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Assimilation vs. Liberation

Throughout the 1970s, there was a tension among the gay community between whether to fight for liberation or to assimilate into straight society. Gay liberation used a Marxist lens to analyze society, critiquing the structures that allowed for, and even necessitated, oppression - such as capitalism, organized religion, and the US government - rather than trying to find acceptance within those structures. To gay liberationists, having a gay president or a gay Pope or gay billionaires would not necessarily be a good thing because even if this mitigated or ended homophobia, another social group would experience the same kind of marginalization. These gay liberationists built new structures like the Metropolitan Community Church outside of the pre-existing oppressive structures. Meanwhile, assimilationists were vital in helping to pass anti-discrimination ordinances in the 1970s, and, later to help legalize same-sex marriage. 

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Today, much of the social and political organizing within the queer community is more assimilationist. Rather than demanding, "Queer liberation now" we assert "Trans rights are human rights." We do not seek to be liberated completely from the structures that oppress us, but to achieve the status of our oppressors. Some have critiqued Torch Song Trilogy for being assimilationist. Arnold longs for monogamy and a nuclear family - 'straight' values. In our staging of the International Studwe thought about whether this play is assimilationist or not, and what it means to stage a play from a period focused on liberation in a period focused on assimilation. 

References:

Downs, Jim. Stand by Me The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation. 2020.

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