Queer Resistance with Mads Ananda Lodahl

The 3rd KuirFest was held in Ankara last week (For more information, see http://festival.pembehayat.org/). Within the framework of the festival, a two-part workshop titled New Forms of Resistance with Mads Ananda Lodahl 1 & 2 took place at the Tayfa Kitapkafe. I thought that sounded really interesting and went to the workshop – and the workshop turned out to be one of the most inspiring events I have lately gone to. For all those who could not be there that day, I would like to share some of the theoretical information that Mads gave us during the workshop – and I hope it can give you some inspiration for your daily struggles against the beastliness of the heteronormative world.

 

MADS ANANDA LODAHL is a Danish writer, lecturer and activist who has spent the last ten years trying to dismantle what he calls the Straight World Order. He is himself an active part of the queer scene in Kopenhagen and Berlin. For more information, see his website: http://www.almindelig.com/.

 

The most central terms of his speech were oppression and resistance. Oppression, as Mads defines it, is whatever forces you to do or be something you don’t want to, both as an individual or as a group. Resistance, in contrast, is whatever you do to make sure you can do or be what you want to, both individually and as a group.

 

First of all, Mads presented his idea of what we need for our resistance. To make it more tangible, he used the picture of a queer person and allotted his different points to the different parts of the human body:

 

1.            Gut feeling (belly): Your gut feeling tells you what is good and bad for you. It guides you throughout your resistance. You should ask yourself: what do I feel and what makes me feel that way?

2.            Safe spaces (right leg): any place where you feel safe and can be what you want to be. This can be a place in the forest, a bathroom, a certain cafe, your wardrobe etc.

3.            Community (left leg): this can be a circle of friends or the queer community in general...

4.            Education (head): You do not need to be an academician, but it’s good to have as much information as possible, e.g. concerning your own situation, about the political situation in general...

5.            Reformist change (right hand): any action to improve your situation, e.g. a new policy, or the abolition of a discriminatory law...

6.            Revolutionary change (left fist): aims not to only change certain things like a certain policy or law, but aims to change the whole system in which this law was generated (→ let’s not fight for gay marriage, let’s abolish marriage as a whole!).

 

All these elements are important for and actually the basis of the struggle against (heteronormative) oppression and therefore it is important that these elements are in some kind of a balance:

When I do not listen to my gut feeling, I lose connection to why and how I can fight best to achieve what I want and need. If I do not have my legs (safe spaces and community) as a fundament, I am very weak. If I am not informed about the situation, it is hard for me to figure out suitable activities. It is very important to fight for some basic rights to put one’s own struggle on some kind of a basis, but if we do not challenge the system as a whole at the same time, the possibilities for real change are very limited.

 

After giving us these information as a basis, Mads moved on to telling us what kind of actions we could use in our resistance. He mentioned 15 points:

 

1.            Create and defend free spaces: can be a bar, a neighborhood, a squatted house, a festival...

2.            Run away: we are not made out of iron and sometimes the best strategy to resist is to leave a difficult situation. This does not look like resistance to you? Well, look at it like this: by leaving the situation, you do not allow the oppressor to hurt you, to abuse you, to smash you and therefore you prevent him from realizing his plan...

3.            Come out: this is not only meant in ’the usual way’. You can also come out as a feminist, an anti-capitalist, a friend of a queer person... All this is about visibility: making visible the variety of different opinions, identities etc. can weaken the norms that make being queer a taboo.

4.            Challenge yourself: do not just read about things, try to make your own experiences. Try out things that are new to you, that do not fit the norms or the expectations of others...

5.            Use the media: put queer issues on the agenda of the media.

6.            Consent: it is important that you know your own borders and learn how to communicate them and make sure that other people accept them. Likewise, it is important to learn to accept other people’s borders.

7.            Support with money: if you know a queer person that is in financial trouble, you might decide to support him/her...

8.            Stick together, find each other: it’s important to create friendships with among queer people.

9.            Replace with queer: remove things that are sexist, racist, heteronormative – and maybe even replace them with s.th. queer. That can be s.th. small like a poster in a bar...

10.         Confronting: confront heterosexism, racism, sexism etc. in all ways possible.

11.         Share skills: everybody knows s.th. or can do s.th.... Well, teach it to others! And learn what others know and can do...

12.         Self defense: self defense is everything that you can consciously do to make sure that you are safe – can be anything, running away, fighting, other safety precautions...

13.         Demonstrations and happenings: can be any (symbolic) action in the public that makes queer issues more visible and/or changes public opinion about them.

14.         Direct action and sabotage: make sure that s.th. is really happening/not happening.

15.         Parlamentarism: give s.o. your voice to someone who will stand up for your rights.

 

While planning your actions, you might also want to ask yourself the following questions: is it dangerous? Is it legal? Does it cost money? Can I do it alone?

 

The 15 points mentioned above are all different ways of resistance. You can use them as you want, mix them together, use them separately; whatever you feel comfortable with. One day, you might feel like doing something radical, another time you maybe want to do something calmer – that’s okay, nobody is always the same. The different points are all important, but a single person does not need to use all of them. You can choose the ones that seem appropriate for you, while others might use other ways for their resistance. This is the very interesting point about Mads’ work: instead of suggesting one right way for resistance, he states that there are many ways which all complement each other. Nobody needs to force him/herself to carry out actions that s/he does not feel comfortable with. But in the same meaning, it is important not to constantly criticize other people or groups for using different ways of resistance than you do – the more variety of resistance there is in a movement, the stronger it will be.

 

Mads suggestions are for everybody, queer and non-queer, more privileged and less privileged people. While some people need to fight for their very basic rights, other people can use their rights and privileges to support this struggle, and/or to share the privileges they have. Again: the more variety there is in a struggle, the stronger it becomes. And while it is of course important to be critical also about the movement itself, it is at the same time essential that the different people and groups trust each other and assume that everybody is fighting for a worthy cause – although the strategies might differ a lot.