Arrogance on display in report from GAY HISTORY AT 40 conference,
Circulating on the internet and going viral is a report on the Gay History at 40 conference which I attended recently at the New School recently. A report on a particularly panel contains a section which attacks me unfairly and is not factual. For those involved in academia who may have seen or will see this report ( i will not give credence here) I am posting my response. It should also be of interest of any one interested in the current gender discussion: Note the panel it self that is referenced was quite full of interesting papers... but to single me out was reprehensible
A RESPONSE to : Rachel Hope Cleves' report on the Gay History at 40 Conference that includes an attack against me that is not based in fact. She wrote:
....."Not long after Susan Stryker, a trans woman and a founder of the field of trans studies, delivered the keynote address on Thursday morning, Jim Fouratt took the mic to attack her type of work – as he has done at past CLAGS events (recounted by Stryker in her essay “(De)Subjugated Knowledges”). Fourrat’s trolling of Stryker, however, was a sideshow to the main source of tension, directed by older lesbian-feminists against younger trans masculine people.... " Lesbian Histories and Futures: A Dispatch From “Gay American History @ 40” MAY 18, 2016 / RACHEL HOPE CLEVE
Let me explain: I did not attack Susan Stryker.
I asked a question about language use. I referenced Stryker’s keynote address
( https://youtu.be/y3nI2uKH39Y ) What I asked was about the appropriateness of layering language of today on the recounting of history. I thought at a conference of "queer" historians and academics it was an appropriate subject. I said that the gender language of today is being layered onto historical discourse, when the language being used did not exist in the historical moment under discussion. I also quoted William Burroughs saying "Language is toxic" and said it can have ever changing meaning. That context is important in communication. I was asking that historians respect the language of a period because of the historical context and shared meaning. eg I when Stryker gave a keynote centering around a band I knew personally, the New York Dolls (J. Jack Halberstam Stryker is not !) Stryker kept using “trans this and trans that” to describe gay men who were self admitted drag queens, or straight men wearing what is associated in “heteronormative” culture as female attire. V went so far as to call some of Andy Warhol 'superstars" transsexuals. As someone who was a part of the Warhol world, and actually appeared in a Warhol film and knew the “superstars" personally, I know as fact that not one of them was a transsexual.
While I was asking the question Nan Alamilla Boyd, who was chairing the panel, cut me off, and told to sit down when I brought up the name Stryker. After the session ended and after all the people who wanted to speak to her had finished, I went up to Nan Alamilla Boyd and attempted to engaged her. She refused to talk to me and turned her back on me. In her piece, Cleves accuses me of trolling. Trolling is an ugly, dismissive word, In this incident, not an accurate word choice. She chose it, I believe, to invalidate anything I had to say.
I have found many incidents where Stryker lies or mis-identifies historical events to fit v own agenda. Because I have spoken up and challenged the accuracy of her statements, I have been labeled transphobic and of attacking v. I asked my questions respectfully and expected Stryker to respond in a respectful manner. Instead I have become a public target of Stryker. She has lied about me in print. I have tried in private to bring up these contradictions with Stryker with little success. I have never personally attacked Stryker in public or private. I have been critical of her work. There is a difference. Stryker has targeted me in a number of public events and in her published writing, making up stories and/or getting v facts wrong. My experience with the public Stryker has left me feeling I have been bullied.
I am dismayed by Nan Alamilla Boyd’s behavior toward me, an older gay man who has played a historical role in making visible lesbians and gay men of all gender expressions, and who worked to create both visibility and a more safe world to come out in. By doing so, I lost most of my career, so that people like her could have the jobs they do today.
I do not expect a person to have to agree with me. I have never in any public writing attacked any person who had made an informed choice about what to do with his or her body, It is essential to my feminist understanding of politics that a respectful dialectical discussion of ideas is the proper way to engage in debate, Rachel Hope Cleves’ polemic report is just one more example of how, in my experience, many queer theory academics are dismissive of people who are actual history makers like myself. We are either erased from history, or they refuse to engage us. Neither Rachel Hope Cleves or Nan Alamilla Boyd has ever engaged with me that I am aware of . I would welcome a private or public real time conversation.. Digital discourse on issues such as this do belong in face to face discussion. This discussion in real time can be used in the digital world
Jim Fouratt
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