#third world liberation front
Leslie Feinberg talking about how before there was a pride flag, the Gay Liberation Front flew the North Vietnamese flag
video transcription below cut
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Leslie Feinberg stands at a podium giving a talk. Zie says:
In fact, we carried, before we had a pride flag, we carried the North Vietnamese flag as our pride flag. Now you could hear that and think “well that’s interesting”, but it wasn’t just an abstract thing.
(And by the way, I know there’s some people who have to leave at, uh, for a nursing class here; nobody’s gonna look at you funny when you go. I know people are starting to get nervous about—don’t worry, you go with our grace.)
So, the Gay Liberation Front and the Third World Liberation Front named themselves in solidarity with the North Vietnamese people at a time when that was considered treason. That’s like now, coming out and defending the resistance of the Iraqi people, the Palestinian people, the North Korean people, the Iranian people, the Cuban people. We face getting beaten up on the streets for marching with the Vietnamese flag but we knew that if we didn’t defend the Vietnamese people we were gonna weaken, first of all the people who deserved our support because we were the aircraft carrier in which the war was being launched in all our names. We would lose the solidarity with the Vietnamese people and we would lose our own political souls and movement as well if we didn’t take a position in support.
We were supporters on the front lines of the women’s liberation movement even when there were some who didn’t want us to be there—who said ooh, if you could just get out of the way, because you know, we’re strong women and they’re calling us lesbians [be]cause you’re around. We’re like, excuse me, we’re withstanding the lesbian invading—you better get used to that. As strong women you better get used to saying “and yes, many of us are!” Because otherwise, you’ll just back yourself right off a cliff. And I would ask you, do we have an equal rights amendment today? It was not a winning strategy.
We were involved in all these struggles, but not because we said it’s gonna be a tit-for-tat: “I’ll do this if you’ll do that. I’ll come to your demo Wednesday if you come to mine Thursday.” We did it because we knew it was a fight we had to join and be a part of. And it strengthened all—
The video cuts off there.
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