Title
"Gay Politics Trap"
Description
Newspaper report on NHC in Communist newspaper Tribune.
Creator
Christine Allsop and Craig Johnston
Source
Tribune (Sydney, NSW)
Publisher
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236922435?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FT%2Ftitle%2F1002%2F1975%2F09%2F02%2Fpage%2F25601716%2Farticle%2F236922435
Date
2 Sep., 1975
Format
[Text in Image]
Gay Politics Trap
We are writing this, not as an attack on the writer of the article about the National Homosexual Conference (Tribute, August 24), but because we fell that it construes a few of the aspects of the Conference which were positive and gives the impression that the Conference as a whole was positive when, in fact, it wasn't. Socialists at the Conference did stress "the need to form alliances with those groups working to overthrow the capitalist system", but this wasn't taken up because the Conference was dominated by people who disagree with this line. Most militant homosexuals see the solution to their oppression as being achieved through civil rights or the repeal of discriminatory law and the liberalisation of attitudes towards homosexuality within this society. And that is all they see it as - personal liberation!
It should also be pointed out that a very dominant force at the Conference were Christians, who are the largest and best organised and the only national tendency within the homosexual movement. This should be seen as an example of the state of the homosexual movement as a whole.
Another significant point to come out of the Conference is the refusal by many (most?) male homosexuals to see the relevance of feminism to the struggle for homosexual liberation. Given that lesbians are both homosexual and women and given that the oppression of male homosexuals stems from the oppression of women, this is sheer illusion. The continued acceptance of 'gay liberation politics' provides the background to the justified formation of the Lesbian Movement, and until militant male homosexuals reject the politics of 'gay liberation' and realise the relevance of revolutionary feminism and socialism, then the state of the movement will remain as abysmal as the Conference.
Christine Allsop,
Craig Johnston,
Chippendale, NSW
Gay Politics Trap
We are writing this, not as an attack on the writer of the article about the National Homosexual Conference (Tribute, August 24), but because we fell that it construes a few of the aspects of the Conference which were positive and gives the impression that the Conference as a whole was positive when, in fact, it wasn't. Socialists at the Conference did stress "the need to form alliances with those groups working to overthrow the capitalist system", but this wasn't taken up because the Conference was dominated by people who disagree with this line. Most militant homosexuals see the solution to their oppression as being achieved through civil rights or the repeal of discriminatory law and the liberalisation of attitudes towards homosexuality within this society. And that is all they see it as - personal liberation!
It should also be pointed out that a very dominant force at the Conference were Christians, who are the largest and best organised and the only national tendency within the homosexual movement. This should be seen as an example of the state of the homosexual movement as a whole.
Another significant point to come out of the Conference is the refusal by many (most?) male homosexuals to see the relevance of feminism to the struggle for homosexual liberation. Given that lesbians are both homosexual and women and given that the oppression of male homosexuals stems from the oppression of women, this is sheer illusion. The continued acceptance of 'gay liberation politics' provides the background to the justified formation of the Lesbian Movement, and until militant male homosexuals reject the politics of 'gay liberation' and realise the relevance of revolutionary feminism and socialism, then the state of the movement will remain as abysmal as the Conference.
Christine Allsop,
Craig Johnston,
Chippendale, NSW
Language
English