Beka’s Reviews > American Queer, Now and Then > Status Update

"Queer Jews (our book) calls for integration are *transformative* rather than assimilationist.
The construction of queer families means making conscious, deliberate choices all along the life course.

Most queers marry, because they want to, because they want to express their love publicly to their communities..."

"Our energies must flow toward our sisters, not backward toward our oppressors.

It is the primacy of women relating to women, of women creating a new consciousness of + with each other, which is at the heart of women's liberation, + the basis for the cultural revolution.

Together we must find, reinforce, + validate our authentic selves. We see ourselves as prime, find our centers inside of ourselves."

"Only women can give to each other a new sense of self. That identity we have to develop with reference to ourselves, + not in relation to men. This consciousness is the revolutionary force from which all else will follow, for ours is an organic revolution. For this we must be available + supportive to one another, give our commitment + our love, give the emotional support necessary to sustain this movement."

"The grudging admiration felt for the tomboy, + the queasiness felt around a sissy boy point to the same thing: the contempt in which women --or those who play a female/feminine role-- are held.

Older women will recall that not so long ago, any woman who was successful, independent, not orienting her whole life about a man, would hear this word. (Lesbian.)"

"Lesbianism is different from male homosexuality, + serves a different function in the society. 'Dyke' is a different kind of put-down from 'faggot,' although both imply you are not playing your socially assigned sex role...are not therefore a 'real woman'/'real man.'"

"A lesbian is the woman who, often beginning at an extremely early age, acts in accordance with her inner compulsion to be a more complete + freer human being than her society --perhaps then, but certainly later-- cares to allow her."

"Many mark the dawn of gay liberation with the Stonewall Rebellion in NYC, when patrons of a working class bar called the Stonewall Inn, along with local residents, resisted police oppression publicly + violently for the first time.
Stonewall grew out of earlier activism, developed in response to the Vietnam War + the civil rights movements."

"If we take Audre Lorde's call to move from silence to action seriously, then anytime queers take control of language, whenever they name that which they are, they are engaging in activism.

As words like 'queer' + 'dyke' moved from labels meant to demean + isolate to powerful words expressing identities, queers began to claim power over their own lives."