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Wednesday 10 July 2013

4 Proud of what exactly?

4. You've said that 'gay pride' is about being proud of sexual intercourse and sexual acts between men. Would you say this is the same for women and those of other genders?

I argued in an earlier blog post that "the concept of 'Gay Pride' was  not simply about being proud to suck cock or fuck men - although we clearly shouldn't be ashamed of these activities- but that we should be proud of our queer cultural identity + history." [italics added]


This was in response to an email which was sent to the Gay Pride committee in York describing the MoQuo playlist -that is Music of Queer Origin- that I chose as co-resident DJ at OUTrageous, which was at the time York's only queer disco and a fundraiser for York Gay Pride, as "stereotypical gay anthems" and observing "straight couples walk in and shake their heads or openly mock what they saw".


They gave, as one example of an act or artist they considered to be 'stereotypically gay' - Queen, which was fronted by the Zanzibar born Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara, who died from bronchial pneumonia after acquiring the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.


My response to this was to say that 'straight couples' openly mocking us for celebrating queer history + culture by enjoying dancing to + listening to gay anthems, was no reason for us to deviate from the MoQuo component of our playlist. I was then asked to step down as co-resident DJ and subsequently decided to resign from the York Pride organising committee.


My belief was -and is- that, if LGBTQ Pride was not about celebrating + taking Pride in our unique culture history + identity, then by default it becomes simply about being proud to be men who have sex with men, women who have sex with woman, and -in the case of bisexuals- men or women who are proud to have sex with men or women. This clearly is nonsense. And, for members of the trans community, an irrelevance.


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