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I am already enjoying Queer Theory and Intersectionality: Why Tony Blair Is Not a Gay Icon so much and it's only 5 minutes in
omg @JurassicLen singing It Gets Worse is so good my entire living room is loudly applauding
absolutely loving @ralphwilde completely dismantling the speakers and logic of the Other Talk and the "foregrounding as heroic saviours the people who have been the beneficiaries of the system that is being challenged, or are only linked by one stage removed"
so @TanyaSerisier analysis and speech is so good and precise and smart but also her red curtain background is so lush
"we've seen this demand on queer communities to 'grow up' and to leave behind the people who can't inhabit a white and middle class space of privilege" & criticising sexual freedom based on a carceral state where sexual harm is individualised and privatised
she is calling out how lesbians are denied sexual agency and my lesbian housemate said "yes, tanya!"
oh my god lamble's ironic letter thanking tony's blair for "liberating us all for ass play" is soooo good
ironic? sarcastic? whatever, it's hilarious
oh my god they just called tony blair a "very busy boy"
so many people on this call have musical instruments in the background, i'm hoping there's a big musical finale
the Other Event betrays "an understanding of the law as entirely honest and straightforward in it's application & cleanly separate from the politics in which it's enacted - a view consistent with the UK immigration courts that deny claims for asylum by LGBT Iraqis" @sarahjkeenan
oh @sarahjkeenan quoting andrea lawlor "i feel that everything good in my life has come from being queer, as queers we have a responsibility to enforce on the straight establishment the good life" & reminds us "liberation not integration!"
. @thariel saying it is astonishing to hear white conservative voices decry the toxic legacy of empire or acknowledge that the uk has a special responsibility for these legacies of violence, discrimination and death but only re LGBT rights in the global south
cannot describe how much i appreciate that @FranckMagennis has shown up in a suit and tie
finishing with the wonderful @sitainshort - "when a war criminal is speaking it might seem like a detour to talk about peter tatchell, but i think there might be something instructive in talking about his journey from radical to reactionary"
pointing out that tatchell's homophobia pre-dates the war on terror by a decade - tying this to how blair used progressive projects to push an imperialist agenda - "both believe themselves to be the rightful arbiters of the actions of people of colour"
this event is so good, really big kudos to @NadineElEnany for being the most charming of charming hosts and @rachelharger for doing loads to bring this together
so good, @thariel pointing out how the Other Panel *is* Blairism - "the politics of representation without redistribution"
"sometimes you have to give up on paranoid critique and never underestimate the power of snark and ridicule and taking the piss" - @thariel
"there is something absurd about the legal profession - the language of "my learned friend" between people at the bar - i mean, i think some of them really like each other, but i come from south armagh and i despise the british empire" @FranckMagennis
"yes we have queer critique, but queer politics has historically been about pleasure and about joy, we find joy and pleasure in many different ways and i encourage us all to continue to do that" - @slamble1
now we blessed with a Len Lukowski encore - "from a boring fuck to the hearse" is my favourite line tbh
IT GETS WORSE!
