I think that the power of a political vision is deeply engaged with the possibility of how you can live out the liberation that you seek and part of that vision is very much about desire, about the erotic. Amber Hollibaugh More Quotes by Amber Hollibaugh More Quotes From Amber Hollibaugh When people give up sex and give up love or they only have love in the context of tradition then I think we're missing the opportunity of saying to each other building community, building desire in community gives all of us the possibility of learning how to be who we always were terrified we'd find out we were, and then not be ashamed of it and to not have our desire and our love embedded in shame is a profound thing and it's part of what drives the movement. Amber Hollibaugh giving-up opportunity sex To actually be possessed or possess someone in a way that is unimaginable when you're a young person struggling about your body and whether anybody would ever want you, that's a huge world and that doesn't shift because you're fifty; it doesn't shift because you're 80. It's a vision of the possibility of claiming the right to dream and imagine an impossible place that you were never allowed to go, but you want the world to have as a possibility in the future. Amber Hollibaugh vision struggle dream If I'm fighting for the possibility of having a kind of desire and possibility, that right now is not too likely, it gives me a different kind of engagement with the future, than if I say, "sex doesn't matter; it's private." Amber Hollibaugh fighting giving sex For a political movement to not understand that sexuality is a profound component of both how people are oppressed and how people dream, is not to recognize the reality of political power and where it's centered. Amber Hollibaugh dream reality people No political movement can avoid the reality of desire in its midst. Every office building is full of the illicit affairs, the unwanted pregnancies, the crises that happen in human lives. Amber Hollibaugh office pregnancy reality I think that white people are not seen as people with racial histories. Amber Hollibaugh white people thinking My father is a gypsy. He traveled in caravans and was branded by the Ku Klux Klan. You know I have a history about race in my family that has very much to do with the other things that you name about poverty, about class, about access - or lack of it. Amber Hollibaugh race class father I became a part of the Civil Rights movement early on and that has really shaped a great deal of my thinking. Amber Hollibaugh movement rights thinking To take on the question of race in America and believe that you could transform this country so that it would actually be a place that was welcoming for everyone that was here, including dealing with the history of slavery and the kind of oppression this country is based on, that's an amazing moment to begin to find your own political ideals. Amber Hollibaugh race believe country Frankly, sex work and stripping is very good if you have radical politics. You can go to meetings all night long. Amber Hollibaugh night long sex The economy is not removed from the way you live out your private life. Amber Hollibaugh economy private-life way If you struggle with issues of documentation, issues of your health care, issues of whether or not you'll be punished for being open about who you are, those things affect how you can be employed or not employed, how you can get an apartment or not get an apartment, how it is that you feel free or not free. Amber Hollibaugh documentation issues struggle I didn't come out and pay a really painful price often, to be LGBT, to not claim my sexuality at the same time. It's not all right with me to not talk about it so I don't make anybody nervous. Amber Hollibaugh lgbt nervous pay I'm a high femme lesbian who loves butch women. That erotic identity has an enormous amount to do with how I live my life, who I live my life with and what it is we can or can't do. Amber Hollibaugh erotic living-my-life identity Everyone's always told about politics you have to be practical, but I actually think that's not true, you actually have to hold to a dream... and desire is part of that dream. Amber Hollibaugh dream desire thinking
