LESBIAN/GAY/BISEXUAL/TRANSGENDER

STRATEGY SEMINAR

Our fourth Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Strategy Seminar is tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2004. Like the first three seminars (in 1998, 2000 and 2002) it will be a gathering of activists in LGBT movements, informed about the debates in the movements and committed to radical anti-capitalist politics. The idea of a 'strategy seminar' means that it will not be either a academic seminar without political content or an organizing meeting that would adopt positions or initiate action. But the seminar is meant to lead ultimately to publications as well as contribute to practical cooperation.

Brief descriptive reports of the first three seminars are also available (only in English unfortunately): the 1998 Report, 2000 Report. and 2002 Report. The programme, reading list and exact dates of the fourth seminar will be planned by a nine-member seminar organizing team (whose members are in Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Portugal). This page will be updated as decisions are made.

In between seminars, participants and others are exchanging information and cooperating on several issues of interest to anti-capitalist LGBT activists — specifically:

• building an LGBT presence at the 2002 European Social Forum in Florence;

• the HIV/AIDS movement;

• the international cycle of the 2003 Euromediterranean Summer University on Homosexualities in Marseilles; and

• the LGBT space at the 2003 European Youth Camp of the Fourth International.

This webpage includes useful documents on these themes.

Questions about the seminar and related activities should be emailed to Peter at <peter.iire@antenna.nl>.

CURRENT THEMES

(1) LGBTs AT THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM

(2) THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS

(3) THE UEEH INTERNATIONAL CYCLE

(4) YOUTH ORGANIZING

OTHER THEMES OF EARLIER SEMINARS

(5) INTRODUCTIONS

(6) MARXIST APPROACHES TO LESBIAN/GAY LIBERATION (1998)

(7) THE FAMILY (2000)

(8) UNDERSTANDING SEXUALITY — DEFINING LIBERATION (1998)

(9) IDENTITY (2000)

(10) PROSPECTS FOR A QUEER ANTI-CAPITALISM (2002)

(11) AFTER PARTNERSHIP, WHAT? LGBT movement strategy in Europe (2002)

(12) LESBIAN ORGANIZING (1998 & 2000)

(13) GENDER POLITICS (2002)

(14) LGB STRUGGLES IN DEPENDENT COUNTRIES (1998 & 2000)

(15) ISLAM AND HOMOSEXUALITIES (2002)

(16) CURRENTS IN THE MOVEMENTS (2000)

(17) TRADE UNIONS (2000)

(18) HISTORY OF THE WORKERS MOVEMENT AND HOMOSEXUALITY (2000)

(19) WORKING IN LEFT ORGANIZATIONS (2000)

CURRENT THEMES

1. LGBTs AT THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM

1.1. Florence Gay and Lesbian Action, "Gay Men, Lesbians and Neo-Liberalism"

1.2. LGBT Call to the European Social Forum in Florence

1.3. Sérgio Vitorino, Report on LGBT presence at the European Social Forum Florence, 2002

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2. THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS

2.1. Ken Davis, ‘Update notes on STRUGGLE FOR HIV TREATMENTS ACCESS’, August 2002

2.2. ACT-UP Paris, 'Accelerating access serves pharmaceutical companies while corrupting health organisations'. May 2002

2.3. G.R. Gupta, 'Approaches for empowering women in the HIV/AIDS pandemic', 2000

2.4. Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa)

Readings from past seminars:

2.5. Cindy Patton, 'From visibility to insurrection: a manifesto', from Fatal Advice (1996) [castellano]

2.6. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 below), point 16

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3. THE UEEH INTERNATIONAL CYCLE

4. YOUTH ORGANIZING

Reading from past seminars:

4.1. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 below), points 6, 13 & 29

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OTHER THEMES OF EARLIER SEMINARS

5. INTRODUCTION

5.1. House rules and information for users of the IIRE

5.2. Introduction to the IIRE library

5.3. 15th World Congress, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (2003)

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6. MARXIST APPROACHES TO LESBIAN/GAY LIBERATION (1998)

6.1. John D'Emilio, 'Capitalism and gay identity', from Ann Snitow et al. eds., Powers of Desire (1983) [castellano]

6.2. Excerpts from Jean Nicolas, 'The Homosexual Question', translated from Critique Communiste (Paris) no. 11/12, Dec. 1976-Jan. 1977

6.3. Excerpts from Jamie Gough & Mike MacNair, Gay Liberation in the Eighties, London: Pluto Press, 1985 [castellano]

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7. THE FAMILY (2000)

7.1. Jamie Gough & Mike McNair, 'The family system', from Gay Liberation in the '80s (1985) [castellano]

7.2. Excerpts from Wally Seccombe, Weathering the Storm: Working-Class Families from the Industrial Revolution to the Fertility Decline (1993) [castellano]

7.3. FI 15th World Congress, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' 2003 (5.3 above), points 2, 7 & 8

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8. UNDERSTANDING SEXUALITY — DEFINING LIBERATION (1998)

8.1. Excerpts from Gayle Rubin, 'Thinking sex: notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality', from Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, Carole S. Vance ed., London: Pandora, 1989 [castellano]

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9. IDENTITY (2000)

9.1. Peter Drucker, 'Dialectics of identity', from Different Rainbows: Same-Sex Sexualities and Popular Movements in the Third World (2000)

9.2. FI 15th World Congress, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' 2003 (5.3 above), points 4 & 5

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10. PROSPECTS FOR A QUEER ANTI-CAPITALISM (2002)

10.1. Alan Sears, 'The Opening and Commodification of Gay Space'

10.2. Amber Hollibaugh, 'Queers Without Money'

10.3. FI 15th World Congress, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' 2003 (5.3 above), point 5

11. AFTER PARTNERSHIP, WHAT? LGBT movement strategy in Europe (2002)

11.1. Peter Tatchell, 'It’s Just a Phase: Why Homosexuality Is Doomed'

11.2. Pascale Berthaut, 'Against the moral order and the symbolic order'

Reading from past seminars:

11.3. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), point 17

12. LESBIAN ORGANIZING (1998 & 2000)

12.1. Excerpts from Adrienne Rich, 'Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence' (1980), reprinted in Powers of Desire [castellano]

12.2. Monique Wittig, 'One is not born a woman' (1981), from The Straight Mind

12.3. Excerpts from Penny Duggan, The Feminist Challenge to Traditional Political Organizing, IIRE Working Paper no. 33, 1997

12.4. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), point 23

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13. GENDER POLITICS (2002)

13.1. from Lillian Fadiman, Scotch Verdict 1983, page 68

13.2. from Lillian Fadiman, To Believe in Women, 1999

13.3. from Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men, Chapter 4, Transvestism: Persecution and Impunity

Reading from past seminars:

13.4. Peter Drucker, 'Getting radical about sex', from Different Rainbows: Same-Sex Sexualities and Popular Movements in the Third World (2000)

13.5. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), point 18

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14. LGBT STRUGGLES IN DEPENDENT COUNTRIES (1998 & 2000)

14.1. Peter Drucker, 'In the Tropics There Is No Sin': Sexuality and Lesbian/Gay Movements in the Third World, IIRE Working Paper no. 31, 1995

14.2. Peter Drucker, 'What kind of equality?', from Different Rainbows: Same-Sex Sexualities and Popular Movements in the Third World (2000)

14.3. FI, 'On lesbian/gay liberation', 15th World Congress,2003, (5.3 above), point 4

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15. ISLAM AND HOMOSEXUALITIES (2002)

15.1. Dédé Oetomo, 'Gay men in the reformasi era', 2001

15.2. Dédé Oetomo, 'We’ve Got to Live Life as Gay People': Being Gay and Muslim in Indonesian Society, 1999

15.3. Ulas Yilmaz, ‘Homosexuality in Turkey’, August 2002

15.4. Texts on ISLAM AND HOMOSEXUALITY

16. CURRENTS IN THE MOVEMENTS (2000)

16.1. Torvald Patterson, 'Queer without fear' (2000)

16.2. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), point 24

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17. TRADE UNIONS (2000)

17.1. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), point 12

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18. HISTORY OF THE WORKERS MOVEMENT AND HOMOSEXUALITY (2000)

18.1. Excerpts from Manfred Herzer, 'Communists, Social Democrats and the homosexual movement in the Weimar Republic', from Gay Men and the Sexual History of the Political Left, Gert Hekma et al. eds., Haworth Press, 1995 [castellano]

19. WORKING IN LEFT ORGANIZATIONS (2000)

19.1. FI IEC, 'On lesbian/gay liberation' (5.3 above), points 25-33 (Part IV)

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