The Queer Punk Revolution

Written by Hanna Nasim

Punk in itself had queer history first before being used for contemporary music. The word ‘punk’ meant someone who was up to something disreputable, and later on, the term was used for men who sold themselves for sex with older men. Punk rock is about rebellion, anarchy and noise; claiming freedom from a society that looks down on them and refusing to bow down to normalcy. Punk was, in every sense of the word, queer. 

Queer punks did not need designated performance spaces, crowd control or Ticketmaster; anybody could perform using anything they had with them, and the venue was wherever you wanted it to be. The Deaf Club was a deaf school in San Francisco that let punk bands perform on the premises because the noise did not bother them. There are famous queer punk artists we know of -Le Tigre and Bikini Kill- and ones we aren’t aware of (check out NPR’s compilation of queer punk music!), but the message they put out is the same: we are here, we are queer, get used to it. To sum it up, “losers, freaks and deviants started this movement, not these control freaks,” said Penny Arcade about queer punk in her 2017 documentary Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution. 

As a queer individual myself, of course, I have listened to Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill and pondered about Hobie Brown from Across the Spider-Verse and his queer-coded punk aesthetic. Queercore was the most influential queer punk movement, and it is said to have begun sometime in the mid-1980s as a response to homophobia in the already existing punk world. Queercore existed in zines, music and experimental films. The beginnings of queercore were with bands like Tribe 8, Nervous Gender, Pansy Division and more. Laura Jan Grace, lead songwriter and singer of the American band Against Me! burned her old birth certificate on stage and shouted “Bye-Bye Gender” into the mic; Marie France was a trans woman from France in the 70s who was involved with FHAR (Homosexual Front of Revolutionary Action). If you have watched Sex Education on Netflix you might know Ezra Furman; having composed an entire album for the show, Furman writes about the toll capitalism has on mental health that is further complicated by having a queer identity (check out her album 12 Nudes, or her Sex Education compositions). Much like the gender and sexuality spectrums, queer punk music had no unifying label: different people and ideas revolve around it, and in a way, it is still being invented, with new meanings and art forms being added every day. 

So whether you are vibing out to Deceptacon or putting together a collage that is calling for the destruction of institutionalised and religious homophobia, remember, your revolution is queer- and it is most definitely punk. So add those denim patches to your jacket, walk around with paint on your fingers, and do not be afraid to make some noise. I shall be leaving you with a delicious collection of resources and articles to peruse for inspiration. Happy researching! 

Links:

The Queer Zine Archive is a collection of queer zines that are available for free for the public to read

Muslim Punk in an alt-right era

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution an Oral History by Liam Warfield

Starter Kit: Queer Punk- playlist by NPR Music

Queer Punk playlist