Queer Harbor

Presently, Queers are afforded a course of action which aims to placate mainstream enmity and foster tolerance just enough so that basic safety can be maintained. Such is the plight of Sheherazade, who must manage the feelings of the murderous king by means of her personal graces and narrative suspense so as to postpone her own execution. At the end of One Thousand and One Nights, however, she asks for her life to be spared because, meanwhile, she has borne the king three sons, and her wish is granted. In the case of Queers, the perpetual policy of tolerance is a perpetual source of blackmail against them, whenever mainstream society, desirous to bully someone with its strength, threateningly growls that, perhaps, the Queers have “gone too far” and a persecution is in order. This state of affairs heralds endless anxiety and no future. For the time being, this is the most advanced condition in which Queers can live; under such circumstances, their longing for a “safe space” must give way to contentment with temporary “quiet spaces,” in which, through private means, they may attempt to drown out the nerve-wracking echoes of outside hostility. No safety can be guaranteed without the ability of Queers to defend their persons and their way of life; such ability, however, cannot exist without sovereignty. If there is to be an open society safe for Queers and all who may join, a place which has never existed and for which there is no blueprint, we must produce the knowledge of how to build it ourselves and spread it among ourselves.