40 years ago, everyone hated Them. They wore too many colors and were too many colors, they went to parties with too much loud music and fucked with too many of the same naughty bits. They were loose, they didn’t know what was going on so they never tried to tell anyone, and they (or, at least, some among them) accepted everyone who didn't fit in anywhere else. This was not because they were morally better, with more advanced theory and more open hearts than we have now, but because they had to survive within their old social networks, and when they fled they had to integrate into whatever new ones they could find. This made them good at quickly communicating difficult concepts, enough to wave away a double standard, and good at becoming so indispensable in their networks that double standards could be challenged.
Then 20 years passed. I was born, and I will speak of we instead of they from now on. We picked up names like Queer and habits like dyeing our hair and problems like a persistent blind spot for people with colorful skin as well as clothes. We Queers also picked up some new skills through necessity: we learned how to get universities to give us a department, how to get media companies to put some of us on the screens, and how to get the liberals to never openly speak ill of us. We built little fortresses wherein we could feel safe enough to go out and annoy the system with our colorful dress and strong words, but by their nature these spaces were separate from everything else.
Then 20 years passed, and we are failing. The universities are defunding our departments, the media companies are quietly canceling our shows, and the liberals haven't done anything but say “at least we aren't killing you” for the past three election cycles (which they can’t even seem to win anymore!). The skills gained were not worthless; I am one of many who owes my existence to the safe spaces. However, when we claim to be separate from society, it makes it possible to imagine society without us, which becomes the strongest weapon for those trying to destroy us. It is with intimacy, the network being totally dependent on our ongoing participation, that we can really change the double standards that are the real root of oppression.
If we want to escape (not just paint over) the problems that seem to be intertwined with the already existing Queer institutions, we must go beyond what we know as Queer. If we want to get in front of as many eyes as possible, we must advertise. If we want to grow, we must focus on what we can do rather than what we are. If we want to change everything, we must be willing to change ourselves. If we want representation that definitely speaks to us, we must become the representation in our communities.
People are not special little snowflakes with a core identity that expresses itself outward, we are nexuses of communication, everyone molding us as we mold them. We must reach out, push new people into new shapes, and let them reform us as something stronger in turn.
There is no guarantee that this process will be painless or without risk, but I don’t think that prevents it from being a worthwhile endeavor. I think it is necessary to expand what we consider activism to include this sort of intermixing, be it in the daily struggle to survive or as a designated thing we do, and treat it accordingly. This is an inclusive expansion; we will still need safe spaces to which we can return and heal, but my project is to create a space where we can proactively engage in this new type of activism, to improve our skills and find new opportunities to take it further.
In practice, this looks like carving out a literal room that is set up to make connections happen, and getting as many people from different cliques, with different skills, talking. And we let people talk to the group; to show themselves in a way that is perhaps possible alone, but best done with someone else. Even more literally, this looks like a student lecture series, where people can present their topic and then receive questions on it. Add a potluck, art subsidy, and adlib business cards and we might have something.