As queers, we often fight for visibility because we believe that our oppression, resistance, and problems that we face every day, are invisible. By verbalizing these experiences, starting conversations, and showing all of this to the public, we can change the environment and our lives.
Poverty, on the other hand, is visible and tangible. It is everywhere - on the street, at home, in the stores, etc., Yet no one talks about it, or if it is, it is discussed in the third person again. So how do you even talk about your own poverty? Moreover, we not only don't talk about it, but we also try to cover it up with beautiful clothes, the latest model phone, a new car, or any other accessories. So, what that we do not have money from month to month, the bank relentlessly asks us to repay the debts - to which the interest rates of the size of the debt itself get added. So, what if we might find ourselves on the street tomorrow because we cannot afford the rent. Or we are left without electricity, gas, and water because we cannot pay the utilities on time. The important thing is that our neighbor, friend, a colleague does not see our poverty. Poverty is synonymous with weakness. Poverty is the other side of the coin called a success after all, which is so actively preached to be reached by capitalism. Because poverty is a failure, isn't it?
We, the queers, are fighting for justice. We fight to have the opportunity to live with the person/s we love or like. We fight to avoid being abused, harassed, and neglected by our family, friends, and society.
In this unequal struggle for justice, we can clearly see the hierarchies in society, we see it all too well, and we realize that because we are queer, we have fewer opportunities. We see how many privileges a person can have, depending on which social group they belong to or who they like. The queer struggle is for liberation and the elimination of oppression.
However, does it matter what kind of this freedom is? Is it possible to achieve justice in a system where poverty, which is so visible and tangible, is at the same time as invisible as our queerness? Is it even possible to achieve justice in a system where we, the queers, and the vast majority of the population, cover up the fact that we can barely make ends meet from month to month? Is it possible to even achieve any justice where your labor is in the direct possession of the employer and where the employer is God? Is it possible to even talk about justice when you work as a consultant, cashier, and janitor at the same time, to try to get by on 200 GEL at the end of the month? What is justice like without access to education, workplace dignity, decent health care? And do queer people even have the luxury to turn a blind eye on poverty after we get kicked out of home, school, university, or work? Close our eyes on capitalism and the inequality that puts us on an equal footing with the rest of society?
Today, May 1st - International Workers' Day. Today, people talk about the totality of injustice associated with social and economic rights, or rather their absence. Today is the day of Chiatura Manganese workers, Rustavi nitrogen workers, cashier-consultants, nurses, doctors, teachers, and other workers. However, May 1st is also a queer day because we, the queers, are fighting for justice. Because this unjust system, along with many other exclusions that come with being a queer person, also oppresses, corrupts, and abuses us — by devaluing, subordinating, and impoverishing our labour.
There are no queer rights without social and economic rights, just as there is no social and economic justice without the rights of queers, women, and other oppressed groups. Queer politics is not only about individual liberation and empowerment, but also about the struggle and caring for collective well-being. By eliminating only one form of oppression, other categories and forms of oppression won't be erased, therefore, without social and economic justice, our struggle will not be complete and will not transform the oppressive system, in which we live.
At the same time, the struggle for social and economic rights alone will not bring us complete liberation, and will not eradicate the oppression that exists based on gender and sexuality. That left-wing struggle that is blind to our rights is a precondition to creating a new unjust system. The patriarchy, which is the basis of the oppression of queer people, is a system built over the centuries that reinforces and exacerbates social inequalities by creating gender hierarchies and has made and continues to make the most significant contribution to the preservation and reproduction of capitalism.
Consequently, the queer struggle is a left-wing struggle, and it is impossible to imagine it without such concepts as solidarity and care.
Queer struggle - is a fight for justice and against all manifestations of the oppressive system. Queer struggle - is a fight for May 1 and a fight for the workers.
