Against Equality

Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion

Ryan Conrad

• Publisher: AK Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781849351843
• eBook ISBN: 9781849351850
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Radicalism
• Index: Social Sciences

When "rights" go wrong.

• Does gay marriage support the right-wing goal of linking access to basic human rights like health care and economic security to an inherently conservative tradition?
• Will the ability of queers to fight in wars of imperialism help liberate and empower LGBT people around the world?
• Does hate-crime legislation affirm and strengthen historically anti-queer institutions like the police and prisons rather than dismantling them?

The Against Equality collective asks some hard questions. These queer thinkers, writers, and artists are committed to undermining a stunted conception of "equality." In this powerful book, they challenge mainstream gay and lesbian struggles for inclusion in elitist and inhumane institutions. More than a critique, Against Equality seeks to reinvigorate the queer political imagination with fantastic possibility!

"In an era when so much of the lesbian and gay movement seems to echo the rhetoric of the mainstream Establishment, the work of Against Equality is an important provocation and corrective.... I hope this book is read widely, particularly by the people who will most disagree with it; in the tradition of the great political pamphleteers, this collection should spark debate around some of the key issues for our movement." —Dennis Altman, author of Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation

"Against Equality issues a radical call for social transformation. Against and beyond the "holy trinity" of pragmatic gay politics—marriage, militarism, and prison—the queer and trans voices archived in this collection offer a radical left critique of neoliberalism, capitalism, and state oppression. In a format accessible and enlivening, equally at home in the classroom and on the street, this book keeps our political imaginations alive. Prepare to be challenged, educated, and inspired." —Margot Weiss, author of Techniques of Pleasure

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Against Equality: Introduction
• Part 1: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage
• Against Equality, Against Marriage
• Open Letter to LGBT Leaders Who Are Pushing Marriage Equality
• Marriage is Murder
• I Still Think Marriage is the Wrong Goal
• Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black???
• Marriage is Still the Opiate of the Queers
• The Marriage Fight is Setting Us Back
• Against Equality, In Maine and Everywhere
• Who’s Illegal Now?
• Queer Kids of Queer Parents Against Gay Marriage!
• Why gay marriage IS the End of the World (or the queer world, at least)
• Part 2: Don't Ask to Fight Their Wars
• “Community Spirit”
• A Military Job is Not Economic Justice
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Serve
• Rage, or the Lack Thereof
• Queer Eyes on What Prize?
• Why I Oppose Repealing DADT & Passage of the DREAM Act
• Bradley Manning
• Why I Won’t Be Celebrating the Repeal of DADT
• Pictures at an Execution
• Illustrating Against Militarism
• Part 3: Prisons Will Not Protect You
• Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer
• A Compilation of Critiques on Hate Crime Legislation
• SRLP opposes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
• Do Hate Crime Laws Do Any Good?
• Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, and Why Hate Crime Legislation Won’t Help
• Why Hate Crime Legislation is Still Not a Solution
• Lesbians Sentenced for Self-Defense
• First Coffins, Now Prison?
• The Devil in Gay Inc.
• “Worst of the Worst”?
• About the Contributors
• Friends of AK Press