‘Part of the parade is to show people we’re not extremists, we’re real people.’ When asked who she considered to be extremists the response came, ‘Drag queens and butch women’.

A sentiment that you would normally expect from a conservative. However, this didn’t come from the Right, but instead from a member of the queer movement. They’re words spoken by one of the organisers of the Winnipeg Pride Parade, after a debate about making the parade ‘less confronting’ and more ‘family friendly’. This may be shocking, but in reality this statement is not surprising; it’s a symptom of the direction many in the queer movement are taking. An increasingly powerful section of the queer movement argues that to achieve better results we need to present queer people as members of society who are no different from anyone else. We need to present ourselves as ’normal’.

Normalcy is being used to create a perception of a queer movement that is designed to fight for acceptance into current society, rather than to change the way society is organised. This is where this tactic has become extremely dangerous.  

The politics of ‘normal’ is so dangerous for one reason; it dramatically changes the goals of the queer movement. By adopting a tactic of presenting normalcy, the queer movement is moving away from having a position that is critical of the heterodoxy into one that not only accepts, but for many embraces it as an inevitable part of society. This is creating a scenario where instead of its deconstruction, assimilation into the heteronormative society is becoming the goal of the queer movement.

The problem? This leaves out the ‘drag queens and butch women’ — and everyone else who falls out of the mould. All this tactic does is let a few more people in the hetero-club (generally those who come closest to fitting the hetero-mould, i.e. ‘normal looking’ bio-male gay men and bio-female lesbian women) — while still leaving some (trans and gender-variant folk, polyamourists etc) out.  

This is the essential problem of normal: as long as there is normal, there will be abnormal. Whilst in this scenario some are better off, this tactic sells out not only those who will continue to be excluded, but the queer movement and its principles as a whole.

For full queer liberation to occur we can’t simply claim that the rules about gender, relationships, sex, family, etc apply to us as well; we must aim to change them. As long as we aim to be normal these changes and the deconstruction of the heteronormativity in society simply will not occur.

If we just aim to be normal we are setting our bar too low. We must aim to change our society. Assimilation is not the answer to queer liberation.