There is of course the master’s house/master’s tools argument, which must always be kept in mind in situations like this - however, I don’t personally feel that I am distracted from the problems with the system itself when I’m trying to effect change within it - and this IS important, as it effects people right now. A lot of the time, the best way to effect change is just to live our lives without apology. You would (not) be amazed at the consternation this causes. Just existing seems to rock some people’s perception of how the world is or should be. My butch and I can’t count the times we’ve had trouble in our area, and we’re both worried that it’s not a case of if we’re bashed, but when. However, we’ve stopped slinking around like scared mice, and started walking head up and hand-in-hand (most of the time - we’re not dumb about it). And it’s heck of a lot less scary than waiting to be singled out.

My friends are fed up with the commercialised nature of the scene so instead of waiting for it to change, have started their own DIY queer night at the village hall. It’s amazing, the best night I have ever been to, cause there’s no hierarchy of cool, no profit-making motive - just a bunch of people who are fed up with the way our lives are being packaged and sold, playing their own music, bringing their own drink, shagging the way they want, making and putting up their own decorations, and everyone clears up at the end of the night, making sure to use the correct recycling boxes. The community hall is free, and people help out for the love of it. And it’s the nicest place I’ve ever been. And I strongly believe that micro-communities of this sort are the way forward as far as politics are concerned.

Thanks for the compliment on the photo. I had to google Ant and Dec, too - funny! We all have our cheesy celebrity pictures. We need to own the cheese!

That was a really interesting and thoughtful post. It’s really difficult to reconcile one’s own politics with whatever has a cat’s chance in hell of passing at a national level. I know that my own politics are really important to me, that the current system of government is totally unsatisfactory and that ideally we’d tear it down and put a non-hierarchical, cooperative, non-racist, non-sexist, non-heteronormative way of doing things in place instead - however, in the meantime, before I take over the world and actually work out a way that it could happen (no really, honestly, it could), I write to my MP and vote in local and national elections, and protest, and get mad at stuff I can conceivably have an effect on. Like, not letting the best be the enemy of the good/ok-for-now (can’t remember where I heard that, but it kind of sort of works. Until the revolution, obv).

Sometimes I feel a bit rubbishy about begging my Conservative MP to recognise abortion rights (whaddya know - he did), but then I remember how much more rubbishy it would be to totally exclude myself from what the world deems an acceptable way of participating in democracy and the public sphere, in the name of purity of principles. And besides, women goddamn died for my vote. I’m not letting it go that easy.

Go you. And hey, that photo is cute. Mebbe cuter without the old dude on your shoulder, but hey, I once got a photo with Ant and Dec, so no judgment from me if none from you =0)