For three years the author did participant-observation at three
nationally prominent queer organizations in Los Angeles-Christopher
Street West, which produces L.A.'s queer pride festival; the Los
Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, a 37-year-old multi-site
organization; and Bienestar, an HIV services organization for gay
Latinos. Ward documents the evolution of these organizations,
including class and race conflicts within them, but she especially
focuses on the misuses of diversity culture.
"Respectably Queer" reveals how neoliberal ideas about
difference are becoming embedded in the daily life of a progressive
movement and producing frequent conflicts over the meaning of
"diversity." The author shows how queer activists are learning from
the corporate model to leverage their differences to compete with
other non-profit groups, enhance their public reputation or moral
standing, and establish their diversity-related expertise. Ward
argues that this instrumentalization of diversity has increased the
demand for predictable and easily measurable forms of difference, a
trend at odds with queer resistance.
Ward traces the standoff between the respectable world of
"diversity awareness" and the often vulgar, sexualized, and
historically unprofessional world of queer pride festivals. She
spotlights dissenting voices in a queer organization where
diversity has become synonymous with tedious and superficial
workplace training. And she shows how activists fight back when
prevailing diversity discourses-the ones that "diverse" people are
compelled to use in order to receive funding-simply don't fit.
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