The Dream of a Common Movement collects essays, interviews, and speeches by the late feminist and civil rights activist Urvashi Vaid, whose pioneering writing and organizing over the course of four decades fundamentally shaped the LGBTQ movement. Vaid explores the LGBTQ movement’s impact on the AIDS epidemic and its challenges as it developed a national presence. She calls out movement leaders and donors for not addressing gender, race, and class issues and passionately argues that the goal of any liberation movement should be transformation, not assimilation. In personal essays, Vaid describes a double consciousness forged by the experience of immigration and a complicated relationship with her Indian-American and lesbian identities. Whether she was focused on the Donors of Color Network, the 22nd Century Initiative, the Lesbian Political Action Committee, or other initiatives she launched, Vaid was steadfast in her vision of a more just society and believed deeply in the power of people coming together to effect change. Offering a window into the breadth of her progressive vision for social change, this volume inspires readers to never stop organizing and marching.
Table of Contents:
Foreword / Tony Kushner xi
Introduction / Jyotsna Vaid and Amy Hoffman 1
Part 1. Building a Movement
1. Formative Influences: Preface to Virtual Equality (1995) and Letters to Family (1979–1994) 21
2. A National Lesbian Agenda: Keynote Address at the National Lesbian Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, April 27, 1991 41
3. We Stand for Freedom as We Have Yet to Know It: Speech at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation (1993) 47
4. A Shared Politics of Social Justice: An Interview with Urvashi Vaid (1998) 51
5. Awakened Activism: AIDS and Transformation (1995) 61
Part 2. Expanding Its Scope
6. Inclusion, Exclusion, and Occlusion: The Queer Idea of Asian-Pacific Americanness (2000) 85
7. Race, Power, Sex, Citizenship, and the LGBT Movement (2008) 97
8. What Can Brown Do for You? Race and the Future of LGBTQ Politics (2010) 105
9. Assume the Position: Class and the LGBT Movement (2011) 125
10. After Marriage = Virtual Equality (2016) 141
Part 3. Taking Stock
11. Queer Dreams and Nonprofit Blues: The Context in Which Queer Nonprofits Operate (2013) 147
12. Homo/mentum of the “Status Queer”: A Critical Look at the LGBT Movement (2015) 155
13. Irresistible Revolution: Understanding the LGBT Movement (2017) 163
14. The 22nd Century Initiative Countering Authoritarianism (2021) (Cowritten with Scot Nakagawa) 173
Part 4. The Promise-And Precarity-of Justice
15. Politics as an Act of Faith: Ten Lessons from LGBT Activism (2009) 179
16. Forward-Looking 377 Order Holds Lessons for the World (2018) 183
17. It’s Time to Re-embrace a Politics of Radical, Queer, Outsider Activism (2019) 187
18. Chemo Killed the Small-Talk Gene (2014) 191
19. Longevity Is a Precarious Dream (2022) 205
Urvashi Vaid-A Biography 209
Bibliography of Works by and on Urvashi Vaid 217
Editor and Contributor Biographies
Acknowledgments 233
Notes 235
Index 261
About the Author :
Urvashi Vaid (1958–2022) was an LGBTQ rights activist, lawyer, writer, and the author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation.
Jyotsna Vaid is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Women's and Gender Studies at Texas A&M University.
Amy Hoffman is a writer, editor, activist, and the author of five books.
Tony Kushner is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, playwright, and screenwriter.
Review :
“Simply put, Urvashi Vaid was America’s most talented and articulate exponent of LGBTQ rights and liberation during the most consequential period for that movement in our nation’s history. We all live today in a world Urvashi shaped profoundly-she ought to be a household name. This collection of her writings is much needed, timely, and beautifully done." - Rachel Maddow
“In this final, moving book by Urvashi Vaid, we find the history of a movement for radical justice, equality, and freedom embodied in the life of one of the most persistent, influential, and brilliant activists and leaders. Vaid tells her own story by documenting the formation of her politics and her youthful but prescient feminism and defense of lesbian and gay rights. The Dream of a Common Movement demonstrates how Vaid remained open to learning more, to collaborating more effectively across a range of issues. We feel her life and her thought, but also the enormous power to change that she surely was.” - Judith Butler
“Thanks to this treasure trove of Urvashi Vaid’s writings and speeches, the transformative power of her voice will continue to resonate within and far beyond the LGBTQ movements to which she dedicated her life and will encourage the radical convergences-her dream of a common movement-that hold the promise of a truly democratic future.” - Angela Y. Davis
"Vaid’s writings demonstrate a deepening nuance of and passion for social and racial justice in building a common movement over time. She was never reluctant to call out the gay rights movement, or the LGBT community in general, for its racism. . . . For this reader, the visit with Vaid was all too brief, a flirtation that had me longing for more. Perhaps that was the point, because as soon as I finished reading Dream I grabbed the 400 page Virtual Equality from off my bookshelves." - Marcie Bianco (The Advocate)
"Urvashi Vaid was one of the most perceptive and effective queer activists in the U.S. before her untimely death from breast cancer in 2022 at the age of 63. Perhaps more than any other figure, she combined, at different stages of her life, the hard, grinding work of grass-roots organizing with working behind the scenes within 'the Establishment.'. . . A new collection of some of her most important writings has now been carefully curated and edited by Jyotsna Vaid and Amy Hoffman under the title The Dream of a Common Movement. Included is some previously unpublished material, so the book is well worth reading even for those already familiar with her work." - H N Hirsch (Gay and Lesbian Review)
