Bash Back!

Bash Back! was a network of queer, insurrectionary anarchist cells active in the United States between 2007 and 2011.[1]

Bash Back marches in Minneapolis, 2009

Formed in Chicago in 2007 to facilitate a convergence of radical trans and gay activists from around the country, Bash Back! sought to critique the ideology of the mainstream LGBT movement, which the group saw as assimilation into the dominant institutions of a heteronormative society. Bash Back! was noticeably influenced by the anarchist movement and radical queer groups, such as ACT UP, and took inspiration from the Stonewall and San Francisco's White Night riots.

The group arose out of anti–Republican National Convention and anti–Democratic National Convention organizing, and continued up to 2011. Chapters sprang up across the country, including in Philadelphia and Seattle. The organization’s model was a nonhierarchical autonomous network based on agreed-upon points of unity, such as fighting for "queer liberation" rather than "heteronormative assimilation", and accepting a diversity of tactics, "including an individual’s autonomy to participate in actions deemed illegal by the government".[2]

July 2008 Chicago Pride events

Bash Back! Chicago carried out a number of actions during their city's Pride Weekend in 2008. The first was participation in the annual Chicago Dyke March in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Bash Back!'s contingent in the march focused on resistance to gentrification in the Pilsen community.[3]

In addition, members of Bash Back! also took part in Chicago's larger Chicago Pride Parade. Bash Back! Chicago wheeled a cage through the parade containing a member dressed as Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley, whom the group charged was responsible for cutting AIDS funding, turning a blind eye to police torture and brutality, and supporting gentrification. Simultaneously, members of the group also distributed barf bags with slogans written on them such as "Corporate Pride Makes Me Sick," a statement about the commercial and assimilative intentions of mainstream gay culture.[4]

November 2008 attack on Mt. Hope Church in Lansing, MI

On November 9, 2008, a contingent from Bash Back!'s Lansing, MI chapter picketed outside Mount Hope Church, because the church promoted anti-gay beliefs. Meanwhile, several Bash Back! members entered the building disguised in plain-clothes and interrupted a worship service. During the late morning service the group dropped a rainbow banner bearing the slogan "It's Okay to Be Gay! Bash Back!" from the sanctuary balcony and showered a thousand fliers exhorting teenagers in the congregation to "embrace and explore" their feelings, and assuring them there are many organizations supportive of gays that "enable you to be who you truly are."[5][6][7]

According to Bash Back! News, Mount Hope Church was targeted for its fundamentalist belief that homosexuality is a sin, for its production of "hell houses" that demonize gays, and for its hosting of conferences of "ex-gays."[6][7][8]

In May 2009, Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal lawsuit against Bash Back! on behalf of the church, under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.[9][10] Those sued refused to name others who participated in the protest, so Mount Hope Church issued a subpoena to Riseup Networks in an attempt to obtain the names of email account holders who the church believed either participated in the action or knew who did. As part of a settlement, the activists agreed to a permanent injunction preventing them from disrupting any religious services in the U.S. They also agreed to pay the church $2,750 in damages. The district court entered a default judgment against Bash Back! and Bash Back! Lansing, and closed the case.[11]

See also

References
  1. Loadenthal, Michael (2018). The Politics of Attack: Communiqués and Insurrectionary Violence. Manchester University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-5261-2813-3.
  2. Fassler, Ella (2019-06-20). "This Pride, Everybody Loves Stonewall. But Can We Stomach the Queer Insurrections of Today?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
  3. Nair, Yasmin. "Dyke March: Different neighborhood, same message". Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  4. Nair, Yasmin. "Bash Back! makes point at parade". Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  5. http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081112/NEWS01/811120369
  7. Harris, Nathan. (November 19, 2008). "One Week Later". City Pulse, p. 6
  8. "Infoshop.org". news.infoshop.org. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  9. http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090515/NEWS01/905150322/1002/NEWS01
  10. Bash Back retains lawyer in protest suit
  11. Tim Phillips, "Homophobic Church Persuades Appellate Court to Overrule Protest-Related Sanctions Award", Activist Defense, November 27, 2012.

Further reading
  • Balaskovitz, Andy (July 20, 2011). "Bash Back! resolved". Lansing City Pulse. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  • Baroque, Fray; Eanelli, Tegan, eds. (2011). Queer Ultraviolence: BASH BACK! Anthology. Ardent Press. ISBN 978-1-62049-042-6.
  • Loadenthal, Michael (2013). "Queering (Animal) Liberation and (Queers) Victimhood: The Reappropriation of Intersectionality and Violence". In Melendez Badillo, Jorell A.; Jun, Nathan J. (eds.). Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-4768-1.
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