In 2010, June 19th, Judith Butler, currently professor at University of California Berkeley, refused the Civil Courage Award of the Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony. She argued that the parade had become too commercial, and was ignoring the problems of racism and the double discrimination suffered by homosexual or transsexual migrants.
In her speech, Butler said: “I must distance myself from this complicity with racism, including anti-Muslim racism.” She also offered the prize to GLADT, LesMigraS, SUSPECT, and ReachOut, saying these organizations of color deserve much more than her.
JJJ
> Read the English translation of the speech in which Judith Butler refused the Courage Award from the Berlin Pride
> Read the article Echoing Butler’s refusal, by Rosalind Petchesky and Sonia Corrêa
> Read some reactions on the Butler’s refusal
> Watch the video of the Symposium Honoring Judith Butler’s Contributions to the Scholarship and Practice of Gender and Sexuality Law
Currently professor at University of California Berkeley – teaches in Rhetoric and Comparative Literature Departments. She is a a renowned theorist on feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. Her work often explores power, discourse and identity while focusing on the intersections of race, gender, and sexualities. She has written many books and many have been written about her.
Her better known titles are:
1990 – Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (ISBN 0415389550)
1993 – Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (ISBN 0415903653)
2004 – Undoing Gender (ISBN 0415969239)