Gays and Lesbians: Sucked in by the Far Right

Ted Rall writes that Gays and Lesbians: Sucked in by the Far Right.

Rall opines that:

The sad truth is that the LGBT movement has abandoned its progressive roots. It has become a conservative movement.

Italics in original

Rall further argues that the LGBT used to challenge marriage, the nuclear family, and militarism:

Back in the 1970s, Michael Warner reminds us in his 1999 book “The Trouble with Normal,” gays weren’t trying to assimilate into the toxic “mainstream” cultures of monogamism and empire. Instead, they were pointing the way toward other ways of life.

The Socialist Alliance's policy on LGBTI says that:

We live in a society which attempts to dictate sexual preference and gender identity through promoting the gender stereotypes and homophobic attitudes which underpin the heterosexual nuclear family, and by promoting marriage and the nuclear family as the only legitimate model for relationships. Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans people and intersex people suffer oppression because their lives are a challenge to the nuclear family which is an economic cornerstone of capitalism.

The policy on Marriage and Civil Unions says that:

In other countries civil unions have been offered to the LGBTI community to placate the movement for equal marriage rights. This is not the situation in Australia, where even civil unions have been suppressed by the federal government because they “mimic marriage”. It is for this reason that the Socialist Alliance supports civil unions but will continue the campaign for marriage . Civil unions are not a substitute for marriage rights.

Because of the opposition, gay marriage is a progressive issue in Australia. However, as the opposition disappears, and monogamy for LGBTI becomes acceptable, then Rall's arguments about moving the progressive focus back to issues of the mainstream becomes important. It is strange to think that the USA is more progressive than Australia on this issue.