Over the last three years, our collective has self-published three anthologies of radical queer and trans critiques of mainstream gay and lesbian equality politics (on marriage, military, and prisons). We’ve distributed nearly 5,000 books through sales and free mailings to incarcerated LGBTQ folks over the last three and a half years. Our books are now used in numerous university courses and most of the anthologies can be found in both university and municipal libraries across the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia! We are really proud of our work with all of the contributors in our first three anthologies.

Keeping the three anthologies that we’ve put together in print has been a growing economic burden for us as an anti-capitalist collective. Currently, almost $7k in debt still sits on credit cards, primarily accrued through printing and shipping costs of each of the three anthologies. Accessibility in terms of readers’ book costs is really important to us as a project and our collective members have been helping pay down the collective debt with any/all speaking fees we take in from universities. At this point, the publishing process is economically unsustainable, as the demand for our work continues to grow. We now have not one but three books in print.

This winter we approached AK Press about possibly working with us to keep these books available in print. They have been incredibly generous through their work distributing our books and have offered to work with us on a new project to cut costs and keep the books available to anyone who wants them. Coming in March 2014, we will launch a 3-in-1 anthology combining all three books into one, along with a new introduction from the collective and a preface from the series editor. AK Press has agreed to be our publisher and front the costs of publication. Thankfully this takes the economic burden out of our hands while still keeping the price of the book low, and most importantly: this keeps all three books in print!

Lastly, the relevance of all three archival anthologies is even more important today than ever before. With the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act just days ago, the expiration of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2011, and the passage of federal hate crime laws in the United States in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, we want to be sure that our voices of resistance are not erased and written out of history. These books are like bread crumbs, laying out different pathways to justice and resistance for those that dare to imagine a more just world. When people look back on these desperately conservative gay times, we hope our collective voices can be an inspiration to those who come after us. Those that look to our queer histories, just like we did, as a site of rejuvenation, excitement, and hope.

More news to come shortly! In the meantime, if you’d like your own set of our first three pocket-sized anthologies, you better do so quick! There are only about 200 of each available.

Cover design by Chris E. Vargas

We are happy to update yall about our newest anthology due out this fall.  We have been working hard all summer to bring you the third and final installation of our archival trilogy. With this book Against Equality once again demonstrates that another queer and radical world is possible.  The essays in this volume take a critical stance against the prison industrial complex and the system of inequality and violence perpetuated by hate crimes legislation, formally passed in the United States in 2009 as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Prisons Will Not Protect You, a compilation of archived work, is located at the difficult and traumatic point where the violence of the state against queer and LGBT people colludes with the violence we are always trying to escape. The pieces here question the gay community’s fealty to the prison industrial complex, arguing that hate crimes legislation, which enhances penalties and can even be used to bring in the death penalty, only serves to funnel massive numbers of people into prisons with increasing lengths of time served and the use of tortuous methods like solitary confinement. This has significant racial and economic implications in a country that houses five percent of the world’s population but nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners and where prisons have become, for many impoverished area and people, the only source of livelihood.

Click for more details…

It has been a while since there was any news from us.  We were all so busy working on projects, we didn’t have much time for updates.  We’ve had a lot going on this Spring: touring in the Midwest, re-opening our online store, starting a Twitter, and we have even more exciting things coming up this Summer!  Check out the details below (or follow us on Twitter!) to stay in the loop about all the things we are up to with A.E.

>>>Upcoming Events>>>
In just a few weeks we will do a book launch for Against Equality: Don’t Ask To Fight Their Wars at the New Museum in New York City as part of Carlos Motta‘s We Who Feel Differently project.  The event takes place on June 21st, 2012 at 7:30pm on the 5th floor of the New Museum: 235 Bowery in Manhattan.

We also just got some great news that A.E. will be doing a panel this fall at Radically Gay: The Life & Visionary Legacy of Harry Hay, a conference hosted by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY from September 27th – 30th, 2012.  Our panel is titled « Eat Your Fetish!: Against Equality and the Politics of Queer Cultural Production and Appropriation » and features presentations from Karma Chavez, Yasmin Nair, and Ryan Conrad.  We are sure to ruffle at least a few tail feathers.

>>>Upcoming Publications>>>
Against Equality has written work appearing in upcoming publications including 5th Estate magazine, AREA Chicago, and After Homosexual, an anthology inspired by the Australian conference by the same name at which A.E. presented back in February 2012.

>>>Project Updates>>>
Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You, the third book in our pocket-book series, is coming together in time for publication this fall.  This book critiques the demands by gay and lesbian organizations seeking LGBT inclusion in hate crimes laws and looks more broadly at the prison industrial complex as a site of harm and violence that disproportionately affects queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people.  Chris E. Vargas will be designing a fabulous cover for us once again and Dean Spade will lend his voice to do the book’s introduction.

A.E. is also still working on a new anthology of erotic fiction called Fuck Equality and we’ve extended the deadline through the end of the year! We’re looking for submissions of original, unpublished stories between 1500 – 2000 words that incorporate our political agenda of challenging mainstream gay and lesbian politics (ie. marriage, military service, and hate crimes legislation) into the storyline. We’re always trying to find new ways to animate our politics; what more fun and sexy way to share our political project than with naughty tales of queer debauchery and gender terrorism!?  Details here.

designed by Liz Kinnamon for AE

Just a reminder that Against Equality is still looking for your sassiest, snarkiest, silliest and most sarcastic designs for our second postcard project.  On our website, we have continued to archive critical writing that encourages others to rethink the rhetoric of equality and inclusion as deployed by the mainstream gay and lesbian organizations and campaigns around gay marriage, hate crimes legislation and military inclusion.  Sadly, we have had a bit more difficulty finding critiques that employ visual culture (photography, video, print, performance, painting, film, etc), so we thought we would encourage more creative work around these through this postcard project.

A few selected designs will be printed on 4” x 6” postcards and the images will be added to the AE digital archives.  These postcards will be distributed internationally through our low-cost online store.  Designers whose images are selected will be compensated with a stack of fifty of their own postcards as well as a handful from the rest of the designers!  Submissions should directly address one or more of the themes from our digital archive (italicized above).  All entries must be received by email on March 31, 2012 as 300dpi .pdf files with all colors converted to CMYK.  And don’t forget to leave an 1/8” bleed on all sides!

Send questions, comments and submissions to: againstequality@gmail.com
or visit us on facebook!