So many times as an activist I have run into the conflict between pragmatism and idealism. One of the more useful people on the doomed Yes to Fairer Votes campaign for instance was Nigel Farage – a man whom otherwise I find thoroughly despicable. Another example is my work on QUILTBAG+ issues in the workplace. It’s easy, when confronted with a corporate environment, to tackle the “low-hanging fruit” of lesbian and gay issues first and save what a friend of mine calls “the gold-plated conversation” for a “later” that somehow never comes.
I’ve been guilty of this myself. Last year I very nearly stood up in front of an LGB conference to talk about bisexual issues and played the respectability card of “Well, I am the good monogamous kind of bisexual.” I was saved from myself at the last minute by another friend.
Read more at The F Word.