Trump Indicted, Israel, Georgia & the Case for a Queer Psychology
“We were silent about occupation but ended up with dictatorship,” a sign held by an Israeli protestor during the recent civil unrest and demonstrations against the right-wing government that forced prime minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu Monday night to suspend the divisive judicial overhaul that would have allowed the government to almost exclusively select judges.
The protests in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities oppose Netanyahu's plans to lessen the power of the Israeli Supreme Court in favor of elected officials. But the demonstrations that have caused a virtual civil war in Israel reflect the big problem facing the planet today: Are we drifting towards authoritarianism or towards more freedom in a replay of what led to two world wars in the last century?
And this past week, a pro-democracy movement of tens of thousands mostly young people voiced outrage over the movement of the government towards Russia and away from Europe and democracy.
The ruling party — backed by a billionaire oligarch who made his fortune in Russia — has steadily moved to openly distance itself from Kyiv, all the while criticising President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Thousands of young and mainly peaceful protesters flooded the capital, Tbilisi, this week, bearing signs that said “We Are Europe.”
LGBTQ Protestors in Georgia This Past Week
Both protests were successful in getting these violent governments to suspend, if but temporarily, their anti-humanist and anti-liberal directives.
A phalanx of women in red robes and white hats — a reference to Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel "A Handmaid's Tale" — has become one of the defining and most potent images of the weeks of mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government in Israel.
Handmaidens Walk Tel Aviv Streets
Ultra-Orthodox parties, key elements in the most right-wing government in Israel's history, ban female involvement. Other members of Netanyahu's coalition have discussed segregating men and women in the military and have taken anti-LGBTQ stances, AP reported.
This is all took place the week that Trump was indicted.
Pluto, by the way, has moved into Acquarius.
Pluto moving into Aquarius refers to the astrological phenomenon where the planet Pluto enters the zodiac sign of Aquarius, associated with innovation, humanitarianism, and technology. Some astrologers believe that this shift could lead to a transformational change in society, not unlike the French and American revolutions.
As part of this shift, it seems to me, is the choice some of my clients who are LGBTQ, are making to dive deep into homophobic and transphobic trauma because they want a new and more free life. They want to rediscover the GIFT that made them first fall in love or express their gender in a queer way.
I am trying to find the term that would best describe this silent and secret movement. The textbooks that I taught at the LGBT Specialization were produced by the domain of knowledge called “LGBTQ-Affirmative Psychology.” How to connect with our queer interested in taking a deep dive?
No young person looking for help about why they hurt and love as queer people is going to type in “LGBTQ-Affirmative.”
Maybe the better word if “queer,” but a lot of people who live under the Rainbow Flag don’t like that term at all.
Maybe it’s wrong to think that, outside of the academy, there is an umbrella term to hold us all.
Another thought is that to break free from group mindedness and authoritarianism requires a queer psychology because it is not the norm. Maybe all free people fighting for freedom are queer. And it’s just queer people who are foced by instinct and circumstance to listen to the quiet voice of the “inner authority” more than non-queer-identiied people.
Welcome to my reflections on “queer psychology.” Perhaps it’s a subset under the genre of “queer theory.” Or should it be its own? Because it deserves to be?
Go, Pluto. Go Acquarius. Go Queer Psychology.