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Abstract:

This article explicates a model of gay-based advocacy that focuses on pluralism and representation across a broad range of constituents. It is evident that varying political affiliations and theoretical leanings exist in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community, hardly surprising in a population that encompasses middle-class white gay men and butch leather dykes alike. Yet many GLBT organizations purport to speak on behalf of all of their very different constituents. How successfully gay-based organizations reconcile these competing interests has become a concern for academics and activists, many of whom fear the increasing homogenization of the gay movement and the resulting marginalization of dissenting viewpoints. The growing clamor over same-sex marriage provides an illustration of this trend. While major GLBT organizations litigate for the right to marry, apparently at the behest of those they seek to represent, scholars like Michael Warner worry that marriage rights for same-sex couples would only serve to strengthen the normalizing power of marriage and, while bringing the married gay into the heteronormative forld, to consolidate the unmarried queer's position in the margins. Under Warner's conception of the current gay rights movement, the pursuit of marriage necessarily comes at the expense of articulating alternative, queer goals.

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Vol. 38 Issue 2, p511-562 52p