The annual Gay Pride parade in Manchester is , and has been for some years, a pretty appalling spectacle of all that's worst about capitalist equality, sponsored by an alliance of the local state, big business and the local pink pound.
It has justifiably come under attack before from radicals and this year an enthusiastic group of young gay and lesbian radicals had another go, disrupting the opening ceremony and less succesfully intervening on the parade itself. (See Indimedia - North)
Better this year though was an attempt to articulate some of that criticism by the AF with it's special bulletin 'What's Wrong With Angry'. (See AF Web site).
This was about the only political criticism around at all and may well have an impact because of that. The parade organisers do there best to cut out any attempt to politicise anything around the issues of sexuality and social conformism.
Although I thought the bulletin was good and I helped give it out on the parade, I thought there were still some tensions between the different articles themes of, on the one hand 'liberation' versus 'equality' and on the other, the continuing oppression and discrimination of gays and lesbians here and in other countries. Was there also a hint of 'moralising' in the attack on 'gay marriage' given the many hetresexual anarchists who marry under various pressures?
Also who was the target of this bulletin, given that for many gay and lesbian workers capitalist equality is all they have ever aspired to anyway. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the heady days of the Gay Liberation Front, but perhaps there is a minority, bigger than our tiny handful of protestors, who are searching for a more radical critique?
There is probably more that can be written to demonstrate how capitalist consumerism and state organisations (and indeed trade unions) seek to use the promotion of gay and lesbian equality as a camouflage for their general exploitation and oppresion of all workers.
I think the tactic of joining the parade with critical banners etc was misplaced , as inevitably any criticism was swamped, but hopefully other interventions were more worthwhile. (Probably as pointless was the post parade 'attack' on the handful of christian nutters still protesting, given they were generally viewed as such by all the other thousands of spectators).
I'd be interested in knowing what other AF and other pro-revolutionaries thought of this particular bulletin and the more general question of the scope for political intervention in the Gay and Lesbian scene as opposed to more general pro revolutionary intervention in other struggles.
Can comment on articles and discussions
Haven't you answered your own question? : " ... for many gay and lesbian workers capitalist equality is all they have ever aspired to anyway ..."
My experience is that the gay community's political stance is predominantly simple social liberalism - they are not particularly more radical than any other segment of society. Things may have been different once, but that seems to be the contemporary reality. Additionally, the gay community fosters an illusion of common interest just like nationalist self-determination movements - but without even a hint of the things which somewhat mitigate that in the latter, like a desire for local autonomy or alternate modes of production, a critique of global exploitation, etc
Any political intervention should recognize that the gay community is not particularly any different from any other community of workers in terms of class struggle, despite appearances. Social liberalism, despite adopting a critical stance when useful, is not truly a criticism of capitalism, only a mechanism by which it is reconstituted and new forms of reactionary elements are generated. There may be a minority who are looking for a more radical answer - but I'd hazard a guess, probably not signifigantly more than any other community.