Liberationist and Assimilationist Approaches to Politics (Essay Sample)

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Sexual Politics
In American politics, there have been two opposing political perspectives in terms of advocacy. There are various more moderate opinions that are categorized according to Gay Assimilationists and Queer Liberationists camps. The Gay Assimilationists is an ideology that makes lesbian or gay people appear like normal and average citizens always before the general public (Stryker 26). The proponents of this ideology want to assert that even gay families should be given equal recognition and rights and they should have what is needed by every human being. Some Gay Assimilationists do not comprise of Transgender or Bisexuals people since they feel that these groups do not match with the movements advocating for gay rights.
The queer liberationist group is the second group and it is a camp of political ideology that views sexuality and gender in non-conformist ways. They normally do not care about the differences in queer people and therefore they don’t struggle to fit in to other people’s groups (Stryker 82). They believe that they are queer and they can never change and it would be better for the other people to get used to their differences, and that the society has to change and learn to accept them instead of making them change to fit in the normative society.
Just like all social movements, the movements advocating for both gay and lesbian rights have been divided regarding the approaches to cultural, social, and political change. In one key approach, the assimilationists normally embrace a perspective that is based on rights and they operate within the broader network of pluralist, liberal democracy, since they fight to have a chance in the democracy too. Normally, the exhibit the “let us in” perspective to political activism, instead exhibiting the perspective of showing other people a new way to conceive the world, a style that is demonstrated by the gay and lesbian liberation (Stryker 151). It is more likely for assimilationists to accept that the progress is supposed to increase as time goes by, and that the small continuous change is manifested in the government’s framework (Stryker 102). The liberationist perspective is the second approach and it favors more cultural and radical change, a change that is naturally transformable that arises mostly from outside the political arena. Much of the conflicts witnessed in gay and lesbian movements regarding social and political strategy have exhibited disagreements towards liberation and assimilation.
This conflict can’t be reduced to a simple dualism. Nevertheless, the liberation and assimilation categories are impo...