The Tragic Irony Of Queer Infighting

Queer people argue a lot. If there is one thing to know about the queer community, it is that we are certainly not a monolith; in fact, we are perhaps best at disagreeing with one another. This is not a bad thing, things such as accountability within communities and productive discourse are vital to a healthy culture. However, the discourse and infighting within the queer community is far from purely justified accountability and productive discourse; there has long existed a worrying trend of bigoted and exclusionary infighting amongst the discourse of the queer community. This discourse, despite being amongst members of an oppressed societal out-group, does nothing but help oppressors.

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) ideology is perhaps the most prominent example of this. TERFs use struggles for liberation and the language of such, in particular women’s and lesbians’ liberation, to justify and further their anti-transgender bigotry. Common examples of the liberation-facaded arguments used by TERFs are sentiments such as, “transgender women erase the meaning of the word lesbian and pose a threat to women’s spaces.” Upon analysis of such sentiments, the bigotry is clear, such is predicated on the idea that transgender women are somehow not true women; however, many, particularly those unfamiliar with queer issues, may uncritically adopt seemingly liberatory ideas. This is the true danger of liberation-facaded bigotry.

However, TERF ideology is hardly the only example of this within the queer community. Queerphobia masquerading as Black liberation argues against the reality of many queer people’s oppression and identity, racism, and islamophobia masquerading as queer liberation argues against the inclusion of people of color and Muslims in queer spaces based on false ideas of danger, etcetera. The reality is that none of such advocacies furthers anyone’s liberation, but rather socially reinforces the bigotry that is the ideological basis of the oppression that the queer community is supposed to be fighting against. As Simone de Beauvoir says, “the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.”