, The Early Homosexual Rights Movement: (1864-1935)

John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity”

Sherry Wolfe, Sexuality and Socialism

Dennis Altman, Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation

Karla Jay and Allen Young, eds., Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation

New American Movement, Working Papers on Gay/Lesbian Liberation and Socialism

Emily K. Hobson, Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left

Amber Hollibaugh and Nikhil Pal Singh, “Sexuality, Labor, and the New Trade Unionism”

Against Equality: http://www.againstequality.org/

Leslie Feinberg, Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue socialists.nyc twitter.com/nycDSA facebook.com/nycDSA four