Priscilla, (White) Queen of the Desert Queer Politics and Representation in a "Postcolonising" Nation — Page 7:
Conclusions: Towards a situated queer politics
31 The brief analysis presented here of both The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the work of Padva has highlighted some of the problems facing white queer politics in Australia. My intention has not been to provide a definitive reading of either text, but rather to draw attention to some of the problems that they present for representations of white queers in Australia. Not only does the analysis demonstrate the troublesome ways in which white queerness engages with race in Australia, but it also highlights some of the assumptions around racialised and gendered privilege that inform queer politics. As three white queer characters, and myself as a white gay man, we experience considered privilege as a result of our social location. This is something that I believe requires accountability, and something that is not easily theorised away or discounted through recourse to "good intentions." Being a white queer in Australia does not place us outside of racism, nor does it mean that our self-representations are not seen as oppressive by those who identify as non-white.
32 These are of course difficult statements to make, not primarily because they suggest a need to engage in forms of accountability, but rather because they may be read by some as disavowing the need for some form of queer rights, or as overwriting white queer experiences of oppression. These I believe are necessary risks, and ones that I can take precisely because of being white. They therefore do not inherently represent examples of me actually "giving up power," but are rather moments where I enact the very power that comes from being white in a society that privileges white people. So what does this means for a situated queer politics?
33 First, I think it suggests that there must be much more to white queer politics than simply deconstructing heteropatriarchy. Heteropatriarchy is gendered and racialised as much as it is sexualised, and there is a pressing need to look at how white queers may well be complicit with oppression, even if we attempt to challenge its operations. Second, there is the need for white queers living in Australia to more adequately theorise our relationship to Indigenous sovereignty — how does it form the ground upon which we develop our politics, and what does this mean for the types of politics that we engage in? Third, we must recognise the incommensurable differences that shape white and Indigenous experience, and to pull back from trading on comparisons between racial and sexual/gender oppression. These types of comparisons, I believe, can only serve to marginalise the concerns of non-white people, and render invisible the experiences of queer non-white people. And finally, there is the need to recognise what these incommensurabilities signify: they arise as an outcome of colonisation, and as such they are a challenge to the claims to belonging of white queers. It will not suffice to simply recognise these differences: from this must follow a commitment to examining not what these difference mean for other people, but rather how these differences signify the tenuous location of white people in Australia, including white queers.