Does the instance a user is on (visible after their username) affect how they are perceived, either positively or negatively, by you or others?
Does the instance a user is on (visible after their username) affect how they are perceived, either positively or negatively, by you or others?
I’d say blahaj users are somewhat biased against .ml users, as evidenced by the 196 banner:
Which is right in line with how historically both the Right and the Left have failed miserably at LGBTQ+ representation and rights.
The militant left of the past was still steeped in machismo and as such, in places like Cuba, being homosexual or transgender was punishable by law until the late 1990’s. The social ostracism runs deep when it is politically/legally enforced so long. It is finally changing for the better.
China is also the Left, and they have a similarly long history of denying LGBTQ+ rights, although to be fair they are slowly getting better in some ways.
It can make folks in the LGBTQ+ community feel like they’re political pawns on a chessboard, to be used and discarded at will because the leaders of the movements see them as useful but expendable.
Feeling like you’re expendable politically sucks, as does feeling like your just a pawn in someone else’s game. There’s a reason they called it “Rainbow Capitalism” when companies would hype Pride month and then forget about them the rest of the year.
For current evidence even more “liberal” companies are dropping anything and everything to do with LGBTQ+ rights and representation. Google was definitely seen as a forward-thinking progressive company for a long time, and they’ve already dropped Pride Month from Google Calendar. They have plenty of LGBTQ+ employees, and they’re happy to throw them under the bus.
All this makes it very hard for many people in the LGBTQ+ community to trust either side politically. There is a general acceptance that the Left does it better, though, and is at least trying to become better at how it handles these issues. The libertarian Right has come to a small level of acceptance under the guise of “if it doesn’t hurt anyone else, it shouldn’t be an issue” but I’d say that’s still the minority of libertarians who truly believe that. Most libertarians are just conservatives cosplaying at having independent thought.
However, while I personally would like to say the Left is slowly getting better at this, it’s still taking far too long. People’s lives are being wasted waiting for people to respect their rights.
Right now Cuba has the most equal LGBT rights in the world.
Do you think that Wikipedia is going to be unbiased on a country that has been the USA’s enemy and under perpetual blockade and embargo for 70 years?
If I might suggest an alternative resource for any reader interested, Leslie Feinberg wrote a book which is free, called Rainbow Solidary : In Defense of Cuba. It is free to read as PDF here https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/LavenderRed_Cubabook.pdf. It was hir last book before hir premature death. Zie was LGBT activist who also wrote Stone Butch Blues, Transgender Warriors and Trans Liberation : Beyond Pink and Blue.
It is a nuanced book, which covers the history of Cuba’s LGBT community pre-colonization, under Spanish colonization, under US control after the Spanish-American War and the two dictatorships of the early to mid 20th century, moving into the communist regime into the 00s.
It covers the bad, machismo culture and the UMAP camps, slide back on rights at certain times, but it also quite clearly outlines the historical progress they made on LBGT rights, often ahead of the rest of the world. You say they were arresting trans people in the 80s-90s, when they were literally flying their doctors to East Germany to learn how to do state funded gender affirming surgery at that time.
It’s a worthwhile read. Cuba is not and wasn’t ever perfect, but the communist party and the LGBT community in dialectical relationship with one and another have shaped a course that is historically progressive and inspirational.
That’s completely valid. Thank you for sharing; like I said I’m still relatively new so hearing insight from more established users helps a lot. You’d think the natural association would be basic fucking human rights = common sense leftism but that is unfortunately not the case for established leftist governments at the minimum. (Spoken as someone who, to my knowledge, aligns leftist/anarchist)
We have to have each others’ backs because “allyship” is a finicky bitch.
It’s also an imperfect view, as @[email protected] said Cuba now has some of the best LGBT rights in the world. Social progress is very commonly accelerated in AES countries compared to Capitalist countries because society is oriented in a more cooperative manner. We can see this happen in real time in China, where the youth are far more socially progressive and perspective on LGBT issues is stratified more by generation than anything else. There’s a long way to go, but progress is happening.
I do wonder what you mean by you aligning leftist/anarchist “to your knowledge,” haha.
I’ll have to do more reading then; thank you for sharing as well. It’s awesome to learn that Cuba’s gotten more progressive on LGBTQ issues. I wonder if the user I responded to is from the US since it’s been pretty bad here and we don’t have an established left party, so our “left” is a right wing donor class that pretends to maintain the status quo about 85% of the time.
I say to my knowledge since while I do identify as anarchist and believe healthcare, food, and shelter are bare minimum rights I understand as a human I always have more to learn and will never possess the breadth/depth of the entirety of anarchist/leftist ideology. I may currently hold blind spots and as such will need to learn and adjust in the future.
Yep, Cuba’s journey with respect to social development is very admirable, their most recent Family Code is more LGBTQ friendly than the US. The PRC has further to go, but the CPC itself is more LGBTQ neutral, so there’s good reason to believe the improving trends over time as generations change will improve legislation.
As for Anarchism/Leftism, I think that’s more than sufficient to consider yourself one full-stop, no “to my knowledge” needed. I myself have a long way to go as a Marxist-Leninist, but reading theory has been tremendously clarifying for me and my journey. I know you consider yourself an Anarchist, but if you want recommendations on Marxism-Leninism I made an intro reading list (linked on my profile). I think it’s generally useful for Leftists of all stripes to engage with the ideas of other predominant Leftist ideologies.
Hope and action go hand and hand, and it sounds like younger generations in those countries understand that well.
That’s a valid point; the literal definition of anarchy itself is the absence/abolition of hierarchies so that is pretty easily covered in identification. I’ll check it out, thank you! I’m a firm believer in leftist unity as we have the common overarching goal of equitable rights and QoL for all people.
Yep, agreed! Even if the means and ends are different between Marxism and Anarchism, the fundamental obstacle is still Imperialism and Capitalism, and the goal is still focused on the people, not those with Capital.
Feel free to shoot any questions my way!