On the topic of past social unrest, I found this passage to still hold true to this day with modern movements and protests that we are seeing today. "NOOOOOOOO you can't get militant and violent to demand justice, you have to be civil and negotiate for your rights... like civilized people! The key to achieving socio-economic equality isn't to protest, riot, or strike, it's to vote! Just vote for your rights!" We hear it time and time again and nothing ever gets done. The movements are cooped by libs and only performative theatre is offered as a form of restitution. This book was written 22 years ago about Leslie's experiences even decades before that too. The quip about being trickled on killed me and filled me with rage knowing this is still occurring to this day.

Passage - pg 76:

What is the most effective strategy to forge a fight-back movement today? Should we deny our relationship to each other based on relative difference and try to place an arm’s distance between us? It sounds absurd. And yet there are some lesbians and gay men, I know, who fear that their “winnable” demands for legislative reforms or acceptance will be lost if they stand up for the rights of trans people.

“Let us win our demands first,” they plead, “and then your demands will be more easily won later on.” That’s a trickle-down theory of reform. But those of us who have been tricked on in the past are not impressed with that strategy.

When a young social movement breaks down societal closet doors and floods into the streets, it’s leading activists suddenly begin to get advice from those in power who were never “friendly” before. These advisors urge leaders to send in their “best-dressed, most articulate spokespeople” (code words for white and middle- to upper-classed) to negotiate for progressive legislation and other reforms. But, they counsel, “Keep it to a single, simple demand. And disassociate with those who are too angry and too militant.”