Politics & Power Quote by Harry Hay

What lands here isn’t just the clunky phrasing; it’s the unapologetic transactional view of politics. Hay is basically describing a deal: votes are currency, ideological support is the payout, and “identity politics for homosexuals” is the mechanism that makes the trade legible. The line is blunt enough to read like a critique, but coming from Hay - a foundational gay rights organizer - it plays more like a strategic admission. Liberation, in this framing, isn’t only moral persuasion; it’s coalition math.

The intent is to normalize group-based bargaining in a system that already runs on it. “To wit” gives the sentence a faint courtroom vibe, as if he’s presenting evidence against a naive belief that politics is about abstract principles rather than organized interests. The subtext: gay people don’t get rights by appealing to the majority’s conscience; they get rights by becoming a constituency with demands, discipline, and leverage.

Context matters. Hay came up through left politics and labor organizing, where bloc voting and ideological alignment were tools, not dirty words. When he names “identity politics,” he’s gesturing at a tension that still defines liberal democracies: movements need a shared identity to mobilize, but that same identity can be dismissed as special pleading. Hay flips the stigma. He frames identity politics as not merely cultural self-expression, but a hard-nosed tactic for turning an ignored minority into a negotiable force.

It’s also a warning: if votes are exchanged, they can be withheld. Rights aren’t bestowed; they’re bargained for, defended, and, if necessary, renegotiated.