Yet the conceptualization of unity is hardly a neutral action uninformed by common assumptions - most especially the assumption that cisgender men are more naturally suited for leadership and resistance than women. ${ }^{3}$ Indeed, most collectives that understand themselves as racially/ethnically, religiously and/or nationally comprised tend to equate unity and independence for their collective with a heteropatriarchal order. From a practical standpoint, this type of unity disempowers more than half of the adult collective (cisgender women and, often, queer members of the collective) and thus reduces the likelihood  
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[^0]:    3 The term 'cisgender' was developed by transgender activists who seek to remind us that, like race, gender is far from a fixed biological fact that is easily defined and discerned. 'Cisgender' refers to those bodies that maintain and still identify with the gender they were accorded at birth, as opposed to those that have chosen another gender, or no gender at all.  
of successful and lasting outcomes. While considerably more difficult, elective affinities (not in the sense used in Goethe's famous novel, but in the sense of the term in chemistry) in which individuals and collectives are encouraged to build alliances around a shared concern for certain issues (rather than a shared racial, ethnic, religious or national identity) offer the opportunity for those peoples to truly and authentically express and act on their beliefs, as well as build impressive coalitions to effect change - whether that be around poverty, judicial and/or economic reform, political corruption, education, civil rights, citizenship, or so forth.