[Marxism] Re: Gay Discussion on Marxmail

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>There is a hurricane hitting Cuba right now, and Cuba is giving
humanity some powerful lessons on how to fight such disasters.
Cuba is offering aid to Mexico and has sent it to Pakistan. It
previously offered aid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrine in
New Orleans. Alas, none of this is of any interest to those for
whom gay issues are the most important ones facing humanity.
--Walter Lippmann

This issue of personal identity is of importance to at least 5% of the
world's population. In am sure that Walter didn't mean to trivialize
it. It is also of utmost identity to the other 95%, if only because it
is about sex, what it means to one's own personal life and to others as
we go through the seasons of life.

There is an old expression, one that I think Trotsky used, that
reactions are varied regarding warmth, but we all act the same when we
stick our fingers in a hot flame (certain mystics excepted of course).
As much as we are concerned with the terrible damage to Mexico, the
effects of Katrina, and the earthquake in Pakistan, that does not mean
that issues that underlie and are intimately woven into the oppression
of capitalism can be put aside. In other words, the steady pulse of
capitalism, including homophobia and sexual identity is to be combatted
before, during, and after other crises.

Invidious comparisons, such as the one made by Walter, must be resisted.

Brian Shannon


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