Allied Identities

Abstract

Allies are extremely important to LGBT rights. Though we don’t often enumerate what tasks we expect allies to do, a fairly common conception is that allies “support the LGBT community.” In the first section I introduce three difficulties for this position that collectively suggest it is conceptually insufficient. I then develop a positive account by starting with whom allies are allied to instead of what allies are supposed to do. We might obviously say here that allies are allied to the LGBT community, but I will argue that this community is better thought of as a loose coalition because there are often intersectional issues and conflicting interests that challenge any unified sense of community. I argue that people typically become allies because a friend or family member is experiencing some kind of specific harm; if that harm or discrimination is what causally explains why people become allies, then allies are required to do more than we commonly think. Although allies have a prima facie obligation to honor what members of a subcommunity identify as a harm, this obligation is defeasible if an ally believes fulfilling the obligation would be harmful. I conclude by looking at how we can understand what an ally is in terms of a larger discussion about moral obligations. If people already have these obligations, whatever they are, because morality requires it, then the status “ally” is redundant. I conclude by showing that certain social statuses can not only transform or reprioritize prior moral commitments, but can also introduce new kinds of responsibility that an agent did not have before.

Understanding What It's Like To Be (Dis)Privileged

“…29 The first is that the privileged should listen to and learn from disprivileged people on the subject of what their experiences are like. As Kurt M. Blankschaen (2016) says in discussing allies of 'the LGBT community', it is vital 'that allies listen and engage in conversation with the specific people to whom they are allied' (p. 20). Oluo (2018), similarly, says that it is important for the privileged to 'start seeking out work … by people who don't have your same privilege, and listen when those people are speaking' (p. 58).…”

Allyship and Feminist Masculinity

“…2 In looking to feminist allyship practices as giving meaning to normative feminist masculinity, I do not mean to present allyship as something simple or uncontested. Some theorists and activists see allies and allyship as playing vital roles in social justice movements (Bishop 2002;Kivel 2011;Kivel 2013;Ravarino 2013;Drury and Kaiser 2014;Bridges and Mather 2015;Blankschaen 2016;Sullivan-Clarke 2020a). Others are more critical, particularly when it comes to men, white, straight, cisgender, and upper-class people describing themselves as allies (McKenzie 2014;Anderson and Accomando 2016;McKinnon 2017;Bourke 2020;Pugh 2020;Hesford 2021).…”

Public Health, Political Solidarity, and the Ethics of Orientation Ascriptions

“…20. Roughly, an ally is a cisheterosexual individual who takes up a role promoting LGBTQIA+ interests, see Blankschaen (2016).…”