The Queer Question: Essays on Desire and Democracy
In The Queer Question: Essays on Desire and Democracy, Scott Tucker issues a fierce clarion call to radicals and queers to be true to the democratic potential of the United States.\ In this collection of essays, Tucker targets homophobia and anti-sex sentiment within the traditional Left, racism and red-baiting among queers, narrow definitions of "family values", and democracy only for the chosen few. Tucker engages with a wide range of queer questions debated within the last decades, from...
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In The Queer Question: Essays on Desire and Democracy, Scott Tucker issues a fierce clarion call to radicals and queers to be true to the democratic potential of the United States.In this collection of essays, Tucker targets homophobia and anti-sex sentiment within the traditional Left, racism and red-baiting among queers, narrow definitions of "family values", and democracy only for the chosen few. Tucker engages with a wide range of queer questions debated within the last decades, from the political insights of the New Left to the brain research of Simon LeVay. Tucker writes passionately about being a long-term AIDS activist and co-founder of Prevention Point Philadelphia, a syringe exchange and harm reduction program for drug users and sex workers. He uses his own experiences as International Mr. Leather to shed light on S/M culture and polymorphous desire. Whether the topic is sex or science, Bill Clinton or Ralph Nader, Tucker argues convincingly and humanely for a society in which radical kinship, solidarity, and desire are part and parcel of a healthy civil society.Eloquent and principled, intelligent and enlightening, Tuckers' words will resonate for queer activists, proponents of social justice and equality, and radical thinkers everywhere. Library Journal The author, a gay health activist and journalist, offers a progressive vision of democracy as an experiment, a process in need of constant renewal, as seen through the lens of the gay rights movement. The essays cover such topics as the right to privacy vs. the right to live openly in the world, the need to redefine the family to include the true nature of relations in modern society, feminism and gay porn, and the reinvigoration of what the author views as an all too moribund social democratic agenda now abandoned by the traditional left wing in the United States. Tucker has an effective, almost relentless gift for pushing the envelope of an argument, taking nothing for granted and questioning every position, including his own. This challenging, often provocative work by a distinctive voice of a newer, more radicalized left is highly recommended for academic and larger public collections.Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore.
Foreword: Internationalist Mr. LeatherPreface: The Lavender LeftAcknowledgmentsPt. 1Our Right to the World: Beyond the Right to Privacy3Pt. 2"Queerer Than We Imagine": A Defense of Identity and Solidarity41Pt. 3"Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Censorship and Sexuality81Pt. 4Fighting Words: An Open Letter to Queers and Radicals139Pt. 5A Declaration of Independence: Queering the American Dream185Selected Bibliography247Index251About South End Press258
\ Library JournalThe author, a gay health activist and journalist, offers a progressive vision of democracy as an experiment, a process in need of constant renewal, as seen through the lens of the gay rights movement. The essays cover such topics as the right to privacy vs. the right to live openly in the world, the need to redefine the family to include the true nature of relations in modern society, feminism and gay porn, and the reinvigoration of what the author views as an all too moribund social democratic agenda now abandoned by the traditional left wing in the United States. Tucker has an effective, almost relentless gift for pushing the envelope of an argument, taking nothing for granted and questioning every position, including his own. This challenging, often provocative work by a distinctive voice of a newer, more radicalized left is highly recommended for academic and larger public collections.Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore.\ \
