Months ago the plaza was literally overflowing with hundreds of stories, posters and voices from the 99% as virtual strangers flocked to Kiener Plaza in solidarity with the growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The occupation of St. Louis began with a small protest on October 1st at the Federal Reserve and at its height became a full encampment in Kiener Plaza (renamed Freedom Square by the occupiers) with 50 plus tents and hundreds of full and part time occupiers holding ground until Mayor Slay ordered their eviction on November 11th.
On this morning, the space is empty and cold. The queer sign is still taped to the pillar and another look brings into focus more words: you make money by busing tables, making coffee or serving food. You can submit to horrors of the American Mall and sell over-priced lotions and clothes made in India…you can sell pot and adderall in gentrified neighborhoods to hipsters with trust funds or you can sell your body to married men down on Broadway or on the East Side across the Mississippi. You can move back home with your parents who want you to stop this faggot shit and take on God and get a good job and a wife…
Vocalizing any queer experience remains a form of social protest in defiance of the daily narratives of normality in our society that continue to revolve around heterosexuality. Queer liberation aims to destroy the social constructs of heteronormativity by revealing sexual and gendered realities. Our queer protests have fought religious bigotry, cultural ignorance and state discrimination but few have seriously attempted to incorporate the realities of poverty and economic inequality into our dialogues. The queer lower-middle class does exist and so does queer poverty.
A few homeless men sit quietly on the amphitheater steps and plaza benches staring at the trash strewn, barren Salvation Army Christmas tree still standing in the January dawn. Good Morning, America.
The Occupy Movement is a part of a growing number of global protests happening right now against global capitalism and what one could call state-sanctioned, political corruption. It began on Wall Street in New York City where protesters began organizing an urban tent city within the nation’s most powerful financial district. Solidarity Occupies began to appear in cities around the country and the world that all began demanding a change in the inequality of wealth and corporate influence on governments.
“The question is: Does the whole system need to be dismantled and reestablished or do changes just need to be made?,” Elise Taggart asks the tiny group of queer occupiers.
William Smith sits to her right leaning his back on a plaza column.
“I don’t like making these distinctions because they’re not accurate,” he says. “This idea that there is a difference between revolution and reform is a fallacy. The only way to change anything is through making change. Reform is revolution and revolution is reform. They’re one in the same.”
“It does take reform but on some level for me it takes a revolution,” Elise says. “It will take a revolution for things to really change and it can be little steps along the way like what we’ve been doing for decades. People tend to forget this but women got the vote in 1920, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 and men could still legally rape their wives up until 1994. These were recent acts so it takes more than just changing a law. The belief systems and structures that enforce these laws have to change also.”
Skateboarders roll back and forth across red bricks as their wheels echo across the plaza. Emily Kothe is also sitting among the queer focus group with her black rimmed glasses and thick red curls.
“The energy here was tangible,” she says scanning the plaza. “Everyone felt inspired and motivated and passionate. It was unbelievable.”
Kothe says she has been a part of the St. Louis Occupy since the first protest at the Federal Reserve and that although there is a queer presence here it hasn’t exactly coalesced entirely with Occupy narratives.
“I don’t feel there has ever been a silencing of queer narratives here but there hasn’t been an astringent connection either. The Occupy Movement is trying to make a space for a new kind of dialogue and a different kind of political process. The queer community does the same thing but for different reasons. There are intersections between both movements and if those conversations took place it would be easier for Occupy to branch out into the LGBTQ community. We can say look at what Occupy is doing and look at what we are doing in terms of our political quest for full equality and draw from both stories.”
Will and Elise agree that the LGBTQ visibility here can be hard to recognize.
“During the Occupy it was hard for me to see that there was a queer contingent,” Elise admits. “I couldn’t find the queer folk.” Will adds that he also feels that the LGBTQ influence here hasn’t been as powerful or large as it could be. He starts to talk about the realities of class segregation within the LGBTQ community.
It’s true that the mainstream, marketed faces of the LGBT community tend to blurred and whitewashed and present a small fraction of the LGBT community: Gay and lesbian, white men and women holding hands, exchanging wedding bands, sailing to island vacations and signing mortgage papers. These faces do exist but they don’t accurately describe the everyday experiences of the queer working class.
Class segregation has been a dirty secret within the LGBTQ community for years and there are many members of our community who are actively a part of corporate structures and social institutions like consumerism and the liberal political establishment that many within the Occupy movements are questioning.
“We still don’t have anti-discrimination laws across the board and we don’t have equal opportunities for our LGBT community to even get certain jobs or live in communities they chose.”
Emily adds, “Occupy’s job is to reach out to people who are marginalized. Especially those in the queer community.” She’s says she’s talked to gay friends who are hesitant to join Occupy because they feel oppressed enough as it is through homophobia. “They think, ‘Why should I invest more of my energy into another movement?’ But I say, look at how the financial system and the corporate system influences your marginalization on a daily basis and how it’s based on your very own identity.”
The Occupy movement in St. Louis is grounded on the principles of collective communication and dialogue and thanks to the queer occupiers the movement can only be strengthened with the inclusion of LGBTQ voices.
Elise nods her head. “It comes down to the question of how are we being divided by class and how can we as queers make a change and represent.”
BY: JOSHUA BARTON – STAFF WRITER
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