A Snapshot of the Queer Movement: Four GLBTQ Activist Organizations in the Twin Cities

Abstract

In this essay, I look at four GLBT/Queer activist organizations in the Twin Cities, as a snapshot of the Queer Movement as it is occurring locally. I view these organizations through the lenses of persuasion and rhetoric, because communication and communicative actions are the life blood of social movements. I then examine where these four organizations fall on the life-cycle or timeline of social movements, to find where the Queer Movement is on this timeline. In the introduction and conclusion, I discuss culture in a wider sense to demonstrate the cultural implications of social movements, and of the Queer Movement in particular. Concluding, I posit a few predictions for the future of the Queer Movement in the Twin Cities and the United States, drawn from my examination of these four organizations.