Customer Reviews

Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation

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Vaid, an activist, lawyer, and former head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, provides an ambitious and richly detailed analysis that is equal parts memoir, critique, and manifesto. For Vaid, the "mainstreaming" of the gay rights movement hasn't been a good thing. She questions how much the prevailing paradigm of gay political activism -- the seeking of legal rights and protections by working within the traditional political and judicial systems -- has actually achieved. Vaid worries that the movement will be co-opted by money and a desire for "insider" access. She argues passionately that gays and lesbians, as well as other sexual minorities, must work in coalition with other progressive groups to "supplement the limited politics of civil rights with a broader and more inclusive commitment to cultural transformation."

Vaid's style tends to be chatty and the chapters a little long-winded, though she is always sincere. Her book will resonate most with academic/queer/left types who are persuaded that gays and lesbians form a distinctive subculture in search of "liberation," a subculture united not merely by sexual expression but also by shared sensibilities, political outlook, and experience of oppression. It will be less impressive to those who believe gays should (or already do) exist largely in the mainstream, or to those who suspect that writers like Vaid talk the language of radical democracy while prescribing a specific political and cultural agenda. (Readers in search of lively debate can read Vaid as counterpoint or antidote to the work of Bruce Bawer and Andrew Sullivan, or vice versa.) While I find Vaid's perspective fundamentally limited because it's grounded in the sort of old-style, two-coasts, radical-chic queer politics that's rapidly being driven out of business by the burgeoning, sophisticated, upper-middle-class movement being built by the Human Rights Campaign (exactly, as it turns out, what Vaid feared; think of her as your pioneering little local bohemian co-op up against the Pottery Barn of gay politics), and while the content is getting somewhat dated, this remains a useful, thoughtful, and important book on its own terms.

this book is the most honest, inspiring, bold detailing of the gay and lesbian movement's successes and failures. vaid never tiptoes around sensitive or controversial topics, even her own actions. not only does she offer her well-researched, expert critique, but she also provides challenging, intelligent alternative/revised suggestions to improve the current strategy/ies. she makes the crucial point that many people don't want to face: ACCESS DOES NOT EQUAL PROGRESS. gains within legal and political arenas are very beneficial, but if we stop here then the absurd socio-cultural construct deeming queers (and all marginalized groups) inferior, which is the very root of discrimination, goes unscathed. bottom line....for anyone believing in the inherent equality of human beings on every level--cultural, social, political, economic, etc., it is absolutely essential to diligently study this book. Urvashi Vaid is an amazing person who has immersed her life in the battle for the liberation of the disenfranchised. her brilliance, effort and honesty are undeniable within this unabashed, uncloseted book.

Vaid's account of her experiences in the gay movement is invaluable for the insights and lessons it offers. Should be required reading not only for activists and gays, but for everyone everywhere.

If, like Rex Wockner recently did, you find yourself struck with the sudden realization that we aren't quite as well situated with the American public as the popularity of Will and Grace might lead one to believe and that, in the secrecy of the voting booth, the real anti-gay America is raising its ugly head past that glossy veneer of tolerance in state after state, you should read this book that a decade ago warned us against being content with simple mainstreaming into a corrupt social structure that had all the cornerstones of homohatred as its foundation and encouraged us to seek real equality instead of settling for a virtual one.

It's not a particularly easy read but you should distrust anyone who gives you easy answers to a problem so multi-layered and complex or who lets you off the hook of personal growth in the process. Urv does neither.

She knows whereof she speaks, having learned it all in the trenches. And it's as applicable to the middle-class and the Midwest as anyone and anywhere in the U.S.A. -- perhaps more so as this is a book for those who are willing to face the monster head-on instead of adapting to either accommodate the monster or become the monster themselves. Nowhere is that head-on fight more pressing than in the states facing MIPAs (Marriage Inequality Protection Amendments) and DenialOMAs -- typically the southern and midwestern (and, like Oregon, New England-Midwestern extension) states. Thus nowhere is a sound foundation in the political understanding available in this watershed book more valuable.

Urv, in short, not only 'keeps her eyes on the prize', she's astute enough to know what the prize really is.

This book reminds us not to take the success of Will and Grace, or the two party system's courting of the GLBT and Friends vote as substitute for actual solid laws and polices.

Although Vaid does a good job of reminding us that increased presence of GLBT friendly images in the media is not the same as equal protection and rights under the law, she does not consider the full spectrum of the GLBT and Allies movement.

Although my leftwing affilation meant that I could understand her jargon, I don't think people without any kind of experience in progressive movement(s) will have an easy time. Based on my own previous personal experience, this is the wrong way for anybody to go about organizing for social justice. If the idea is to bring in people who did not know how they could make a difference for themselves, their families and/or friends, this book needs heavy revision

Understanding most of the interconnectedness of both oppression and liberation, she forgets that smaller communities do not neccessarily have the same access to resources and people power that urban enclaves might. It is harder for GLBT people and their friends to organize in the ways Vaid would prefer, but that does not neccessarily mean it is impossible.

Vaid also fails to acknowllege that some people just don't have the passion for political activity. She might (considering there are groups and individuals debating GLBT's very right to exist) have every reason to be angry, hurt or concerned about their lack of participation, but people have to come to social justice movements of their own accord. Coercing them to take a step they are not ready to do yet does not help anybody or any movement.

Rather than shed light on these important issues, Urvashi Vaid disses anybody in the movement who doesn't see things as narrowly as she does. So, for example, she attacks belligerently Bruce Bawer, author of the splendid "A Place At the Table". To say that Bawer doesn't understand gay issues is obscene as well as absurd. It's Vaid who doesn't understand that gays come in all shapes and sizes, and that she doesn't represent anyone except a small bitter fringe element. Bawer resonates much more with mainstream gays and lesbians than she ever will. She might read his book and learn something from it, instead of condemning it.

This book is a polemic by an author with a narrow mind. As a gay man, I resent mightily her insistence that if you don't see issues HER way, you have no place in the Gay movement.

On the one hand, Vaid expresses a "sincere" desire to reach out to others in the Gay Lesbian movement. On the other hand, she silences those, like the great Bruce Bower, who disagree with her.