Crossing The 49th

“Mark Verabioff’s Crossing the 49th. reasons that since there are 25 million homosexuals in the United States and 23 million people in Canada the two populations should change places, forming the world’s first nation organized around sexual preference. The ridiculousness of this fantasy cuts both ways. Employing black humor, it points up the need for some kind of guarantee or protection against the abuse our society heaps upon anyone not toeing the line of paternal domination. Secondly, it offers a utopian image of wholeness but under the quise of a perverse patriotism. The bitter irony of this call to all “honchos and dykes” to “cross the 49th” raises the issue of the place of fantasy in any political struggle.”Dan Walworth, Other Versions (Perversions), Artists Space, New York, 1988