Square Peg, Round Hole.

We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal.

"The age of identity politics is dead," at least according to a cadre of activists recently gathered here in Denver. They might be right. We needed to be identity focused for a time. I went to college at a time when english teachers were still arguing over the inclusive nature of the word men. Sentences like like "all men should breastfeed their babies" brought to the light uncomfortable reality that while we wanted "mankind" to mean everyone, it left a lot of people out of the equation. So we started breaking it up, nationally and even in our subcultures!.

In the 70s it was "gay" culture. Now we have an alphabet soup (LGBTIQAGNCPP are all letters I have heard used and I bet there are more) trying to encompass the fullness of our community. The challenge is that people are not static. And as we change, grow, and discover, the movement we are trying to build must change and grow with us. Queer groups across the country are recognizing that to truly reach our people, we must engage more than just the queer identity of our community members. 

Mankind is not inclusive enough. Neither is fighting for simply "queer" rights. Many of us see our queer self as an important part of us, but it's not the whole package. The power and the challenge of queer organizing is that we span the entire spectrum. There is no factor to determine queerness, beyond who we love, so race, religion, body size, socio-economic status, national origin ... the list of communities we represent is truly staggering, including straight people, because our allies need to be counted. 

We needed to name ourselves. We needed to claim our individual identities and experiences. And I still think we do. I use queer because it's a simple word that covers the complexity of my experiences. But now that we have found a way to be individual and separate, we need to find a way to come together. Not to sanitize or overpower those identities, but to empower our movement to truly effect the changes that will guarantee equal rights, for everyone, even the identities we haven't found yet!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that we are all created equal ...