I’ve been noticing some funny contradictions in our delightfully queer social movements–those of anarchist stripes and those of progressive stripes. What are they you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you–I’m getting mighty grumpy with the eternal return of fetishizing tactics over strategy. I don’t give a damn what the tactics are–letter writing, sign holding, window smashing, straight-baiting, and protest after protest after protest. What’s the fucking strategy?

So, as queer radicals hellbent on liberation, desire, pleasure, and a multiplicity of identities flourishing without asshole thugs beating, harassing, or otherwise annoying us (fuck “us,” let’s talk about people the world over being screwed by capitalism (eco-destructive or eco-friendly to boot),, I think we need to reflect on the successful queer orgy as a model for social change, liberation, and coordination.

You might wonder who this universal “we ” is that I’m describing? I can’t really tell you. We’re plural. Some of us identify as pacifists who can’t help but smile when bulldozers eating up forests are torched and fascist C.E.O.s are shot, others identify as militants who rarely leave our desks or armchairs. Some of us work within the system, engaged daily in the drudgery of consensus building with power-mongering politicians. Others spend most of our time dishing out bowls of soup to hungry people. I happen to make movies, tell stories, and fetishize the lovely contradictions within our possible collaborations.

What makes a queer orgy hot, you ask? Not to sound like a liberal human resources worker, but DIVERSITY! Yes, that irritating word that neoliberals borrowed to eradicate cultural specificity and create a blob of so-called racially, ethnically, and socially diverse consumers lapping up what remains of natural resources under the unifying banners of gluttony, entertainment, and McCulture. Someone hand me a tissue, I’m tearing up.

Back to the point.

A queer orgy is hot because people who like fisting can fist. People who like cuddling can cuddle. Pretty much anything goes. That doesn’t mean everybody has to engage in everything. Nobody whose into buttplugs is sitting their whining about the people across the room in furry gear. The furries don’t judge the frotters across the way. Why? Everbody knows they have the same goal. What’s the unifying principle of the queer orgy? Getting off. Pleasure. Community. Love.

Sound familiar?

Hell, these are the things I want everybody in the world to have. What’s that? A common, unifying, ethical principle geared towards consensual pleasure, community, collaboration, and satisfaction. Fuck the government. Fuck the corporations. Fuck the exploitation. I want people to get off and get satisfied when they want to, how they want to, without a bunch of greedy fucks imposing their values the world over, without violence, and without exploitation.

Everybody feels good. Nobody whose into buttplugs is sitting their whining about the people across the room in furry gear. The furries don’t judge the frotters across the way. Why? Everbody knows they have the same goal.

So before we worry too much about tactics–particularly judging each others, we’d do well, as queer radicals (diverse, complicated, and often curmudgeonly horney), to figure out what the fuck we want and pick the appropriate targets. For example. Do we want gay green capitalism? I don’t. Do we want ecological sustainability and resilience, a diversity of homes in various geographies from the rural South to the Urban West, gift economies, community self-determination, food for all, health for all, no more cops bugging us, and no more politicians determining our fate based on political expediency and big business lobbyists, et, al? Yippee. Do we want to see corporations such as Lockhead Martin, Blackwater, Newmont Mining, and others eat it? Yes.

How do we get there? Pick our targets and hit them in a variety of ways. Build some cool shit.

Some people like nipple play. Others like fireplay. Nice. Let the nip-fetishists tittytwist the C.E.O. before the friends of fire torch the bulldozers knocking the forests down. But if you like fireplay, don’t keep those who like nipple play from getting what they want (assuming they play into a larger strategy of creating a culture of beauty, desire, satisfaction, and resillience). If you like nipple play, have respect for the furries. AKA, let everybody get to our big queer goals using a diversity of tactics.

Yum. I can taste liberation now.