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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1997)
ju s t o u t ▼ m ay 2 . 1 9 0 7 ▼ 21 Mjxing It W Continued from page 19 It is a Value of Transgression. Portland resident Lori Buckwalter, who is often described as a male-to-female trans sexual, adds: “I can’t have an identity that is static.” For her, gender is not either/or, it is grounded in fluidity, expression and self- discovery. Buckwalter also says gender—which is often associated with power over some thing or someone, is the power to con nect—“with the world, nature, the uni verse.” She adds she can no longer view gender objectively: “Like life, gender is a personal and subjective experience.” importance of identity politics cannot be ig nored. Without it, for exam ple, there would likely be no civil rights protections for African Americans, women and (to a far lesser extent) sexual mi norities. Identity politics has its role, particularly for those who have resided on society’s margins. Indeed, Bornstein and others credit the women’s movement for getting the ball rolling in the “rethinking gender” department. “They were the ones who asked ‘What does it mean to be a woman? What is a woman?’ The w om en’s m ovem ent called into question the stereotypes and the view that there was a ‘natu ral’ order to things. It was very liberating when they did that,” she says. Sven Bonnichsen, political director for the Portland Bisexual Alli ance, sees a need for identity politics to liber ate bisexuals, too. ‘There are people in the bi community who ask, ‘Why do we have to label ourselves? Let’s be fluid,’ ” he says. “But 1 think labels are something that we can rally under to fight for our rights.” At the same time, Bonnichsen diverges from the common view that bi-identified people are those who are attracted to both men and women. “1 view it as being attracted to people for characteristics other than their sex,” he says, “not because of it.” As for the shortcomings of identity politics, Bornstein says: “Identity politics doesn’t work for that ‘queer boy dyke bisexual.’ There is no room for this person in any political movement today. I think that’s a shame.” In the April 29 issue of the Advocate, histo- rian/author Lillian Faderman further tugs at the weaknesses. The column, entitled “Politics of the Heart,” was prompted by the Loulan brou haha. “The narrow categories of identity politics are obviously deceptive. They hide the complex, multifaceted nature of human beings,” Faderman writes. “But the undeniable successes of identity politics have made life easier for many of us.... That being so, how can we not feel discomfort and annoyance when anything or anyone reminds us how simplistic and unstable the notion of identity truly is?” and lesbians also stand to gain in a big way. And yet, many lesbians and gay men jump down the throats of a Loulan or a Bornstein or a Bonnichsen. And in doing so they clunk down barriers where bridges could so naturally be built. “Many gays and lesbians have long fought gender roles,” says NGLTF’s Kerry Lobel. “The sexual minorities community has been at the forefront of this issue. But let’s face it, it doesn’t always come easily. I mean, it’s only been 10 years since the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in cluded the word ‘Lesbian.’ Change is slow, but it is coming.” She and others say look to the queer youth movement to edge us along. “My generation did the sexual revolu- T tion thing,” says the 49-year-old Bornstein. “This generation will do for gender what my generation did for sex.” That is, in essence, question the cultural mo res, step on the establishment’s toes, shatter rules and expand narrow ways of viewing the world. “I love it when I see [queer youth groups] described as ‘gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered and questioning,” says Suzanne Pharr, of the Lesbian Community Project. “It’s that ‘questioning’ component that I really love. Imagine if we all began questioning gender.” Bornstein adds: “Imagine if all the gays, lesbi ans, bisexuals, transsexuals, transgendered, omnisexuals, hermaphrodites, intersexed, S/M players, sex workers, young people and all the rest of those on the outside joined together, rather than attacking each other. Just imagine what that would be like, what we could be.” Just imagine... “Rethinking Gender, ” a free community discussion sponsored by the Lesbian Community Project and the Women's Project, will be held at 7 pm Tuesday, May 6, at the Metropolitan Community Church, 2400 NE Broadway, in Portland. For more information, call LCP at 223-0071. Another forum, featuring Bornstein and Jo Ann Loulan, sponsored by the institute for the Advancement of Human Behavior and Just Out, will be held in Portland on Aug. 1. That discussion will focus on how we might create a culture that includes all visions of gender, orientation and sex activity. Watch for details in Just Out this summer. as we rethink gender, who stands to gain? S All of society, conclude the folks we spoke with. However, several pointed out that women will be major beneficiaries. After all, without gender (and those cumbersome roles) maybe women will be paid fairly; maybe they won’t be the targets of rape, battering and everyday harassment on the streets, in the workplace or in the home. "Without gender, there isn’t that group to strike out against,” says Bomstein. “There would be a cessation of the violence agai nst women.” Bonnichsen agrees: “Battery and vio lence are tied to feelings of supremacy.... People think that their whiteness, or male ness or heterosexuality makes them supe rior, and they often use violence as a way to maintain that sense.” If you support the belief that sexual orientation is simply another gender role— for example, that being a “real” man or woman means you must be intimately in volved with someone of the opposite sex— then the obvious conclusion is that gay men
