A couple of anecdotal observations related to this. First, one person I was talking to earlier today told me a of situation in which a group had gathered and a leader was yelling things like, "How many are here to end the war in Iraq?" Hands were raised, cheers go up. "How many of you are here to protect the interests of labor?" Same response. "How many of you are here to fight homophobia?" Silence, and one raised hand. That is a curious pattern which requires further investigation, don't you think?
Second, I was walking around through the Solidarity Tents today and saw something else interesting. First, I should note that the LGBTQ tent is not listed in the program along with the other tents. I ran across a notice of the tent from a flyer handed to me by a friend and decided to go look for it. I found it--a small open tent which was starkly in contrast to the tents assigned for other issues. Again, I don't currently know why, but I have developed a notion that there is a substantial disconnect between the USSF and the LGBTQ community. I 'll be trying to looking into this issue more tomorrow.
2 comments:
I find your your report of the group that remained silent when the leader yelled out, "how many are here to fight homophobia?" very interesting. I'm assuming that this wasn't an LGBTQ group?!! Anyway, this clicks with events at the WSF in Nairobi. There were LGBTQ workshops and a tent. There was a march of LGBTQ activists (few in number) through the Stadium. Overall, the LGBTQ presence was very small at the Nairobi WSF but a read of the newspapers over the course of the week (and also following the Forum) would lead one to believe that every single gay and lesbian person on the planet had descended upon Nairobi to “convert” the masses! There was a real backlash. But more telling about the Forum (and more similar to your report) was at the closing ceremony in Uhuru park, a lesbian activist speaking to the crowd from the stage was booed by a large number of attendees. Chris and I didn't witness this but heard the story from another delegate who told us that this was the only time during the closing ceremonies that anyone was booed.
DW
Wow. That's an interesting story from the WSF. I'm sure the reaction to the LGBTQ folks and issues vary a lot by location, but it seems like there is quite a lot of work to do here. I haven't seen anything resembling hostility here, but it's more a sense that these issues and sessions are isolated from the rest of the conference. I don't quite get why that is the case, but it's probably worth some more investigation.
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