Queering the State

Abstract

The time has come to think about queering the state.' Lisa Duggan The year 1994 has set a record for antigay initiatives in the United States. At latest count, there are between eighteen and twenty-seven ballot battles gearing up, surpassing the previous record of sixteen in 1993. This rising tide of hate is partly a backlash against an increasing number of gay rights initiatives. Last year sixteen state legislatures took up measures to grant civil rights protection to gay men and lesbians or to repeal antisodomy laws (most of these proposals failed). But antigay initiatives are also part of a grander scheme to organize a right-wing voting block to take on issues such as abortion rights, school curriculums, and tax policies. This fight will be a daunting challenge to the organized lesbian and gay rights movement: the combined budgets of the six largest gay organizations total only about $12 million, compared to the more than $210 million in the combined budgets of the six largest right-wing religious organizations.2 The financial clout and cultural reach of these organizations should not be underestimated. For instance, Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs and founded by Dr. James Dobson, formerly a member of the Meese Commission on Pornography, boasts a $90 million annual budget and affiliated Family Councils in thirty states. It distributes the antigay video, The Gay Agenda, publishes nine magazines, and supports sixteen hundred radio programs. The Christian Coalition of Chesapeake, Virginia, distributed 40 million voter guides in the 1992 elections in its campaign to take over state and local Republican parties. It supports the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Family Channel, and the 700 Club, which reach millions of viewers daily, as well as two newsletters, Religious Rights Watch and Christian American. The Coalition's leader, Pat Robertson, situates their agenda squarely in the middle of party politics: "We want . . . to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of profamily Christians by 1996." Finally, Citizens for Excellence in Education, an arm of the National Association of Christian Educators led by Robert Simonds and located in Costa Mesa, California, distributes the manual, "How to Elect Christians to Public Office," and claims that thirty-five hundred Christians have been elected to school boards through its efforts. It is clear that the strategies of the religious right go well beyond the simple articulation of homophobic, racist, and antifeminist sentiments. Their targets are precise and their program well formulated, as is indi-