Queer anarchism (or anarcha-queer) is an anarchist
school of thought that advocates anarchism
and social revolution as a means of queer
liberation and abolition of homophobia, lesbophobia,
transmisogyny, biphobia, transphobia, heteronormativity,
heterosexism, patriarchy and the gender binary.
LGBT and anarchism who campaigned for LGBT
rights both outside and inside the anarchist
and LGBT movements include John Henry Mackay,
Adolf Brand and Daniel Guérin. Individualist
anarchist Adolf Brand published Der Eigene,
which was the first publication dedicated
to gay issues in the world, published from
1896 to 1932 in Berlin.
== History ==
Anarchism's foregrounding of individual freedoms
made for a natural defense of homosexuality
in the eyes of many, both inside and outside
of the anarchist movement. In Das Kuriositäten-Kabinett
(1923), Emil Szittya wrote about homosexuality
that "very many anarchists have this tendency.
Thus I found in Paris a Hungarian anarchist,
Alexander Sommi, who founded a homosexual
anarchist group on the basis of this idea".
His view is confirmed by Magnus Hirschfeld
in his 1914 book Die Homosexualität des Mannes
und des Weibes: "In the ranks of a relatively
small party, the anarchist, it seemed to me
as if proportionately more homosexuals and
effeminates are found than in others". Italian
anarchist Luigi Bertoni (who Szittya also
believed to be homosexual) observed: "Anarchists
demand freedom in everything, thus also in
sexuality. Homosexuality leads to a healthy
sense of egoism, for which every anarchist
should strive".
In Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man under Socialism,
he passionately advocates for an egalitarian
society where wealth is shared by all while
warning of the dangers of authoritarian socialism
that would crush individuality. He later commented:
"I think I am rather more than a Socialist.
I am something of an Anarchist, I believe".
In August 1894, Wilde wrote to his lover Lord
Alfred Douglas to tell of "a dangerous adventure".
He had gone out sailing with two lovely boys—Stephen
and Alphonso—and they were caught in a storm.
"We took five hours in an awful gale to come
back! [And we] did not reach pier till eleven
o’clock at night, pitch dark all the way,
and a fearful sea. [...] All the fishermen
were waiting for us". Tired, cold and "wet
to the skin", the three men immediately "flew
to the hotel for hot brandy and water", but
there was a problem as the law stood in the
way: "As it was past ten o’clock on a Sunday
night the proprietor could not sell us any
brandy or spirits of any kind! So he had to
give it to us. The result was not displeasing,
but what laws!". Wilde finishes the story:
"Both Alphonso and Stephen are now anarchists,
I need hardly say".
Anarcho-syndicalist writer Ulrich Linse wrote
about "a sharply outlined figure of the Berlin
individualist anarchist cultural scene around
1900", the "precocious Johannes Holzmann"
(known as Senna Hoy): "an adherent of free
love, [Hoy] celebrated homosexuality as a
'champion of culture' and engaged in the struggle
against Paragraph 175". The young Hoy (born
1882) published these views in his weekly
magazine Kampf (Struggle) from 1904, which
reached a circulation of 10,000 the following
year. German anarchist psychotherapist Otto
Gross also wrote extensively about same-sex
sexuality in both men and women and argued
against its discrimination. Heterosexual anarchist
Robert Reitzel (1849–1898) spoke positively
of homosexuality from the beginning of the
1890s in his German-language journal Der arme
Teufel (Detroit).
John Henry Mackay was an individualist anarchist
known in the anarchist movement as an important
early follower and propagandizer of the philosophy
of Max Stirner. Alongside this, Mackay was
also an early signer of (Magnus) Hirschfeld's
"Petition to the Legislative Bodies of the
German Empire" for "a revision of the anti-homosexual
paragraph 175 (his name appeared in the first
list published in 1899)". He also kept a special
interest about Oscar Wilde and was outraged
at his imprisonment for homosexual activity.
Nevertheless, Mackay entered into conflict
with Hirschfeld and his organization the Scientific
Humanitarian Committee.
The individualist anarchist Adolf Brand was
originally a member of Hirschfeld's Scientific
Humanitarian Committee, but formed a break-away
group. Brand and his colleagues, known as
the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen ("Community of
Self-owners"), were also heavily influenced
by the writings of Stirner. They were opposed
to Hirschfeld's medical characterization of
homosexuality as the domain of an "intermediate
sex". Ewald Tschek, another homosexual anarchist
writer of the era, regularly contributed to
Adolf Brand's journal Der Eigene and wrote
in 1925 that Hirschfeld's Scientific Humanitarian
Committee was a danger to the German people,
caricaturing Hirschfeld as "Dr. Feldhirsch".
Although Mackay was closer in views to Brand
and his "Community of Self-owners" in some
respects as compared to Hirschfeld's Scientific
Humanitarian Committee, nevertheless he did
not agree with Brand's antifeminism and almost
misogynistic views believing his "anarchist
principle of equal freedom to all certainly
applied to women as well as men".Der Eigene
was the first gay journal in the world, published
from 1896 to 1932 by Brand in Berlin. Brand
contributed many poems and articles himself.
Other contributors included Benedict Friedlaender,
Hanns Heinz Ewers, Erich Mühsam, Kurt Hiller,
Ernst Burchard, John Henry Mackay, Theodor
Lessing, Klaus Mann and Thomas Mann as well
as artists Wilhelm von Gloeden, Fidus and
Sascha Schneider. After the rise to power
by the Nazis, Brand became a victim of persecution
and had his journal closed.
The prominent American anarchist Emma Goldman
was also an outspoken critic of prejudice
against homosexuals. Her belief that social
liberation should extend to gay men and lesbians
was virtually unheard of at the time, even
among anarchists. As Magnus Hirschfeld wrote,
"she was the first and only woman, indeed
the first and only American, to take up the
defense of homosexual love before the general
public". In numerous speeches and letters,
she defended the right of gay men and lesbians
to love as they pleased and condemned the
fear and stigma associated with homosexuality.
As Goldman wrote in a letter to Hirschfeld:
"It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a
different sexual type are caught in a world
which shows so little understanding for homosexuals
and is so crassly indifferent to the various
gradations and variations of gender and their
great significance in life".Despite these
supportive stances, the anarchist movement
of the time certainly was not free of homophobia
and an editorial in an influential Spanish
anarchist journal from 1935 argued that an
anarchist should not even associate with homosexuals,
let alone be one: "If you are an anarchist,
that means that you are more morally upright
and physically strong than the average man.
And he who likes inverts is no real man, and
is therefore no real anarchist".Lucía Sánchez
Saornil was a main founder of the Spanish
anarcha-feminist federation Mujeres Libres
who was open about her lesbianism. At a young
age, she began writing poetry and associated
herself with the emerging Ultraist literary
movement. By 1919, she had been published
in a variety of journals, including Los Quijotes,
Tableros, Plural, Manantial and La Gaceta
Literaria. Working under a male pen name,
she was able to explore lesbian themes at
a time when homosexuality was criminalized
and subject to censorship and punishment.
Dissatisfied with the chauvinistic prejudices
of fellow Republicans, Lucía Sánchez Saornil
joined with two compañeras, Mercedes Comaposada
and Amparo Poch y Gascón, to form Mujeres
Libres in 1936. Mujeres Libres was an autonomous
anarchist organization for women committed
to a "double struggle" of women's liberation
and social revolution. Lucía and other "Free
Women" rejected the dominant view that gender
equality would emerge naturally from a classless
society. As the Spanish Civil War exploded,
Mujeres Libres quickly grew to 30,000 members,
organizing women's social spaces, schools,
newspapers and daycare programs.
The writings of the French bisexual anarchist
Daniel Guérin offer an insight into the tension
sexual minorities among the left have often
felt. He was a leading figure in the French
left from the 1930s until his death in 1988.
After coming out in 1965, he spoke about the
extreme hostility toward homosexuality that
permeated the left throughout much of the
20th century. "Not so many years ago, to declare
oneself a revolutionary and to confess to
being homosexual were incompatible", Guérin
wrote in 1975. In 1954, Guérin was widely
attacked for his study of the Kinsey Reports
in which he also detailed the oppression of
homosexuals in France: "The harshest [criticisms]
came from marxists, who tend seriously to
underestimate the form of oppression which
is antisexual terrorism. I expected it, of
course, and I knew that in publishing my book
I was running the risk of being attacked by
those to whom I feel closest on a political
level". After coming out publicly in 1965,
Guérin was abandoned by the left and his
papers on sexual liberation were censored
or refused publication in left-wing journals.
From the 1950s, Guérin moved away from Marxism–Leninism
and toward a synthesis of anarchism and Marxism
close to platformism, which allowed for individualism
while rejecting capitalism. Guérin was involved
in the uprising of May 1968 and was a part
of the French gay liberation movement that
emerged after the events. Decades later, Frédéric
Martel described Guérin as the "grandfather
of the French homosexual movement".Meanwhile
in the United States, the influential anarchist
thinker Paul Goodman came out late in his
career as bisexual. The freedom with which
he revealed in print and in public his romantic
and sexual relations with men (notably in
a late essay, "Being Queer"), proved to be
one of the many important cultural springboards
for the emerging gay liberation movement of
the early 1970s.
=== Contemporary queer anarchism ===
Anarcha-queer originated during the second
half 20th century among anarchists involved
in the gay liberation movement, who viewed
anarchism as the road to harmony between heterosexual/cis
people and LGBT people. Anarcha-queer has
its roots deep in queercore, a form of punk
rock that portrays homosexuality in a positive
manner. Like most forms of punk rock, queercore
attracts a large anarchist crowd. Anarchists
are prominent in queercore zines. There are
two main anarcha-queer groups: Queer Mutiny,
a British group with branches in most major
cities; and Bash Back!, an American network
of queer anarchists. Queer Fist appeared in
New York City and identifies itself as "an
anti-assimilationist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian
street action group, came together to provide
direct action and a radical queer and trans-identified
voice at the Republican National Convention
(RNC) protests".Anarcha-feminist collectives
such as the Spanish squat Eskalera Karakola
and the Bolivian Mujeres Creando give high
importance to lesbian and bisexual female
issues.
The Fag Army is a left-wing queer anarchist
group in Sweden, which launched its first
action on August 18, 2014 when it pied the
Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Christian
Democrat leader Göran Hägglund.
== See also ==
Anarchism and issues related to love and sex
Communism and homosexuality
Dumba – a New York collective living space
with Anarcha-queer tendencies
Gay Shame – a movement self-described as
a radical alternative to gay mainstreaming
Pink capitalism
Queeruption – a queercore festival where
anarchists are prominent
Socialism and LGBT rights
== References ==
== Further reading ==
C. B. Daring; J. Rogue; Deric Shannon and
Abbey Volcano (Eds). Queering Anarchism: Addressing
and Undressing Power and Desire. AK Press.
2012
Lena Eckert. "Post-Anarchism as a Tool for
Queer and Transgender Politics and/or Vice
Versa?"
Terence Kissack. Free Comrades: Anarchism
and Homosexuality in the United States. AK
Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-11-6
== External links ==
Media related to Queer anarchism at Wikimedia
Commons
Archive of queer zines
