[Marxism] How a mainstream gay group gives backhanded support to antigay politicians

[David Thorstad]

Louis Proyect wrote:

http://www.theawl.com/2010/07/real-america-your-civil-rights-sausage-is-made-in-minnesota 

July 29, 2010

Real America: Your Civil Rights Sausage Is Made in Minnesota
by Abe Sauer posted @3:10 PM
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Abe Sauer says:
In the end, after any consumer outrage is burned off, a vote will be the 
final "index." Those who truly want to punish Target and Best Buy will 
not forget in November to vote against Tom Emmer. The result of an Emmer 
loss will be two corporations who tarnished their reputations and their 
brands by unapologetically associating with a bigot, and a human rights 
organization that defended them doing it, all for nothing. "Business 
interests" indeed.
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Here we see the agenda of Abe Sauer: to support the DFL 
(Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) candidate for governor, and to criticize 
Human Rights Campaign for its love affair with two big corporations--as 
if gay Democrats are not also part of that love affair.
     HRC's love for corporate America is craven, surely, but HRC merely 
reflects the corporatization of the gay movement. Target, for instance, 
which is based in Minnesota, has for many years been the main corporate 
sponsor of the Twin Cities gay "pride" parade, and any of these annual 
events will confirm how corporations have virtually replaced sexual 
liberation or "pride" with the dollar as their focus. The entire Twin 
Cities gay and lesbian movement is part and parcel of this reality, and 
HRC's feasting at the corporate table is entirely consistent with the 
group's wider agenda, especially its support for marriage, militarism, 
and patriotism.
     A decade ago, I took my teenage boyfriend to the Twin Cities 
"pride" parade, naively thinking it might help to introduce him to gay 
pride and struggle. Har de har har. It was such a repulsive corporate 
affair that marhe said he would never go back to another "pride" event. 
That showed good instincts. These affairs have nothing to do with gay 
liberation and everything to do with assimilation into heterodominant 
corporatized America.
     The heavy role played by Target in Twin Cities gay reality is dealt 
with at length in a new book by the University of Minnesota Press: 
/Queer Twin Cities/.
David