Went with several friends tonight to a drag show with activist and comedian drag artist Panty Bliss. I didn't know anything about her, but most people seemed very excited that she was visiting.
Apparently she's a big deal in Ireland, which is kind of like saying that you're a big deal actor on a Canadian tv show.
Panty Bliss was one of the spokespeople for Ireland becoming the first country every to legalize gay marriage by popular vote and win by a 65% vote. She describes herself as someone who is a not-perfect spokesperson, and someone who grew up with a lot of anger and defiance, and considers herself more punk than spokesperson. Listening to her on stage, you wouldn't believe it, as she's incredibly well-spoken.
But the comedy show had a very serious undertone, which was that the art of drag is slowly becoming Ru-ified, which is to say that drag queens are entertainers and the reason people go to gay bars. But Panty Bliss had a comedy show that was also a very honest look at gay history: drag queens didn't exist to entertain; they existed to tell other people fitting in wasn't the point, and they didn't need anyone's permission.
Panty's recollection of gay rights, and of gay-bashing, gay suicide and also of men and women (and trans men and women) who lived in the closet or left Ireland because they were truly outcasts resonated so strongly with gay men and women that I knew growing up. Being gay in Western Canada (and in most places in Canada) wasn't a death sentence, but it wasn't a way to live, either.The things Panty talked about were things I remembered as a young man.
I hope that young people today, can find ways to learn about queer history before it disappears...because I grew up experiencing it, and the world that was described as Ireland in the 1980s, was the world I grew up in.
No comments:
Post a Comment