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Cathy Cohen Class Assignment

Cathy Cohen’s essay, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” showcases her opinion on what has inhibited the radical potential of queer activism. She states her main argument in her writing, “… I argue that a truly radical or transformative politics has not resulted from queer activism” (438). Cathy Cohen defines queer activism as a potential movement by antiassimilationist activists of today’s age devoted to questioning and changing the way people of their community or society understand and respond to sexuality. As queer activists, these individuals would find themselves challenging the norms set by society regarding sexuality and would radically change the politics in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities (437). The author believes that instead of eliminating assumed categories and binaries of sexual identity, queer activism has only been a way to strengthen the dichotomies between heterosexuality and everything queer. Queer politics were formed around the early 1990s to fight the “de-gaying” tendencies supported by AIDs activism and the non-existence of the lesbian and gay community in the traditional civil rights, triggered by the increase in physical assaults against the members of the LGBTQ community. The queer politics are more of an “in your face” set of politics established by the youth to introduce the word “queer” as not just an abbreviated term to identify individuals or their sexuality. But what seems to be different in queer activists is that they are able to address their own anti-normative characteristics and non-stable behavior (439). The problem that lies in all of this is that queer politics are not emerging as the challenge it should be to the many systems of domination and oppression, including the system that gives privilege to heterosexuals and makes heterosexual relationships seem as though the natural ones in society (440). Through the evaluation of the contemporary queer activism and politics, she hopes for the potential in the construction of a set of politics where the privilege in one’s political comrades comes from their relation to power, not their homogenized identity.