Bash Back! DC
A compilation of writings

Bash Back! DC Confronts HRC Assimilation

On Saturday Bash Back! DC paid a visit to the HRC's lavish annual fundraising dinner. Radical queers and trannies descended upon the forces of gay assimilation today at the convention center where the HRC's annual fundraising dinner was held. At $2 50/plate, we sex workers, genderfuckers, transfolk, queers of color, and allies certainly had no place at the HRC's table, so we had our own party outside, one in which everyone was welcome rather than only white ritzy-looking upper class cisgendered men. While it seems that many dinner- goers this year were supportive of trans rights (or least willing to give token support), attendees were more than a little unsure about the place of working class queers and queers of color. One woman even said that marriage rights were the “last step towards gaining full equality in American society.” Maybe that's so for the kind of folks that can afford this dinner, but for queer street kids getting kicked out of gay neighborhoods and queers of color being denied community resources, liberation can't be obtained through the marriage lobby.

Assimilation will not save us. It will only end in the decimation of our community. Society must change to accommodate us, queers and transfolk must refuse assimilation and cultural erasure at the hands of the homonormative gay elite and build a world where we can liberate ourselves.

For dance parties amidst the ruins,

dandee lyon of bb!dc

Washington, DC: Communiqué from the Forgotten, Human Rights Campaign HQ Glamdalized

October 11, 2009

HRC headquarters was rocked by an act of glamdalism last night by a crew of radical queer and allied folks armed with pink and black paint and glitter grenades. Beside the front entrance and the inscribed mission statement a tag now reads, “Quit leaving queers behind.”

The HRC is not a democratic or inclusive institution, especially for the people who they claim to represent. Just like society today, the HRC is run by a few wealthy elites who are in bed with corporate sponsors who proliferate militarism, heteronormativity, and capitalist exploitation. The sweatshops (Nike), war crimes (Lockheed Martin), assaults on working class people (Bank of America, Deloitte, Chase Bank, Citi Group, Wachovia Bank) and patriarchy (American Apparel) caused by their sponsors is a hypocrisy for an organization with “human rights” in their name.

The queer liberation movement has been misrepresented and co-opted by the HRC. The HRC marginalizes us into a limited struggle for aspiring homosexual elites to regain the privilege that they've lost and climb the social ladder towards becoming bourgeoisie.

Last night, Obama spoke at the HRC fundraising gala and currently the HRC website declares, “President Obama underlines his unwavering support for LGBT Americans.” The vast amount of organizing resources the HRC wastes on their false alliance with the Democratic party leaves radical queers on the margins to fend for themselves. Our struggle has always had to resist the repression of conservative tendencies in government and society to gain liberation in our lives.

The gourmet affair was sponsored by forty-eight corporations including giants Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Wachovia Bank. At $250 dollars a plate, the HRC served our movement a rich, white, heternormative atmosphere that purposefully excludes working class queer folks.

REMEMBER THE STONEWALL RIOTS! On the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, pigs raided a queer bar in Texas, arrested and beat our friends, and we looked towards politicians and lawyers to protect us. This mentality is what keeps the money flowing to the HRC and their pet Democrats, and keeps our fists in our pockets.

Most of all, we disagree that collective liberation will be granted by the state or its institutions, such as prisons, marriage, and the military. We need to escalate our struggle, or it will collapse.

Love and Solidarity

Washington, DC: Banner Drop at American University

December 18, 2009

Banners read: "Trans Folks Are Under Attack" and "Act Up, Bash Back”

Communique:

Don't let them tell you it's about being gay. Murdering someone for their gender identity is transphobia. We're done with trans people's lives being used as tokens in the fight for cisgay assimilation into marriage and the prison industrial complex. Remember Jorge Mercado. Bash back against all oppressors—straight and gay.

Bash Back! AU

Washington, DC: Queers, Anarchists March Against Corporate Pride

June 27, 2009

Friday, June 12 was the second scheduled Free Speech march demanding an end to the recent wave of police dispersals (by force) of unpermitted street marches. This being Pride weekend, queer liberation was the chosen theme, with a focus on targetting “corporate Pride”.

One chant was “Corporate Pride makes me sick.” The march began at P St. Beach, the traditional gay woods,stepping off a little after midnight and taking P St. heading towards Dupont Circle.

When marchers passed the offices of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign), a major mainstreaming gay lobby, the chants changed to “That's bullshit! Get off it! The HRC's for profit!” AIDS and oppression will not be solved by gay marriage, followed by calls for “Gay Divorce!” Finally, marchers went to the 18th st bar area in Adams-Morgan, chanting “out of the bars, into the streets”.