Suzanne Pharr – USA

inked with In the Time of the Right, Reflections on Liberation, with October is Domestice Violence Awareness Month, with Southerners On New Ground S.O.N.G., with LESBIAN INFORMATION SERVICE; and with The Enemy Without and Within.

Suzanne Pharr: she sees herself as Organizer, Strategist, Educator, Author, and Political Handywoman.

She writes: … My work is focused on building a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-issued movement for social and economic justice in the United States. Major themes are intersectional issues and strategies, anti-violence, racial and gender equality, cross-generational collaboration, democratic participation, economic justice, and human rights based on equality and justice. At the center of every effort is the question, “How can we make it possible for everyone to live as a whole person, to have self-determination, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have access to material necessities as well as joy?” … (full text).

Arkansas Women’s Project Collection, M95-03: The Arkansas Women’s Project was founded in 1980, as a grass roots organization intended to promote support for women’s issues in the state of Arkansas.  Originally called The Arkansas Women’s Training Project, it was operated under the direction of Suzanne Pharr.  The funding was issued from the Methodist Board of Global Ministries and focused on issues such as; abuse, rape, non-traditional employment, minority rights, and gay and lesbian rights … (full text archives.uca.edu).

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Suzanne Pharr – USA

The video: USSF Plenary Liberating Gender and Sexuality, 5.51 min, Jul 8, 2007.

Google download books:

She writes also: It is virtually impossible to view one oppression, such as sexism or homophobia, in isolation because they are all connected: sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, anti-Semitism, ageism. They are linked by a common origin-economic power and control-and by common methods of limiting, controlling and destroying lives. There is no hierarchy of oppressions. Each is terrible and destructive. To eliminate one oppression successfully, a movement has to include work to eliminate them all or else success will always be limited and incomplete … (full long text, March 31, 2006).

Elements of Oppression.

… Pharr has spent her entire adult life working to build a broad-based social and economic justice movement, founding the Women’s Project in Arkansas in 1981, co-founding Southerners on New Ground in 1984 and serving as the director of the prestigious Highlander Research and Education Center from 1999-2004. She is also the author of two books — “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism” and “In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation” … (full text).

Find her and her publications on her website; on alibris; on amazon; on bookfinder.com; on abebooks; on UNjobs; on Google Book-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

… Now celebrating it’s 20th year in print, Pharr’s book « Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism, » was groundbreaking in its analysis of homophobia in the context of the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, racism, and equality (www.suzannepharr.org). Pharr sees her work as building a broad-based coalition so that everyone can be wholly themselves, i.e. « to have self-determination, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have access to material necessities as well as joy » … (full text, Sept. 23, 2008).

My US Social Forum, August 7th, 2007.

… I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to watch the debate at an event with friends and colleagues for Suzanne Pharr, the author of the wonderful book Homophobia is a Weapon of Sexism (which you can read online at her website!) … (full text).

a letter to Suzanne Pharr, Aug. 26, 2008.

Suzanne Pharr had me scared of what I was about to read with her foreword. I was unsure how I was possibly going to find interest and a connection with the author. How was I possibly going to connect with a cerebral palsy queer? Beginning with the metaphor of a mountain I continued through the first few pages and I instantly was able to obtain an interest much to my suprise. I was able to relate to her narrative in a personal way along with finding understanding in her message, although I’m not sure Eli Clare would agree with my opinion of Exile and Pride. I did enjoy it … (full text, September 25, 2008).

„Działać każda może”: jeszcze można się zapisać, 10 Sep 2008.

And she writes: Twenty years ago, I went to a cabin deep in the Arkansas woods, holed up with my two rat terriers for two months, and wrote the first draft of Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism. It was not a difficult writing task because for seven years I had been schooled in its politics and principles through two privileged methods:

  • 1) working with the spunky Women’s Project that took on intersectional politics and a courageous approach to community organizing in Arkansas;
  • 2) and presenting hundreds of workshops on racism and homophobia to groups around the country who shared their experiences and political analysis with me.

Now, it is 20 years later, with 40,000+ copies sold and the Women’s Project, which receives its profits, is still hanging in there as a small nonprofit in Arkansas. The book’s success can be explained only by our ongoing need and desire to understand the importance of intersectional politics, the power of oppression, and the power of groups and individuals aligning themselves across identities and issues … (full text, March 10th, 2008).

… Like what Suzanne Pharr said in her article, Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism, Hill also states that homosexuality is considered a threat to the equilibrium of patriarchy because it breaks the constructed “common” setting of what is good and what is apt. This also explains the reason for the “horse-blind” straight crowd to completely ignore the necessities of homosexuals. Since these gays and lesbians are just some small chunk of a much larger society, therefore, they must also deserve only a small chunk of respect, or more appropriately, a small chunk of everything. This group of people with such behavior (the homosexuals) is then considered a mistake—they could tarnish everything that is “right,” that even the stability of culture may also be threatened. Teachers are theoretically the second parents of a child ergo they nurture values, moral, and ethics aside from those being provided by the biological parents. Because of these alone, a teacher is already confined to a strict structure, for these three things—values, moral, and ethics—are based on the established norm that sustains patriarchy. To quote Hill, “Anything deemed as contrary to patriarchy will be suppressed to the best of the majority’s ability.” In other words, no matter how glorified the image of a teacher, instilling integrity to both young and old, he or she cannot get away from being biased to a gay and a lesbian because what’s sensible to a heterosexual is not really rational to a homosexual (unless, of course, if the teacher is gay) … (full text).

Annual U of M GLBT lecture (on oct. 2) to discuss politics of equality and division.

… People looking for instant feedback and analysis of Thursday night’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are invited to watch the debate live with political activist Suzanne Pharr as part of the Schochet Endowment for GLBT Studies and Campus Life’s 8th annual Allan Spear Lecture on Public Policy. A pre-debate discussion led by Pharr will begin at 7:30 p.m., … (full text).

links:

RCP’s Anti-Homosexual Line: Why Held So Long and Stubbornly, September 20, 2008;

All the world’s a stage … , July 7, 2008;

BATTERING – articles on the lesbian information service;

No More Secrets: VIOLENCE IN LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS, By Janice Lynn Ristock, 2002, 242 pages;

LESBIAN, GAYS AND SUICIDE, RESEARCH FINDINGS, by JAN BRIDGET, © J. Bridget/Lesbian Information Service, 2001;

Changing Women, Changing History, By Diana Lynn Pedersen, 1996, 253 pages;

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