By Troy Williams
Welcome to my first blog for QueerGnosis.com. For the past three years I’ve been the producer of
RadioActive on KRCL radio in Salt Lake City. I also produce Now Queer This.
My objective with both shows has been to bring visionary artists,
intellectuals and activists to the airwaves of Utah. The goal always is
to re-evaluate how we live in our ever mutating world. And yes, I
believe things are shifting. Patriarchy and Empire are passé. Hierarchy
and Hegemony are exhaustingly old. Sexism and Homophobia have worn out
their welcome. Our planet needs us to kick it up and create new ways of
living together.
Community, Cooperation and Liberty hold the promise for a healthy planet.
We
need Big Ideas and bigger actions to make this all happen. Not just
for queer folk, but for any marginalized group who has been excluded
from the national promise; that being, the right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. To paraphrase Hopi elders, we are the queers we’ve been waiting for.
One of my Big Ideas is that queer folk are on the planet for a dynamic
purpose. Like mythic tricksters and daemons, we exist on the planet to
disrupt, disorganize and subvert systems – particularly systems of
domination and hierarchy. Our aspiration: total cultural regeneration.
David Korten, the co-founder of the Positive Futures Network argues
that our planet has been operating on the dominator model of Empire.
In his book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,
Korten envisions another cultural model based on partnership, universal
human rights and sustainable economic justice. That’s a Big Idea. One
that I think we queer folk are in a unique position to help.
Korten came on RadioActive
and laid down a brief history of human development. “Our current
situation must be seen in the context of 5000 years of Empire. Based
on archeological evidence, the earliest human societies were organized
on a partnership model; a strong connection to the earth, balanced
gender roles, women in positions of leadership…but then there was a
major transition in the human experience toward dominator systems that
brought in racism and sexism that seemed to permanently divide society
between the rulers and the ruled.”
Many of Korten’s ideas are inspired by Riane Eisler’s book, The Chalice and the Blade
which explores early cultures built on equality, nonviolence and
goddess worship — things we queers have been battling for
politically. Korten continued to unfold the shift from
egalitarian-based cultures to imperial nations:
“It’s
clear that when you organize on a dominator system you are pitting
every person in a competition for the position of privilege at the
top. You also create the same dynamic between nations, between family
members and between members of community. What we came to realize is
that pattern still plays out in the present world and it basically
explains most of our existing crises and our social and environmental
breakdown. If you look at the evidence of what is happening, we are
reaching the limits of what the planet and the social fabric will
tolerate in terms of domination and exploitation. We live in a critical
framing moment. As a species we need to make a conscious choice to turn
this world around.”
So let’s do it. Queers have the power to
dislodge the hegemonic patriarchal structures that are straining our
planet. As gendered tricksters we challenge dominator systems. One of
the ways we do this is simply by having sex. Yes. Queer sex is one of
the most liberating Big Ideas we’ve got. Our culture is built around
gendered hierarchies that organize family, church, labor and other
social structures disproportionately. When we enter into sexual and
emotional unions we do so without an implicit gendered hierarchy. We
have tops and bottoms, true, but we also understand versatility. We,
more than any other, have the potential to model true egalitarianism to
the broader culture thru our sex lives. From this perspective, every
time queer people have sex, we heal the world.
In addition,
we also have the Trans community. Often overlooked and undervalued,
Trans folk are a powerful presence that challenge us to re-imagine what
we know about gender and sexuality. They are social anomalies that
disrupt dominator ideology at the core. The work they are doing for
our planet has only just begun to be recognized. We can look to them
for a powerful witness of human possibility.
Our vision
should be nothing less than social revolution. But before that
unfolds, we first need to change the stories we tell about ourselves.
No more tales of victimhood – no more self-loathing – no more
destructive behaviors. We simply don’t have time anymore to indulge in
“poor me, I’m gay and despised” meta-dramas. Let’s stop focusing on
our perceived deficits and start inspiring the masses. Society
desperately needs us (and I’m not talking about the need “straight
guys” have to be “queer eyed”).
Information has gone
viral. Power is shifting from the center to the margins. Multiple
social movements are gathering planetary momentum. The spark of new
potential awakens our awareness of who we are and what we can become.
Queer Gnosis is everywhere. The LGBT political movement is organized.
“Queer Theory” has entered the Academy. Queer youth are emerging with
an astounding self-awareness. The New Gender Nation has arrived.
My
goal in radio, film and print, is to launch a transrevolutionary
quantum shift throughout the genderverse. On this site I will be
sharing my conversations with visionary authors, activists, healers,
new-edgers, satirists, tripsters and other luminary social change
agents. We will be sharing the work of NQT contributors. Our intent
is to create viral queer mega-memes that will spread a new identity
consciousness throughout the mediasphere and infect millions with
radical subversive ideas to transform our planet. Again, we are the
queers we’ve been waiting for.
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