Bash Back! News

In the last issue of the icky hipster rag, “Vice Magazine,” Queer film director and legend Bruce La Bruce wrote an editorial calling out “Uncle Tom Fags” “Straights” and Gay twentysomething hipsters that read Vice. Considering the recent drama between queer anarchists, non queer anarchists, and those negating their identity; we thought this article was fitting to post. It should be noted that much of this article is based in humor. We hope that you will be smart enough to separate the camp from reality.  May this bring more to our discussion.

Film still from LaBruce’s movie Skin Flick. Courtesy peres projects, Los Angeles.

I Hate Straights – Bash Back, Fags.

Forget about fag bashing. It’s time for a little equal opportunity straight bashing. When I was a sissy homo punk in the 80s, big macho het boys with foot-tall Mohawks and Crass jackets, conveniently setting their radical, anarcho-leftist leanings aside for a moment, would punch me in the nose for showing queer super-8 movies in punk venues. Their avowed neo-Nazi skinhead enemies at the same show, now united in homo hatred, would run over and spit on me in solidarity. My punk dyke friends would form a human shield, but the damage was already done. From that point on, I would dedicate much of my work to pushing overt homosexuality into the faces of heterosexuals, both virulent homophobes and liberal bleeding hearts alike.

It’s the femmie homosexual people can’t stand the most, especially if he’s sexually aggressive and unapologetic about it, so that’s the image we set out to promote. We used to refer to heterosexuals as breeders back then. Child-hating W. C. Fields was our idol, and we loved Roman Polanski in The Tenant—you know, the part where, dressed in drag, he walks over to a little boy in a park and slaps him across the face for no reason. Why do people who breed think they’re so special, we puzzled, bringing a kid into this overpopulated, war-ravaged world, desperately trying to grasp onto some pathetic shard of immortality? In the sage words of Kim and Kelley Deal (of the Breeders, no less), “If you’re so special, why aren’t you dead?”

At my university there was a group called the League Against Homosexuals. Their motto, spread on leaflets across campus, was “Queers don’t produce, they seduce.” I adopted their credo as my own in the most public way possible. But today, twentysomething homosexuals, especially the ones who read Vice, think it’s cool to be discreet about their faggotry, to act as if it doesn’t have any effect on the rest of their lives or anyone else’s. We used to call that “the closet.”

So, queer bashing is still necessary. (Somebody should take the “Fag Five” of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy out into a back alley and hospitalize them for promoting the image of gays as materialistic breeder-lovers.) But how about a little straight bashing, too? I think everyone needs a good beating. Uncle Tom fags need it. Straight-acting fags and straights alike need it. Bash them all. Anyone who is complicit in the user-friendly fag trend should have their knees broken. The only people I don’t feel like bashing lately are mincing queens and actual fag bashers.

The next time you see a hetero couple holding hands, run over and yell “Herpes-carrying breeder” at them and punch them in the nose. You’ll feel better for it. Join the homosexual intifada.

BRUCE LaBRUCE
Go to brucelabruce.com and buy a T-shirt or something, OK?

Dear Diary,

My, how this month has flown by! I have been so busy bringing the queer insurrection; I’ve hardly had time to write everything down. Where to begin…

When the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held its annual Gala Dinner and Silent Auction Saturday, Sept, 12th, autonomous queerz Bash Back: Twin Cities, The Revolting Queers, and the Twin Cities Avengers were there to welcome them even though we had not been invited and had no intention of paying the $200 entrance fee.

This year’s Gala was themed “Speak the Truth”, a truth which congratulated rich gay celebrities and gave them expensive “visibility” awards, while Duanna Johnson, Leeneshia Edwards, Tiffany Berry, & the thousands of other murdered transwomen didn’t even receive an honorable mention…

It was clear from the bourgeois atmosphere, and the serious lack of dancing that this Gala was meant to be some sort of overpriced support group for whiney elite gays and lesbians, to express their dreams of a bigger prison industrial complex (hate crime legislation), heteronormativity (gay marriage), and more state militarism (don’t ask, don’t tell).

But Bash Back! Twin Cities, was fed up with the ridiculous state-lovin’ of the HRC lobby and its distance from our own lived realities, so we decided to do what all rich queerz do in a time of crisis; we got gay married! The Gala had been billed as a “festive, all styles welcome event” so we dressed in our hottest wedding attire and stormed into the dinner.

Despite heckling from HRC security, we stood our ground and held a brief marriage ceremony and handed out leaflets inside. Before the HRC corporate hacks could push us out the door we were able to read the following vows:

“Do you, Bash Back! Twin Cities, take one another to be insurrectionary radical queerz, to resist and to liberate ourselves from all systems of domination, for glitter and for cupcakes, for unicorns and for rainbows, in genderless bathrooms and in the streets, in love and in rage, from this dance party forward?”

“We do!” We held our wedding reception dance party outside and consumed our marital cupcakes to the beats of Janet Jackson, Cher and Lady Gaga. We look forward to the HRC inviting us to its annual Gala next year for our one year anniversary.

On October 11th we glamdalized a bridge the night before it was used for a local “equality” rally in conjunction with the National March for Equality in DC. The bridge was beautified with phrases such as “Liberation Not State Sanction – No To Heteronormative Assimilation”. During the rally, we attached a banner to the bridge that read simply “Liberation not Assimilation!” This action was not only meant to disrupt the complacent rally for (rich, white, homonormative) gay and lesbian “rights” but to also coincide with National Coming Out Day.

Bash Back! Twin Cities resists National Coming Out Day because it is reformist and forces the production of gender-deviant subjects into rigid identity categories that do not disrupt the regime of white heteronormativity. BB! Twin Cities asks the questions “Who gets to ‘come out’ and “why are there so few identity choices when you do”? BB! Twin Cities rejects the idea that your sexual practices equals your sexual identity and asserts that any group that thinks this is true needs to check its cultural privilege. We disagree with mainstream LGBT movements in general because they reinstate systems of domination through their state-sponsored tactics and politics and frankly their inefficiency to yield material change is simultaneously enraging and a snooze cruise.

On Saturday October 17th, Bash Back! Twin Cities organized a radical queer bloc to confront a racist neo-Nazi rally in Austin, a small town in Southeastern Minnesota. Aside from making the counter-demonstration more fierce and fabulous, the National Socialist Movement Twin Cities Unit Leader Corporal Erik Flann was successfully glamified with a green glitter bomb on their disgusting Nazi uniform.

While one of the Nazis hit a demonstrator’s hand and broke their camera and another showed up to the rally with a stun gun, baton, and body armor – not surprisingly – the police were only interested in going after counter-demonstrators while protecting the Nazi scum.

The police indiscriminately pepper-sprayed the crowd a few times and made three arrests. The first person arrested was an Austin local who tripped over the Nazi’s loud-speaker while the crowd was trying to move forward. The second, was a Bash Back! member who police allege threw a glitter bomb at Eric. The third, was a Bash Back! member, and was arrested for simply telling police that he was not a “ma’am”, that he was a transboy, when an officer asked him to “Get back ma’am”.

The two Bash Back! members arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, and obstruction of legal process. We need your help to raise money to cover their legal expenses. Please check out the support website we set up at: http://bashbacklegal.weebly.com/.

Love and Rage,
Bash Back! Twin Cities

PS:

(Our new base of operations, the Tranny Shop in Austin, MN.)

On September 24^th some of the most militant politicized street protests the States have seen in nearly a decade countered the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Anarchist Queers and Trannies were on the frontlines of this struggle; bringing the numbers, the flare, and the wrecking crews. Radical Queers fought police and did everything they could, with what they had, not to back down. A days worth of tear gas, rubber bullet attacks, and fending off straight-idiot-liberals, set the tone for what would be a night of ravenous Queer revenge.  A single march of 200+ Queers, Trannies, Womyn, POC, and some allies bashed the fuck back; causing the most property destruction contained to a single neighborhood in Pittsburgh during the protests. So other Anarchists, why the fuck are you ignoring us?

What Happened in Oakland on Thursday Night?

A week prior to the G20 protests Bash Back! Pittsburgh, a radical Trans and Queer Liberation group, called for a Queer Cabaret to be followed by a march through Oakland. Oakland has long been a neighborhood unfriendly to anyone not fitting into the straight-white-male category. By 10pm on the 24th nearly 200 people gathered outside of the Queer Cabaret. The mood was set. There were no illusions. Everyone knew what was about to happen. It seemed that people were unified in their goal to terrorize straighty. Windows were smashed, dumpsters flipped and ignited, a frat boy homophobe and his friends were dealt with properly, and the vast majority of participants left feeling empowered and energized.

However, despite the fact that this march was called for by a local radical queer/trans group, took place immediately following a Queer Cabaret, was executed largely by radical Trans/Queer people and was lead by a banner reading, “Bash Back!” ;  most of the reportbacks describing the march include NONE of these important details. In all fairness Crimethinc did state that the march had been, “Bash Back!” themed. Whatever that means. In the documentary, “Democracy 101: Pittsburgh G20 Protests and the Police Occupation of Pitt University,” produced by Pittsburgh Indymedia, Chicago Indymedia, Twin Cities Indymedia, and the Glassbead Collective footage of the Radical Queer black bloc was preceded by the sentence, “The protestors dispersed in the late afternoon, but they reconvened later in the evening.” This makes it seem as if the Radical Queer black bloc later in the night was merely an extension of the People’s Uprising March that took place across town earlier in the day. It was not.  We found it even more frustrating that not even a brief mention of the radical Queer/Trans organization that went into the march was included in the documentary. A person from Pittsburgh even went as far as to say that the march was not queer. Does this mean that in order for militant actions to be recognized by the broader Anarchist community as Queer all of the participants have to be laced in sequins and throwing glitter?

This is not an isolated incident!

Radical Queers made up a large number of people putting hours of work into creating a militant showdown at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. People with Bash Back! held multiple consultas in the Midwest and on the East Coast to carve out a radical Queer space in countering the Convention. Bash Back! sent queers to Minneapolis well over a month before the Convention to help with the organizing effort. However, in spokescouncils and personal conversations the Bash Back! action was more often than not labeled as one of the “fluffy” actions, while actions with similar tones were never labeled soft or fluffy.  “ Terrorizing Dissent,” a documentary created by Twin Cities Indymedia about the RNC completely ignored the Bash Back! action, which was the first publicly announced blockade in the lead up to the RNC. Footage of the radical Queer blockade never made the final cut. In fact, the action was not discussed or even referenced. However,  footage of the Funk the War bloc, a roving dance party called for by Students for a Democratic Society was featured in a nauseatingly long segment. Let us remind you that Radical Queers put over a year into organizing our event and Bash Back! is the ONLY national network that has maintained itself since the failure of the RNC protests.

Another incident that comes to mind is a recent incident involving the arrest of Ariel Attack. Ariel is a Trans/Queer person who has been involved in radical organizing for sometime. Earlier in the year Ariel was picked up by Denver Police and accused of smashing 11 windows out of the Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters. Rather than write their own article, AnarchistNews.org reposted an article from an extremely right-wing blog riddled with anti-Trans rhetoric. Although there were literally thousands of other news articles about the sabotage Anarchist News chose to run the disgustingly anti-Trans right wing one. Even after being asked and eventually threatened the mysterious people behind AnarchistNews.org refused to replace the article with a better one. They cited Freedom of Speech in defense of their actions. To this all we can say is…Really? Other non-trans radicals went on to question the timing and message of the action. Would anyone of you Cisgendered white dudes be questioning the timing and message of the action if the person arrested for allegedly smashing the windows was a white male Earth First!er ? Our conclusion is: probably not.

So What the Fuck?

First we were Maoists. Then we were fluffy. Then we were not living up to our militant rhetoric. Now, at best you are ignoring our actions and the massive risks we are taking to carry them out. At worst you are  co-opting what we do and rewriting history to claim our struggles as your own.

Are you neglecting to mention what we have done so you can maintain that our actions are Manarchist? It is clearly absurd to call militancy carried out by Womyn, Transfolk, People of Color, and Queers “Manarchist.” Instead, you will just pretend that these actions were taken by straight white dudes.

-OR-

Are you refusing to give Radical Queers credit because you couldn’t give a fuck? Maybe you just don’t care that radical Trans people and Queers are finally, after more than a decade on hiatus, building a culture centered around fighting back.

–OR-

Are you living in a delusion? You are so far from reality that you still hold on to the idea that Queers, Trannies, POC and Womyn are at too high of risk to ever be taking these actions. So you pretend that you, the white-straight person, did the legwork and threw down.

–AND/OR-

You feel, as our self-appointed protector, you must act as if Trannies/Queers haven’t taken these actions in an effort to avoid the state coming down on us.

-OR-

Are you not mentioning our actions because you feel ignorant as fuck when,  the actual radicals and actual queers, prove you wrong time and time again? You might feel a bit put off that we are doing more to resist than you ever have and our actions are insanely more effective, fabulous, and daring than yall’s could ever be.

-OR-

When it comes down to it , do you think that we are just a bunch of fags too concerned with identity politics to ever contribute to a broad social upheaval? Even though, as pointed out before, in the last two years Radical Queers have taken the lead in the push for a more direct action oriented resistance.

In Conclusion

It really is a shame that  a band of radical Queers, involved with a variety of Anarchist organizing projects for many years, has had to use a public forum to call you all out.  But nevertheless we feel we have to. It has become apparent to us that while many of you are our friends you still hold yourself on a higher pedestal because you are straight and we are not. You have mocked us, written us off and criticized us, when frankly you are in no place to do so. We are not trying to create divisions on tactical grounds, excluding our struggle to root out Anarcho- Liberals. Instead we are calling you out on your shit so we can all continue on this path toward insurrection and most importantly liberation. To those of you who will ignore these concerns we impolitely order you to stop breeding like goddamn rabbits and find the nearest cliff to jump from.

APOC MKE SUMMIT 11/14 – 11/15 2009

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In September 2009, Madison APOC made its grand entrance into the world with an action against David Carter, a self-proclaimed historian who denies any significant participation of trans folk and people of color in Stonewall. He also frames the queer liberation movement in the U.S. as a gay white man’s movement, not to mention he shit-talks Sylvia and Marsha to no end… (feel free to Google his name and read the transcripts of his speeches.) The University of Wisconsin-Madison had invited Carter to speak on campus, and as the room started to fill with white intellectuals and college students, madAPOC got into position and…

“Trans, women, POC– you can’t write us out of history!”

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

Copies of a communique were thrown into the air and scattered across the lecture room. It read:

We are a group of autonomous individuals collectively known as APOC (Anarchist / Autonomous / Anti-Authoritarian People of Color). We are not affiliated with any other local groups or organizations. We strive to smash every form of oppression, including white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, heterosexism, speciesism, transphobia, queerphobia, environmental racism, ageism, classism and authoritarianism. This is our response to this fake historian’s “interpretation” of history.

The Stonewall uprising was a series of actions by queer and transfolk, both whites and people of color. The queer and trans population of Greenwich Village acted boldly to defend themselves against police brutality in their own neighborhood.

We are disgusted by David Carter’s blatant racism and transphobia. Transfolk, women, and people of color have been crucial to not only the Stonewall uprising, but also to the bigger struggle for queer and trans liberation. With his interpretation, Carter has attempted to write us out of our own history. If he takes it upon himself to talk about a movement, he should be held accountable for getting that shit right. Queer insurrection is not only for white males, and we are here to make sure he doesn’t forget it.

David Carter, we hope you get what you deserve.

Love, APOC

Smack em all, let’s spread the Madness. WE’LL SEE YOU IN MILWAUKEE!

We are currently collecting money to cover court fees and bail money for
the two Bash Back! folks who were arrested for confronting Nazis in
Austin, Minnesota.

The duo are facing relatively minor charges, and with the help of the
radical queer community, we know we can raise the expected $800 in court
costs for them.

If they win or if they have any leftover funds the money will be split
equally between the Ariel Attack (Denver) & You Are Jessie Doe (Lansing)
defense fund.

To donate please visit;

http://bashbacklegal.weebly.com/

Repost from Twin Cities Indymedia
http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/oct/white-supremacists-versus-community-austin-and-twin-cities-activists-confront-nsm

Austin, Minnesota–Twin Cities and Austin anti-racists joined forces Saturday afternoon in this southern Minnesota town of 25,000 to confront the same four neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement members who tried to protest a Minneapolis “Confronting White Supremacy” workshop last month. The crowd of about 50 at the Mower County Veteran’s Memorial – on the lawn of the local law enforcement center – boisterously drowned out the Nazis with their chants, and a few rotten vegetables and glitter bombs were hurled in their direction. Several Austin veterans passing by the demonstration heckled the Nazis with cries of “bald-headed assholes.”

Soon, however – seemingly without direct provocation – Austin city police and Mower County Sheriff’s deputies sprayed mace and charged the crowd, arresting three of the anti-racists protesters. Moments earlier, the police had done nothing when one of the Nazis broke a demonstrator’s phone by swatting it to the ground.

About half an hour later, police suggested to the Nazis that they leave, then escorted them inside the law enforcement center, presumably to be accompanied to their car at a later time. All three of the arrestees – two from the Bash Back! Twin Cities and one from Austin – were quickly released; at least two were charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of property, both misdemeanors.

Despite their claims of neutrality, police officers’ actions led many to the conclusion they sided with the neo-Nazis. Also stirring controversy was the presence of the Minnesota Peace Team, an organization which sends members to act as self-proclaimed peacekeepers but which some demonstrators felt escalated the conflict.

check out the newest bash back! chapter in guelph, ontario!

http://www.myspace.com/503383387

Submitted to Bash Back! News:

Listen up bitches!

The 77th Precinct is fucked up, and here’s why:

-officers of the 77th are responsible for consistent harassment of transpeople, sex workers and queers

-the assault of two lesbians outside of the Ife Lounge on May 16th

-like all police officers, they colonize poor neighborhoods and threaten the safety of everyone

We act in solidarity with Duanna Johnson, the patrons of Fort Worth’s Rainbow Lounge, Ariel Attack, Bash Back! Lansing, New Jersey 4 and countless other fabulous queers and trannies bound by the prison-industrial complex—with no safe words. We want not just accountability for these specific cops but the complete abolition of police and prisons.

In a fabulous act of resistance and exterior design, we have beautified the squad and personal cars of the 77th Precinct with a simple, yet classy, application of spray paint, stencils and glitter everywhere. (We’re still queefing glitter.) Fine images of cops on fire and such fierce phrases like: “This is what happens to transphobic cops,” “A change I can believe in” and “A very simple solution…” are proudly displayed on the windows and doors of New York’s Finest.

Just as a reminder to them and all of us: these pigs are vulnerable, and they’re only as powerful as we let them be. They can and will be challenged and held accountable.

That’s some real shit.
Yours queerly,

Farosha Shakure

Press Secretary of Homoexplosion, Aries, and licensed switch blade carrier.

Homoexplosion is a radical queer/trans group of fly fatherfuckers. We advocate people fucking in the street and burning shit—especially cops.

Communique from the Forgotton:

Human Rights Campaign HQ Glamdalized By Queers Against Assimilation

HRC headquarters was rocked by an act of glamdalism last night by a crew of radical queer and allied folks armed with pink and black paint and glitter grenades. Beside the front entrance and the inscribed mission statement now reads a tag, “Quit leaving queers behind.”

The HRC is not a democratic or inclusive institution, especially for the people who they claim to represent. Just like society today, the HRC is run by a few wealthy elites who are in bed with corporate sponsors who proliferate militarism, heteronormativity, and capitalist exploitation. The sweatshops (Nike), war crimes (Lockheed Martin), assaults on working class people (Bank of America, Deloitte, Chase Bank, Citi Group, Wachovia Bank) and patriarchy (American Apparel) caused by their sponsors is a hypocrisy for an organization with “human rights” in their name.

The queer liberation movement has been misrepresented and co-opted by the HRC. The HRC marginalizes us into a limited struggle for aspiring homosexual elites to regain the privilege that they’ve lost and climb the social ladder towards becoming bourgeoisie.

Last night, Obama spoke at the HRC fundraising gala and currently the HRC website declares, “President Obama underlines his unwavering support for LGBT Americans.” The vast amount of organizing resources the HRC wastes on their false alliance with the Democratic party leaves radical queers on the margins to fend for themselves. Our struggle has always had to resist the repression of conservative tendencies in government and society to gain liberation in our lives.

The gourmet affair was sponsored by 48 corporations including giants Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Wachovia Bank. At $250 dollars a plate the HRC served our movement a rich, white, heternormative atmosphere that purposefully excludes working class queer folks.

REMEMBER THE STONEWALL RIOTS! On the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, pigs raided a queer bar in Texas, arrested and beat our friends, and we looked towards politicians and lawyers to protect us. This mentality is what keeps the money flowing to the HRC and their pet Democrats, and keeps our fists in our pockets.

Most of all we disagree that collective liberation will be granted by the state or its institutions like prisons, marriage, and the military. We need to escalate our struggle, or it will collapse.

~~Love and Solidarity~~