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You mentioned the Uncommon Clout Visa card, ‘the card that gives back to the gay community, ten cents at a time’—those kind of gestures were relatively new in the 90s, the early to mid 90s, and to see in the intervening 25 years… I mean now, things that I would only have imagined as the most absurd satirical skit, you know, like trans military inclusion… no one would have talked about that 10 years ago, it would just be unimaginable. And that whole so-called issue just emerged because one person, considered the first trans billionaire, Jennifer Pritzker, who is an heir to the robber baron fortune of the Pritzkers of Chicago, donated $1.35 million to this institute called the Palm Center for this particular issue. Then, boom, it’s a centerpiece of the LGBT agenda. So if you ever want to know how much it costs to get your issue at the center of a so-called national movement, it’s $1.35 million, and that’s really cheap. In comparison to national politics in general, that’s awfully cheap. Now we see things, like an article saying, ‘isn’t this amazing, we now have non-binary and genderqueer fashion models,’ and I’m like, ‘No, what would be amazing is the end of the fashion industry!’
When you become part of an oppressive system—the fashion industry, the military-industrial complex—you know, you make it stronger, and it is frightening that people don’t stop to actually think about how participating in dominant institutions of oppression furthers oppression, and instead choose to see that as the ultimate sign of success, or progress. I think that narrative is so misguided.
Interviewer
Right… if the goal is just to have more people, or a more diverse group of people, occupying the top of this oppressive structure, it doesn’t actually change the structure in any way. It just changes which particular individuals are on top. Your piece in the Baffler about trans inclusion in the military was really powerful, and what you’re saying
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