The people for whom gay marriage is a relevant discourse are those who would like to stress “we are just like you”. What about those of us who are nothing like the (privileged, purporting to be universal) “You”?

What good will gay marriage do for the actual day-to-day life of single queers?

A focused goal tends to be the most effective method of building change into public policy, by way of articulating a singular problem and a singular solution to remedy the issue. As precedent, consider the Reagan AIDS protests or the rhetorical devices of ACT UP and Gran Fury of the 1980s.

The scatter-shot method, suggested by the sign pictured above, becomes diluted by its own cross references and blurry social and ethical boundaries. The HRC seems to be adopting more of a keystone method — by systematically knocking out one linchpin issue, a precedent is set for the next discursive battle.

It’s the difference between a demanding immediate action (without a plan to enact change) versus a systematic plan to shift social opinion (at the risk of elevate some rights over others). Choosing the “pop” social justice concern may not be the most prescient in a hierarchy of need, but it’s certainly effective at ensuring relevant discourse stays at the forefront of media and political conversations.

Another quote was also incorrectly attributed. The statement about how we acted “to shed light on what they say are failures by the organization ‘to adequately advocate for transgender people, queer people, non-heteronormative people, and people of color,’ and that the HRC focuses too heavily on same-sex marriage at the expense of other community issues” sounds like it’s talking about Bash Back! whereas Bash Back! did not say that. That was probably something the Avengers said, or else someone speaking in an individual capacity who should not be assumed to be speaking for the group.

Also it would have been really nice if the wedding vows had been included in the story. According to Bash Back! Twin Cities’ facebook page, they were: “We, 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.”

It would be really great if the editors either fixed the errors or put up some kind of note setting the record straight. As it is it grossly misrepresents both Bash Back! and the Avengers.