(This post was written immediately following the results of the 2025 election where the country voted in Fascist Donald J. Trump as our next leader)
you know what happened and it hurts a little every time someone recaps it so im just going to skip the intro. Queer people are under attack. We need to make ourselves seen. The assimilation vs liberation debate is often thrown around in queer spaces and i think it is important to realize that assimilation will get us nowhere. Assimilating into society will bring with it all of society's downsides as well as the constant threat of being thrown out of any culture we manage to claw ourselves into.
For those uninitiated, the original gay liberation movements were just that, liberation movements. Leaders of these movements included those we would now understand as trans and genderqueer, though language and identities have evolved. The term "queer" itself, reclaimed in the 1990s, was once a slur but became a rallying cry for those who fell oputside and were oppressed by the binary. Here's a passage from the flier, circulated in 1990 new york pride, that helped to captures its reclamation:
Ah, do we really have to use that word? It's trouble. Every gay person has his or her own take on it. For some it means strange and eccentric and kind of mysterious [...] And for others "queer" conjures up those awful memories of adolescent suffering [...] Well, yes, "gay" is great. It has its place. But when a lot of lesbians and gay men wake up in the morning we feel angry and disgusted, not gay. So we've chosen to call ourselves queer. Using "queer" is a way of reminding us how we are perceived by the rest of the world.
whole text available here
It is important to remember that queer was a slur and that things have gotten much better since then. It may seem like we are about to take a big step back, but queers are ready to fight. Just this week, i've seen subtle but powerful signs of resistance within the community. Conversations are bubbling up underground and bonds are strengthening. Walking through Atlanta in a more queer area, I saw a tree, modest but prominent on the side of the street, wrapped in pink pennant banners—a defiant symbol standing against hate.
The pink pennant, or inverted triangle, is a queer symbol from fascist germany. homosexuals were one of the groups targeted by the nazis once they took power. Forced to wear a pink triangle to signify their queerness. Many people have reclaimed this triangle as a sign of queer struggle as i believe the tree i saw to be an example of this.
During the begining of the liberation movements and the AIDS crisis in the 80s, the pink inverted triangle was used as a symbol before the word queer was reclaimed in the now infamous SILENCE=DEATH posters.
The need to be seen, to be ourselves—unwaveringly—is essential. Silence is what they want from us, but silence has never been our path to freedom. Resistance is in our blood. Our rights weren't handed to us; they were fought for, every step of the way.
Pink Triangles: Adopted Memories of Gay Persecution in Nazi Europe - The low countries
How Queer Assimilation is Contradictory to Queer Liberation - out front magazine