Rights are Not in Limited Supply
Full Article:
We are a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of color who work in the LGBT movement. We are writing to you in response to Jasmyne Cannick's article "Gays First, Then Illegals," which ran on April 10 in The Advocate, in which she, a black lesbian, argues that she cannot support the current battle for immigrant rights because LGBT people have not yet won the right to marry. We are writing to express our profound disagreement with her, and to offer alternative LGBT perspectives to the current immigration battles happening across the country.
To begin with, Cannick fails to realize that the LGBT community and the immigrant community are not mutually exclusive. To put forward an argument that says "we should get ours first" makes us question who exactly is the "we" in that analysis. In addition, we recognize the historically interconnected nature of the immigrant and LGBT struggles -- such as the ban on "homosexual immigrants" that extended into the 1990s, and the present HIV ban, which disproportionately impacts LGBT people -- and we believe that only by understanding these connections and building coalition can we ensure real social change for all.
We reject any attempts to pit the struggles of multiple communities against each other and firmly believe that rights are not in limited supply. One reason it has always been so hard to shift power in this country is because the ruling class has successfully made us believe that there are only a few deserving groups to whom rights can be given. This strategy has been used to divide oppressed groups from coming together to work in coalition.
We are painfully aware that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities still lack many basic protections under the law in this country, including the right to care for and support all of our families, in the various ways in which we construct family and kinship. Nevertheless, supporting immigrant rights, while we continue to work for LGBT liberation, does nothing to hurt our cause. In fact, we believe the opposite to be true, and want to work towards building powerful coalitions between immigrant and LGBT movements to work together for social justice.
We are also aware that many immigrant rights advocates have (intentionally or not) used anti-black rhetoric to move their agenda forward. Arguments such as "Don't treat us like 'criminals'" or "We are doing work that 'other' Americans won't do" have the effect of juxtaposing immigrant narratives with American stereotypes of non-immigrant black communities. Nevertheless, the solution to this problem is not to abandon support for the struggle of immigrant communities. Rather, we call on immigrant movements and (non-immigrant) black organizations to work together for real racial and economic justice in this country. Together these movements can work to end the exploitation and targeting of both communities.
As lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color, we support the current immigrant rights marches and rallies happening across the country, and we march too. We march because immigrants are among the most politically vulnerable, underpaid, and exploited communities in the country, and are asking for basic human rights, including the right to live free from torture and exploitation, and the right to work. We march because we recognize the connections between the state attacks on immigrant and LGBT communities, and know that LGBT immigrants are disproportionately affected by much anti-immigrant legislation. We march because we oppose the heightened policing and criminalization of immigrant communities, including the increased militarization of the border. We march because we oppose indefinite and mandatory detention of non-citizens -- as well as the mass incarceration of people of color in the US more broadly -- and envision a society that ensures the safety and self-determination of all people, regardless of national origin, race, class, gender, or sexuality. We march because we oppose the guest worker proposals, which would continue the exploitation of many low-wage workers. We march because we demand the repeal of the HIV ban. We march because our sexualities have been historically criminalized by this country, and we understand that "law" and "justice" are not the same thing.
We also call upon our community to imagine how much more progress we could make if we all stopped thinking of social justice as a zero-sum game.
Signers listed at www.glaad.org/poc.
