Patriarchy & Queer Liberation

Queer liberation is the struggle against queer oppression that manifests itself through homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, and other forms of domination.

It intersects with other forms of oppression, as well as manifesting its own forms of systemic, cultural and personal oppression. We support the struggles of working class queers, especially LGBTQ youth, in their fight for free sexuality between consenting adults; free gender expression; equal and appropriate access to health care and other social institutions and other struggles for respect. We also support working class queers’ opposition to “queer assimilation” – which is a cross-class alliance – and support the struggle for an autonomous movement that is not co-opted by the state, capitalism and privileged classes that try to dominate the queer movement. We believe those who are privileged by patriarchy are still oppressed by it and will be liberated by working against it by supporting such autonomous movements.

We reject patriarchy: the system of male domination, heteronormativity, and gender oppression. Through our rejection of patriarchy we also reject the gender binary as well as any biological or social basis for sexism. The categories of man and woman are socially constructed gender roles that we reject because of their historical context has led to material realities of oppression that we define as heteronormativity. We intend to fight sexism both when it takes economic and non-economic form, such as through familial roles, rape culture, and unwaged labor. Systems of hierarchy reinforced through capitalism and the state make gender liberation impossible, and therefore we see issues of patriarchy as taking part in a larger system of socio-economic oppression, the most classic example being women often suffering under capitalism for working a “double day”. Both institutions require strict adherence to prescribed roles and inequality within those roles, and they include set gender, sexual, and behavioral norms.

Through this we challenge heteronormativity and the assumption of standardized expressions of sexuality and gender, and support the free development of people’s identity and relationships. Both queer and women’s oppression are part of the same system of male dominance, and as such we oppose the oppression of queer and transsexual people. We do this by confronting patriarchy in social movement spaces, defending reproductive health for all genders.

We stand in solidarity with the autonomous organizations of women as a critical area of anti-capitalist struggle. The defeat of patriarchy is a victory for working class people of all genders and sexualities (or no gender/sexuality).

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