Jasbir Puar writes about why Palestinian queers are not devoting resources to fighting the LGBT Center's ban, and how the Center controversy has helped exposed both pinkwashing and deep conservatism in the queer community "leadership."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jasbir-k-puar/the-center-cannot-hold-th_b_991572.html
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jasbir-k-puar/the-center-cannot-hold-th_b_991572.html
"Calls for free speech and equal access for all groups sound democratic on the face of it, but they leave unquestioned the default political positions of those running the Center; worse, it does not address the exclusionary logic of inclusion itself. If inclusion is granted without changing the terms upon which an exclusion was originally articulated, the granting of space is tokenistic at best...
[F]or many Palestinian queers, gaining access to a LGBT Center that has positioned itself as indifferent to their concerns is a minor point in the agenda for political transformation. There is an incredible wealth of progressive queer organizing in this city that never did and never will originate or coalesce in the Center."
