The Gay Agenda Straight Culture ReQlaim Queer CollectiveAssimilation vs. Liberation “Normal Culture” is straight culture. It has a mindset that is concerned with the “hetero” but rejoices on homogenisation. A culture having a fixation on the phallus, it is perpetually obsessed with the concept of power, intrinsically fond of hierarchy and domination and posses a flagrant feteshism for private property. It is at the same time a paranoid culture. Sexual diversity for one is seen as a threat to its existence thus, it is imperative that such threat must be dissolved either by annihilation or assimilation for it to create invinsibility and powerlesness, therefore enabling the straight cultures’ despotic, imperous and oppressive control to sustain. “Normal Culture” is the culture that is continually criminalizing homosexuality, has structurally and systematically repressed, silenced and made queerness unnatural. _ Unfortunately, it is also the system that queer reformists and - ‘assimilationists wishes to integrate themselves into. The integrationist strategy of the homosexual estab- ‘lishment assumes that Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender freedom is about queers adapting into the straight society. Without considering the fact that assimila- tion is just another means whereby heterosexuals continue to call the shots, obliterating any distinctive queer identity and culture, creating homosexual versions of heterosexual lifestyle and morality. Moreover, assimilation means giving up the ~ unique and enriching aspects of our own queer experience. In other words, queer efforts to blend and get into straight institutions, is a sure-fire strategy for the loss of homo-iden- tity and the annihilation of queer culture. From the perspective of those who value sexual differ- ence, homo-conformity and assimilation is an anathema. Queer liberationist struggle involves more than mere law re- form and legal equality. It demands an end to heterosexual hegemony and to all erotic guilt and repression. This strategy 12 2The Gay Agenda Queer organizations already existed prior to the Stone- wall incident. Most of these discreetly organized groups how- ever can be labeled as having a conservative function (purely social and exclusive membership). From Stonewall up to the present, the number of gay organizations have mushroomed. A survey reveals that presently, there are at least two gay organizations (either or both conservative (purely social), reformist (social services, educational and legal defense), or radical (DIY, Direct Action, Confrontation) in every major or sec- ondary cities around the world. The majority are locally orga- nized and the rest are established through international net- working. The larger bulk of all queer organizations belong to the conservative and reformist group advancing the Gay Agenda to assimilate queers in the straight culture. There may be no actual claim from reformists that such agenda exist. Some even deny that there is one. However, the strategies and objectives of such groups (and individuals), their pursuit of queers having the right to serve in the military, the lobbying of gay organizations in legislative arenas, the _ participation of queers and their endorsement of politicians in the electoral process, gay marriages, the creation of gay-runned or gay friendly religious institutions clearly points to a gay agenda of assimilation, cooption and conformism to the straight culture. Gay Reformism The advent of gay reformism begun when gay organi- zations started to put forth the agenda which predo minantly focuses on legitimacy and law reform, favoring the acceptance of queers in the straight society. In their efforts, they have led queers to believe that they need power, employment and civil rights to bring respectability and equal- ity that would ultimately free queers from centuries of stigma and discrimination. <