I recently posted about promoting a local Stonewall event (see “Helping to promote a local Stonewall anniversary event” https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/06/helping-to-promote-local-stonewall.html ).
That event has now been held, and for anyone who may be interested, a copy of the notes I used for the talk is below. I ad-libbed a bit in a couple of places (which caused me to go overtime).
I will add a link to anything about this event that the organisers publish, and I have been given permission to post the speech by one of the key organisers, which I will do over the next few days.
There was a good, comprehensive review and commentary at:
Out of the Pan - News roundup and commentary: discussions on community, advocacy and who is being left behind
Listen on
or at
I consider most of the other talks covered some points better than I did (especially on having a broader understanding of pinkwashing), as well as - as should happen - raising important issues that I didn’t.
Some of the responses to what I raised were also excellent - such as choosing a group you align closely with as part of ensuring better self care.
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My talk notes
I want to begin by talking briefly about history, and being human.
Martin Luther King once wrote “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”
Humans are not perfect, which means often the world we live in is not perfect, and thus laws to restrain the heartless – laws for equal opportunity and against discrimination – are necessary.
The world and the people in it not being perfect, also means, particularly when looking at history, that the heartless may commit a backlash against these laws – driven by hate and fear, perhaps, but as effectively and deliberately as they can.
Examples of that from history include slavery – which has been a two and half millennia fight since Mughal Emperor Ashoka first banned slavery. In our age, a modern slavery act – brought about by activism – has been necessary against the new forms of slavery.
And events after the Arab Spring of the early 2010s also included backlashes – perhaps most notably what has been happening over the last few years in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began with the Jasmine Revolution.
I would like also to mention the revolution in Sudan in 2019, which didn’t stop when Bashir was removed from power, but continued until a joint civilian-military transition council was in place – which was intended to address past problems.
Unfortunately, there was a coup in 2021, and a terrible civil war is now underway in Sudan, aided by foreign influence, and complete with at least one likely genocide.
So there was progressive change which included addressing problems from previous progressive changes, but that was followed by a backlash which was also adapted to the new circumstances.
So … imperfect humans will react against attempts to make the world a better place. They will adapt their efforts as best they can – but so too can we, and that can include changing the arena that we’re fighting in.
Now, when laws are passed to restrain the heartless, whether by directly containing their harm or requiring active provision of opportunities and inclusion, the backlashers will try to subvert the spirit of those laws by, as a minimum, weaselling with words.
Those attempts need to be met as best we can.
But in the long term, social attitudes also change and that potentially has a major beneficial impact.
Slavery used to be viewed as an accepted part of the human condition, but not now – at least, not for a substantial majority of people.
Sexism and misogyny also used to viewed as an accepted part of the human condition, but less so now, and there are well-directed, improved approaches in place to deal with those who try to cling to outmoded, unacceptable views.
And being LGBTQIASB+ is no longer automatically an acceptable excuse for violent assaults or murder in much of the world – not all, and some nations have notably been backsliding on that, but at least a substantial proportion of the human population is less violently antagonistic than they used to be.
As an example, in my case, a change of manager in the corporation I was working in about six or seven years ago ended transphobia that had been bad enough for me to consider calling the police on occasion.
That introduces two concepts.
Firstly, that we are competing for the hearts, as well as the minds of people. I suspect that at least 75 to 80% of human hearts need to be committed to progressive standpoints for that to reach a point where it will be accepted as the new normal in future generations, but that number is just a hunch.
The second concept this introduces is that of nuance.
There are, in my opinion, unquestionably major problems with capitalism – including pinkwashing, which I see as an attempt to go beyond just a minimalistic tick boxing response to change, to actively subverting the spirit of change into something which serves the greed of those who are in charge of corporate culture.
However, corporations are not all completely homogeneous, monolithic behemoths. There are often people on the inside trying to change those organisations for the better.
The problems they, and those activists working from the outside, are trying to change are structural and systemic – problems created by flawed people, but there are weak points in those structures and systems.
The existence and successes of whistleblowers is testament to that.
Another example is the way TGV worked with people on inside of both major parties in 2000 to determine when to apply more, or ease up on, external pressure.
Easing up was sometimes necessary to stop our targeted humans becoming angry, defensive, and stubborn.
It needs to be emphasised that pressure outside is essential for change to occur, but that external pressure can be optimised by working with those on the inside.
Part of that has to be addressing the need for education, which can take time.
As an example, it took me 11 years to convince one client to convert a lagoon to a wetland.
As another example, getting the last corporation I worked at to adopt the inclusion of pronouns in email signatures was a 3 year campaign by the DEI committee.
And when I left, one other woman from that committee was campaigning to get classism included in the list of issues considered in anti-discrimination policies.
These changes of social attitude and business policies are not legally restraining the heartless – but they do start to change the heart, and thus help cut off the backlash to the next round of legal changes before it gathers too much momentum.
Incidentally, there can be surprising examples of the benefits of changed social attitudes.
A few years ago, I read that some children of rich people in some Asian nations were not happy with how their family’s money had been obtained, and were distancing themselves from their parents as a result of that.
And motivated children are a powerful and effective force for change. Greta is a perfect example of that, but I’ve also seen it in my life.
I could perhaps light heartedly describe that sort of pressure as a form of internal family Magnitsky sanctions, which is useful as the introduction and refinement of Magnitsky sanctions are an example of the need to adapt as those who oppose decency also adapt.
So, we need to adapt to how the world is, but I still consider there are useful lessons from past campaigns for change.
Stonewall ignited change, but so too did storming the Bastille.
The French Revolution lost its way, but I don’t consider the move for LGBTQIASB+ liberation has lost its way. Rather, what we are seeing is a combination of resistance that has adapted, and the consequences of being human.
We too, can adapt, and we can draw on the benefits of being human – including our ability to adapt, but especially our ability to care and communicate.
That’s most of what I wanted to cover, except for one more point: self-care.
When I left work, I gave a talk that included pointing out that people who are working now will potentially – subject to pandemics, the climate crisis, and other socio-economic problems - have working lives that are longer than any other humans have ever had in our species’ existence. That makes self-care essential – especially, in terms of corporate culture, work load, the intensity and rate of work, and pressures that interfere with life away from work.
Similarly, the younger people – those on the other side of 60 - who are involved in activism now will, in general, have a longer life than those of us who have gone before, which means an opportunity to do more, but only if self care is genuinely and effectively practiced.
In the 90s, most activists seemed to have a life span of around four years before being burned out. In my case that was about right, and it took years before I was recovered enough to start doing more activism. I’m still not fully recovered from some aspects.
I’m not sure what the life span of activists is now, nor what the recovery time is, but that and caring for self and others is as equally an important part of accomplishing true gay liberation as anything else.
And that’s my little talk. I’d like you all to help me here by pretending I summed it all up with a snazzy little catchphrase, but I don’t have one.
Thank you.
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Copy of talk notes by Alison (with permission)
Alison Thorne is a noted, long term campaigner - refer to the promotional material below.
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Alison speaking at the event
(photo by Sumitra Vignaendra)
Note: for both ease of me posting these notes, and to ensure I don't make any transcription errors, I decided to post this content as images of the text.
For those who do not know about Stonewall, here are a few links:
- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/how-stonewall-uprising-ignited-modern-lgbtq-rights-movement/ and https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/stonewall-uprising-ignited-modern-lgbtq-rights-movement
If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post.
If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.
Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.
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