Seattle Gay News
Issue 24, Volume 40, June 15, 2012
Section 4 BOOK GUIDE
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
see VICTORY page 20 FILE PHO TO
VICTORY: THE TRIUMPHANT GAY REVOLUTION LINDA HIRSHMAN Linda Hirshman writes with such clarity and self-confidence that you want to believe her premise that the LGBT rights movement has already triumphed over bigotry and discrimination. Nevertheless, reporters are paid to be skeptical, and Hirshman’s title – Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution – begs two basic questions. First, have we really won? And second, in what sense can we call the undoubted advances in LGBT rights a revolution? The first question is nicely summed up in a conversation with activist and former Clinton staffer Richard Socarides that Hirshman records in her book. “‘Do you really think you ought to call [the book] Victory?’ Socarides asked. I had called him to ask about the Justice Department’s dropping of DOMA and mentioned the book was almost done. “‘Why in the world not?’ I asked. ‘This is an amazing story.’ “‘But there’s so much that has not been done,’ he replied. ‘People will think you’re saying it’s over and everyone should go home.’” Without question, there have been advances for LGBT rights, and they seem to be coming at an accelerating pace: the repeal of DADT, a succession of court rulings that DOMA is unconstitutional, the passage of marriage equality acts in a number of states, and formal recognition of the rights of Gay and Lesbian couples by the president of the United States, among others. On the other hand, most states still ban same-sex marriage. In most states and at the federal level, LGBT workers still have no legal protection whatsoever against discrimination in the workplace. LGBT people, and especially LGBT people of color and Trans people of all colors, are still targeted for horrific hate crimes. Many young LGBT peo-
ple still feel hopeless, adrift, and unloved. How, then, can we claim that we have won? Hirshman says we can because she has defined the aims of the LGBT movement in such a way that they exist in the sphere of public perception, rather than being grounded in the practical realities that confront LGBT people. “The movement succeeded,” she writes, “uniquely and in large part because, at the critical moments, its leaders made a moral claim.” This claim, Hirshman says, was not simply a right to privacy – the right to be left alone to do whatever distinguishes LGBT people from straight ones – but an affirmation that what LGBT people do is equally deserving of respect, i.e., that “we
Linda Hirshman
e t o v o t RegisteR
www.myvote.wa.gov