This has been an exciting week for supporters of same-sex marriage. After the supreme court decided not to challenge appellate court decisions striking down laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples, the total number of states with same-sex marriage rights has been raised to 25 (plus the District of Columbia and ten Native American tribal jurisdictions). It seems now that the “hump” has been overcome, and that it will be only a matter of time before even Phil Byrant will witness that Mississippi has same-sex marriage on the books. This is, of course, great news. The state apparatus endorsing these relationships which have been going on both in and out of the shadows for centuries is a great rhetorical achievement in recognizing the humanity of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The question no one asks, however, is how did homosexual marriage rights come to be the figurehead of the LGBT equality movement?
When one considers whom exactly same-sex marriage benefits, it seems strange that it has become the marquee political issue for queer people. It certainly is not an issue that affects the young, nor is it one that affects the poor. Disproportionately, those for whom marriage is even a concern tend to be older, richer, and whiter. This is not the face of the queer community. Shouldn’t the landmark queer issue be one that affects everyone, instead of just a fraction?
More states allow gay marriage than have anti-employment discrimination laws on the books. What good is gay marriage if your new spouse can get fired the next day for their newfound marital bliss? The rate of homelessness among queer and transgender youth is a national shame. LGBT people have an astronomically higher probability of being murdered, a probability that increases even more for people of color. Transgender people routinely experience their very own lived realities being denied, in that they are unable in many places to change their identification and legal status to that with which they identify. Racial justice, economic justice, immigrant rights and healthcare, too, are all issues that directly affect large swaths of the queer community. Yet many LGBT rights groups seem to give off the impression that once gay marriage is legalized, our problems are over. Clearly this sort of cultural hatred transcends legal statuses. Otherwise, these issues of violence and homelessness would’ve dropped off in the many states that have had gay marriage for years. So why, we must ask ourselves, marriage?
The answer lies at the foot of a concept called “respectability politics.” Originally devised by Black American historians, respectability politics refers to attempts to enforce the norms of a majority onto an oppressed group so that the majority will respond in kind by treating them better. Examples within the black community can be seen in attempts by polemicists like Don Lemon to tell black teens to “stop sagging” and “stop wearing hoodies” and “stop saying the n-word” to avoid being murdered by white folks. In the queer community, it manifests itself as attempts to force the community to assimilate to the norms of heterosexual society in order to be accepted. It creates a narrative of “normativity,” which, instead of accepting queerness as a social reality itself, tries to confine LGBT individuals in the ill-fitting box of bourgeois heteronormative society.
The fact that marriage holds the status it does among LGBT political issues betrays the fact that the modern gay rights movement, instead of being an inclusive space including disenfranchised minorities like the 1970s’ queer liberation movement, is dominated primarily by the interests of the wealthy, who are attempting to repackage and sell queerness as a more appealing product for the powers that be. Do not, however, let this stand as a creed against gay marriage. By all means, if marriage is your bag, go for it. I will continue to applaud the extension of marriage rights to homosexual couples as it progresses. I will not, however, accept that it is the fulcrum of LGBT acceptance, not an institution to which all must aspire.
Robert McAuliffe is a junior international studies major from St. Louis.
