"Since gays in the military, the emergence of gay conservatives, and the onslaught of anti-gay initiatives across America, the gay and lesbian community has been asking itself tough questions: Where should the movement go? What do we want? How should we accomplish our goals? In Virtual Equality, veteran activist Urvashi Vaid answers thses questions with a unique combination of visionary politics and hard-earned pragmatism. Tracing the political and cultural developments since Stonewall, Baid shows that despite significant gains in visibility, most gays and lesbians remain demoralized and persecuted, second-class citizens in their own country. Vaid defines the status of gay America as one of "virtual equality," a state of conditional equality based more upon the appearance of acceptance by straight America, rather than on actual civil equality. Virtual equality grants gays access to power, but no real power; visibility, but no security from violence and discrimination; and tax bills, coupled with "no promo homo" bills, that outlaw any attempts to "promote homosexuality."
With passionate arguments and vivid anecdotes, Vaid reasons that the struggle between legitimation ("gays are the same as straights") and liberation ("gay difference can change the world") has roadblocked the gay community for generations, and that while AIDS galvanized the movement temporarily, he challenges the gay community to wake up and face the forces that divide it and to consider what gays and lesbians stand for, as individuals and as people.
Guided by a moral vision yet grounded by realpolitik, Virtual Equality is a call to arms for the gay and lesbian community to begin the work necessary to achieve genuine equality with the rest of America.
"In this thoughtful and noble book, one of our great leaders struggles to find answers about where we're going and how we get there. It's both a heartbreaking book a nd a hopeful one, as Vaid makes us realize the journey to gay and lesbian equality is a long and painful one and that it's a journey that must be taken by all of us. Both that journey and this book are a must." -- Larry Kramer
"Urvashi Vaid brings hard-earned wisdom to this ferociously ambitious work. Vaid doesn't preach to the choir -- or to anyone else, for that matter; she simply offers her own findings in a voice that rings with conscience and common sense. This is the best book yet about that unwieldy glacier we call The Movement." -- Armistead Maupin, author of Tales Of The City
"Integration versus transformation: this is a daily choice for every social justice movement. In Virtual Equality, Urvashi Vaid is both fair to the diversity within the gay and lesbian movement, and passionate in her advocacy of transformation. Indespensable." -- Gloria Steinam
"Vaid is a reniassance woman whose scholarship is exceeded only by her practicality. Most importantly, for where she wants to go, she is not afraid to confront the enemy from within while keeping every battle in context and focus. Hers is the stuff of realpolitik." -- Mary Matalin, Republican strategist
From the Inside Flap
cade to lift the ban on gays in the military, the emergence of gay conservatives, and the onslaught of antigay initiatives across America, the gay and lesbian community has been asking itself tough questions: Where should the movement go? What do we want? In Virtual Equality, veteran activist Urvashi Vaid tackles these questions with a unique combination of visionary politics and hard-earned pragmatism.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Back Cover
Since the decade to lift the ban on gays in the military, the emergence of gay conservatives, and the onslaught of antigay initiatives across America, the gay and lesbian community has been asking itself tough questions: Where should the movement go? What do we want? In "Virtual Equality, veteran activist Urvashi Vaid tackles these questions with a unique combination of visionary politics and hard-earned pragmatism.
About the Author
UVRVASHI VAID(1958 – 2022) was an Indian-born American LGBT rights activist, lawyer, and writer. An expert in gender and sexuality law, she held a series of roles at the National LGBTQ Task Force. She is the author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation and Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics.
