WE ARE totally pissed off with the way the govern- i ment, the media, the police and the public treat us like shit! - join our campaign for "equality now"...join the Queers with Attitude. Outrage!, the lesbian and gay direct action group, are on the Their leafletting at schoolgates, their illegal march on parliament have certainly aught the attention of the taBut do Outrage! press seriously think they can build a movement for equality just by pulling off stunts?
Clearly, thousands of lesbians and gay men are more than fed-up with the oppressive heterosexism running rampant throughout the whole of British society - including the organised labour movement and the left. It grinds you down; it Feb. 15, 1992 No. 16 demoralises you; it gets you sacked; it leads to losing your home, your parents, your children, your friends; you can be killed on the street because of it. But it ain't going to be fought by moralism.
Outrage! say that nothing has changed in the 25 years since male homosexuality was partially decriminalised. then, did the Tories feel it necessary to go on the political and ideological offensive with Section 282 Had they not thought of being reactionary bigots before then? Of course not.
Advances
The reaction came because real advances were being made oy the esown dna say move ment - made largely through working within movement. The Labour ably scrambled out as it drifted further to the right. Peter TatPeter Tatchell: making a principle out of being Outrageous chell, a leading member of Out. rage!, was one of many of the victims of the rise of this New Realism.
But do you fight it by getting out of the labour movement all together? No. In spite of Kinnock and the rest of the Labour the Labour Camfor Lesbian and Gay stances.
Of course, there is a real danger that promises will be broken. commitments will fal from manifestoes. That is pre cisely why pressure from within the labour movement needs to sens. Porking within the trade with no illuSons. unions is one way of approaching this. And, again, real advances have been made within the unions around lesbian and gay