Uni\u00f3n del Barrio recognizes that the struggle for LGBTQ+ comradeship will no longer be postponed, nor will Uni\u00f3n del Barrio membership be subject to the hatred, patriarchy, and colonial religiosity of the imperial bourgeois state, nor is it defined by our most backward community members. This statement is rooted in the idea that anyone who struggles as a comrade, is a comrade, irrespective of sexual and gender identity.<\/p>\n
Homophobia and transphobia are parasitic dogmas that harm our communities and divide our people. We must combat these dogmas through organized struggle and the rejection of all manifestations of oppression within our homes, our communities, and our organization. As Unionistas we constantly fight for the liberation of our people, but we must not idealize our people. We understand that within our communities we have to continually struggle against deep-rooted backward traditions that are kept alive by hatred, self-hatred, and patriarchy. We see that issues of sexual and gender diversity are often repressed within our own communities because we are still slaves to bourgeois counter-revolutionary self-hate, and colonial religiosity. Uni\u00f3n del Barrio must struggle to lend clarity on this question so that LGBTQ+ comrades can join our ranks and help advance the revolutionary process that we have set for ourselves.<\/p>\n
Unionistas must not fall into the trap of thinking that LGBTQ+ \u201cliberation\u201d is the same thing as LGBTQ+ \u201crights\u201d being granted by the imperialist bourgeois state. We see this as another fundamental contradiction, and we want no part of it. It must be made clear that as members of Uni\u00f3n del Barrio we are not a part of the imperialist bourgeois state, and therefore we are not in the business of denying rights to anyone. We also emphatically reject the idea that just belonging to the LGBTQ+ community automatically makes a person progressive. We believe that LGBTQ+ \u201crights\u201d granted within a context of capitalist\/ imperialist violence are primarily reformist diversions to draw people away from the multiple massive and increasingly complex problems we all have to contend with here and around the world.<\/p>\n
Uni\u00f3n del Barrio does not seek to reproduce forms of LGBTQ+ reforms that are nourished by and are subject to white nationalism, neoliberal consumer culture, and US imperialism. We must reconsider LGBTQ+ struggle through our own Unionista worldview \u2013 as part of the fundamental revolutionary change we seek to establish within our communities. This transformation of our communities presumes a transformation that begins within Uni\u00f3n del Barrio, and it is guided by our daily collective struggle that is accountable to the interests of our people. We thereby commit ourselves to the idea that LGBTQ+ liberation is part of a broader liberation struggle, and can only be achieved through collective work based on solidarity, working class community support, and Raza Internationalism. We believe that a liberated identity must also be a liberating identity – that is an identity grounded in organized community struggle and collective accountability.<\/p>\n