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ABSTRACT:
Lesbians and gays are on the verge of winning full citizenship in Canada and a number of Western European countries. This represents a remarkable change in the 35 years since the contemporary lesbian and gay liberation movement was launched out of the Stonewall riots. These gains are the product of a social movement with a strong history of militant mobilization. At the same time, the process of capitalist restructuring has opened some of the space for lesbian and gay existence. The penetration of the market deeper into everyday life has created spaces for commodified forms of lesbian and gay existence, oriented around bars, restaurants, commercial publications, fashions and hairstyles. Capitalism has accommodated elements of lesbian and gay existence in the face of ongoing mobilizations, opening certain spaces for lesbian and gay life while at the same time shutting down others. The era of lesbian/gay citizenship and commodification opens new possibilities for anti-capitalist queer marxist-feminist politics.
THE THIRTY YEARS SINCE THE DEVELOPMENT of the contemporary lesbian and gay movement have seen very significant gains. In many of the most developed capitalist countries, lesbians and gays are heading towards winning full civil rights, including anti-discrimination legislation, the recognition of same-sex relationships, legal marriage and an unprecedented cultural visibility. The United States is a partial exception to this trend, lagging behind Canada and much of Europe in the recognition of lesbian and gay rights.
These moves in the direction of full citizenship for lesbians and gays change the terrain of sexual politics in important ways. The experience of coming to terms with one's own lesbian or gay sexuality has been politicizing for many people over much of the period since the 1960s, as an ascending movement confronted deeply entrenched patterns of political, legal, religious and cultural oppression. This is now changing, as the emerging framework of civil rights meets the political goals of many lesbians and gay men.
We are seeing a significant depoliticization of the lesbian and gay milieu; yet we have fallen rather short of the ambitious goals of all-round sexual emancipation set out by the radical movement for lesbian and gay liberation that emerged after the Stonewall riot of 1969. This demobilization is particularly important in the light of an emerging anticapitalist movement...