On Feb. 28, 2025, CSWS hosted “Gender as Target: US 2024 Elections and Aftermath,” a teach-in featuring University of Oregon faculty and Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) representatives discussing how gender and race discourses informed the 2024 election cycle and ways we can collectively respond to the barrage of policies impacting immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities today.
First, Alison Gash, professor and chair of political science, spoke about the reliance on anti-queer and trans rhetoric as a catalyzing force in the rise of the conservative politics in the United States, with a particular focus on queer and trans politics at school and among young people. Gash researches US law and public policy. Her work on LGBTQ+ policies has appeared in USA Today, Washington Monthly, NPR, and the Washington Post, along with numerous other public and academic journals.
Next, Anita Chari, associate professor of political science, situated the elections in the context of critiques of “identity politics” (including the politics of gender, sexuality, and race) and their relationship to discourses regarding societal trauma, and discussed strategies for working toward a constructive, coalitional politics. Chari is a political theorist and somatic practitioner. Her interdisciplinary scholarly research explores the political significance of aesthetics and somatic experience for our times.
Concluding the panel, graduate students Kaito Campos de Novais and Brennan Fitzgerald introduced the GTFF Rapid Action Working Group and discussed the role of intersectional labor organizing in support of immigrants and queer and trans people. They shared how we can collectively resist the escalation of white-nationalist and transphobic policies from the current administration. Kaito Campos de Novais is a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology and the VP for International Affairs at the GTFF. He is a Brazilian queer artist and labor organizer. Brennan Fitzgerald is a PhD candidate in chemistry and biochemistry and the VP of Membership Communications for the GTFF. They are a Southerner and a proud trans person.
Below are some thoughts and take-aways from CSWS graduate student affiliates who attended the event.
Reflection by Sofía Vicente-Vidal, Department of Anthropology
The “Gender as Target” teach-in addressed the use of identity politics in mainstream political discourse to mobilize voters and secure political power—in different ways by the far-right neo-fascist movement as well as the Democratic party. Dr. Alison Gash discussed how scapegoating through targeting the rights of LGBTQ+ people has historically been a strategy of conservative politics and provided specific examples of discriminatory laws across the United States since the 1950s. Dr. Gash reminded us that villainizing the LGBTQ+ community to stoke fear with the aim of gaining votes is not a new tactic, but also highlighted that resistance to each wave of targeted attacks is also not new. In the face of the bullying and political violence of those at the helm of the country’s government, we need reminders of resistance efforts that have succeeded in the past.
Dr. Anita Chari pointed out how the use of identity politics to advance political aims is not exclusively a strategy of conservatives and the far right, especially in this last election. The Democratic party has also engaged in the use of marginalized identities in an effort to gain political power. I was particularly struck by Dr. Chari’s mention of Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò’s concept of elite capture, or the ways in which identity politics have been mobilized to gain political power by reducing the real and material vulnerabilities of marginalized identities into empty mainstream neoliberal discourses of positivity and acceptance. Another salient takeaway from Dr. Chari’s discussion was her assertion that identity politics itself is not the problem, but that its use in mainstream political conversation mobilizes trauma for elitist interests. She highlighted the need to re-orient trauma discourse in politics to be more historically specific, and to focus its intention on repair and care for groups who are being targeted and subjected to repeated and compounded trauma right now.
Having representatives from GTFF, our graduate student labor union, on this panel served to bring the discussion of the elite capture of identity politics home. As universities are meant to be places where students learn our country’s history, and college is perhaps the first time students experience the liberatory power of knowledge, we feel the gap between the ideas imparted in our classrooms and the normalized practice of institutional violence in the academy. Particularly vulnerable are BIPOC, immigrant, trans, queer, working class, and international graduate student workers who may be targeted for exercising their right to protest and fear they cannot count on the university for protection.
—Sofía Vicente-Vidal is an anthropology PhD candidate and GE in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
Reflection by Liesl Cohn De León, Department of Anthropology
As an international student, I was interested in learning more about US local politics and how today’s events are distressing the LGBTQ+ community, so I attended the “Gender as Target: US Elections and Aftermath” talk.
Dr. Alison Gash was a good start for the conversation because she exposed in detail the history of LGBTQ+ rights and how it connects to now, highlighting the decades of resilience of the queer community. Current conservative politicians have been publicly attacking and dismantling LGBTQ+ rights and progress made over the years in public policy, like transgender public recognition and access to healthcare. However, the current administration has not been the first to have anti-queer rhetoric, and Dr. Gash reminded us how conservative policies have changed very little in the past 70 years because anti-queer rhetorics are about securing political power and fear catalyzing crisis (mentioning examples such as Florida or Oregon). In the end, Dr. Gash expressed that her talk’s goal was to make us aware that when things get more complex, the LGBTQ+ community has consistently pushed back and moved forward. They fight for their dignity and value, this being yet another impasse where they will emerge triumphant.
The second speaker was Dr. Anita Chari, who situated the current election context within the discourses of societal trauma. She started by saying that democracy and the rule of law today are in a precarious state and that resistance and solidarity are crucial in the face of it. According to Dr. Chari, the current political situation is an outcome of the success of progressive movements such as Black Lives Matter that have brought critical discourses around racial justice, class, and sexuality more into the political mainstream. Therefore, today’s white supremacist, xenophobic, and neoliberal right is exploiting people’s vulnerabilities by creating enemies in marginalized populations. Also, the right has successfully simplified and abused the trauma discourse by not addressing political violence, which is dangerous because trauma is real and has to be addressed in specific ways. Dr. Chari considers that cultural change toward trauma and more social connections are urgently needed to best respond to this situation collectively. Thanks to this talk, I learned about how the concept of trauma has been revised through the years and how it has been pathologized and overgeneralized by current politicians.
Finally, Kaito Campos and Brennan Fitzgerald closed the panel by sharing their personal experiences, fears, and actions taken as part of UO’s community of international students and trans students, which many people from the audience could relate to. This panel provided interesting insights about current politics in the US, creating a space for reflection, hope, and freedom of speech, which are so much needed in academia.
—Liesl Cohn De León is an anthropology PhD student and recipient of a 2024 CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant.
Reflection by Vasil A. Arangelov, School of Journalism and Communication
The discussion on the intersection of queer rights, trauma, identity, and labor is timely and needed considering the American political reality. At its core, the event showcased the importance of talking about these topics, organizing in protecting human rights, and providing some hope and tools for resistance.
Dr. Chari and Dr. Gash emphasized that current policies are nothing new in the longstanding discourse against gender, racial, or sexual “otherness” and traced such rhetoric back over 70 years of historical events. It is valuable to acknowledge that hate and fearmongering are used as drivers for political gains, yet the affected communities have resilience and manage to withstand the negativity and remain a vocal, amazing, and integral part of society. As a final remark, Dr. Gash said, “We will prevail!” which was a great way to reiterate the community’s commitment and emotions.
One of the most important notes from the event was the discussion on the exploitation of identity politics, over-traumatized people, and overgeneralization of emotions. These elements are oftentimes targeted, creating notions of subjectivity and branding communities or generations (Gen Z) as too fragile. Such tactics are once more promoted with the idea of creating divisions and achieving political gains.
What is visible in my work is that those divisions transcend the real-world dynamics and transfer to online spaces and, particularly, video games. The culture in the gaming environment is vastly influenced by biases and tailored to the dominant white straight man culture, promoting hegemonical power and exclusionary barriers. Politization and right-wing voices are taking up a lot of space in the gaming world, and the game developers or community members who promote diverse and inclusive content are aggressively targeted in response. This motivates me to look for ways to impact the gaming environment by promoting participation, reducing toxicity, and addressing existing structural inequalities. Scholars have the potential to address these issues while working with community members and promoting tangible solutions.
The event was a good reminder that we need to organize, discuss, and support each other in times of uncertainty. We can see that US politics are targeting gender beyond the American perspective, reinforcing conservative ideas across the world with populistic rhetoric. These tactics have limited potential, and once the dust settles, the differences between people will be a topic of celebration rather than antagonization.
—Vasil A. Arangelov is a PhD student in the School of Journalism and Communication.