Lisa Duggan describes it as when goals of lesbian and gay civil rights organizations resonate with the neoliberal values of individualism and privatization

Alexandra Chasin notes that many lesbian and gay activist goals were transformed into consumer demands in the 1990s. This process fueled the growth of gay enclaves as visible niche markets for retail commerce and realty speculation.

Queer consumption functions as an insidious vehicle for civil rights. Indeed, as Chasin argues, "the market eventually undermines the radical potential of identity-based movements for social change


Matilda would call it "the violence of assimilation," the ways in which gay people have become obsessed with accessing straight privilege at any cost; it's almost like ultural erasure is the goal. Marriage and military service and adoption and ordination into the priesthood are suddenly "gay issues,"

It's the nightmare of identity politics where gay becomes an end point, a rationalization for celebrating the worst aspects of dominant-culture straight identity: nationalism, racism, classism, patriotism, consumerism, militarism, patriarchy, imperialism,
misogyny; every other form of systemic violence becomes a hot accessory


Gay assimilation, tells us that we all should be building this "Gaylandia" where everyone can shop in comfort and buy the right cocktails and the right accessories and the right Hummer and the right kind of dog. Maybe even buy the right kind of partner. Some people are even going abroad to adopt, buying the right kind of kid and saying, "Oh I love these really cute little Asian kids!" It's a consumerist mentality. I think adoption — kid buying — is a fascinating example of the violence that many gay people have absorbed. It legitimates a scenario where people seem to be saying, "I don't have to actually ask any questions
about transnational adoption, because I'm a lesbian and I need these kids."