Friday, October 20, 2006 Wheres the loo? Comrades Nervous Wrecks Hope alls well with you. I'm starting to how you say shit bricks. I always get nervous before a performance and always have done but when it's a big jobbie like it is tomorrow I get worse. Iv been treading the boards in one way or another and in one guise or another since I was sixteen ,I can actually say Iv been 25 years in the buisness,im kinda proud of that. The nerves have never left me a shame because it can actually make you hate what you do. I get crippling self doubt before a big show not just cos theres an audience it's also the themes I explore. I'm not interested in being everybodys best friend when on stage I don't have that kind of performer insecurity,but I do care how what I do effects people especially when it affects my physical safety which on some occasions it has done. I tell the truth,my truth, the truth I wake up to every morning and for some people that can be too much. I describe the truth as my bitter-sweet master and myself as it's bitter-sweet bitch,I like the SandM connotation feels right.I envy performers who don't get nervous they seem more in controll. It's funny the choices you make isn't it? What you choose to do even wear. If somebody had told me when I was four I'd be gallavanting up and down the country in gingham trying to make the world a better place I probably would have believed them if only they had, because I never became the footballer or car thief they wanted me to be. I love the improvisational quality of living. The dice effect ,shaken vigorously in a plastic tumbler and thrown with heavy anticipation onto the great Snakes and Ladders board of life. Wheeeeeeee as you go up Ooooooooooooooh as you slide down,each motion preceded by an eternity of life experiences. I love going up and down I,m terrified of just calm. I lived in just calm once it nearly killed me. So I must love going on stage with a big show no matter how nervous I get. Oooooh no Wheeeee I'v just talked myself out of being nervous for a little while,thats good...they'll come back though Comrades rather like clumsy friends or bad pennys. Will sign off now. Ooooooooh Comrade Poems X 2:34 PM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment Thursday, October 19, 2006 Keeping Going Comrades Confused Just got a terrible fear that I might lose my blog so in terror I posted it anal warts and all. Yes the show is at Studio Salford a small theatre housed in the Kings Arms. It's an amazing venue. A co-operative run by a group of delightfull left-field artists bringing a much needed boost to the continuing history of Salford. It's a two hour poetry show which is a bit of a gamble Comrades but I am one of lifes risk takers so recite and be dammed. I shall tell you how it went next blog. What the fuck does Maddonna think she's doing now? The womans arrogance never fails to astound me. I really wouldn't be surprised if she says Diana told her to do it,lets face it everybody wants to get the crown she never wore. What a sick twisted uncaring publicity stunt this is. Maddonna love stick to flashing your tits and pussy for the tabloids and leave Africa out of this. Adopting that baby is one of the lowest things youve ever done. I can hear the gays screaming for my head on a skewer as I type but go to fucking hell Maddonna I hope you choke on your henna tattoos "I'm doing it so one child wont grow up in poverty." The Margerate Thatcher of pop can probably buy Africa. I remember seeing news footage of live 8 and Maddonna holding the hand of a woman who survived a fammine on Mathatchers wrist was a diamond gate bracelett worth a fucking fortune,it was one of the most vulgar images I have ever had the misfortune to wittness untill now that is. Africa is wank material to celebrities and there using it to prove to us lesser mortals how much they care, it disgusts me to such an extent I can actually feel physically sick. The white benevolent western rock star should just curl up and die. This money and power based smugness makes a complete mockery of humanity. When the revolution finally comes please leave Mathatcher for me I want to give her a jolly good talking to before shes up against the wall. Anyway some good might come of it her little black baby will be great on the album cover and for shifting units. when in the name of all that is real will this madness end. Glad to get all that off my chest Comrades and glad to have finished this blog. Feeling a lot better after last nights debacle almost nice again. Keep raging against the machine. Comrade Poems X 4:49 PM - 10 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment Here We Go Again Comrades Hopefulls Oooooh I'm frightend after such a disaster one can never feel as cocksure about oneself again,akin to having your teenage years kidnapped when your twelve. Well here we go. It's been sometime since I last blogged you without the rage of Satan burning in my heart. The past couple of weeks have been terribly interesting and fullfilling the show I was working on with writer Dominic Berry "I Know What My Beer Is For" was performed and did it's thing and what an interesting thing it was. The reaction was as I expected mixed and eclectic. It was a brave piece of work tackling subject matter some of us would rather not delve into. Alcholism and mental health problems are common as a Kylie record on the gay scene but we would rather run away without confronting them hurtling instead into the tsunami of pretend positivity offered by both gay and straight media. A lot of people tuned into our character an out of drag drag queen who goes by the name Dame Phillipa Crack and a lot of people didn't. Dominic wrote a character who wasn't instantly sympathetic in fact a bit of a twat really who outwardly seemed confident,bitchy and strong whilst in truth was someone who hadn't resolved many of the things his complicated life had thrown at him leaving him with an ego of an American president and the self esteem of a a one winged fly. The actors we worked with were fine and dandy contributing many of the ideas that found themselves into the performance. It was great to be directing again and I wish to do more in the near future. Speaking of the near future and all it's presence. I will be re-working a play I produced six years ago at The Green Room theatre Manchester for Liverpools queer arts festival Homotopia at the Unity a theatre I'v had a long and harmonious relationship for many years. It's a script in hand performance of a piece called Miracle about an ex rent boy and porn star called Will Hung. The miracle in question is Wills uncanny gift to cure any terminal disease but he can only cure you by fucking you and as you can guess by his name he's a big lad yes ten inches of hot throbbing man meat has to enter you before you can recieve the miracle. In many ways the play is a pants down farce examining the corruption of miracles the way our churches have used them to dupe the masses into believing in them. I lke to think of it as the final nail in the coffin of the Catholic church. You think The Davinci Code courted controversy,you aint seen nothing yet. Had a lovely time at the Off The Shelf Literary festival in Sheffield. It was great to be sharing the stage with The Wild Women Collective,Cumbrian based poets who've started thier own press. It was really well attended and I think unique, were not the usual fayre you find at such events. The women are called Victoria Bennet an Gill Hands the former a Byronesque velvet figure,gothic and presice the latter night dressed and dowdy clutching her hot water bottle for dear life, a visual and aural treat. Theyre great poets with two very diferent styles and I thought we complimented each other very well indeed. I have to say I loved Sheffield such a grubby handsome city not unlike Alan Bates in Whistle Down The Wind you know the one with the dark Satanic Haley Mills.I loved the fact the city seemed a place you lived in rather than just played,if it were a bloke I would definately ask it to stay the night just the night mind as I fear commitment. I loved it and ended up in this fab gay bar whos name escapes me. I was dancing with this rather fit chap and we seemed destined to be each others lfe partners just for the night when in a drunken moment I twirled whilst dancing and bust my eye,I think he would have been fine with that if I hadn't burst out laughing covered in blood,light-wieght. Sheffield reminded me of why I like cities it hadn't had those horrible makeovers and face-lifts like Manchester and Liverpool, and they are face-lifts bits of stretched skin covering the pock-marks of developmen,hideous. I love that this dirty imperfect yet sexy city houses the biggest writing festival in Europe. Getting redy for Saturday a very important gig for The Manchester Literary Festival. It's the D.V.D section of my new book How To Be A better Gay wrer filming it to accompany the publication. The book itself is a multi genre work consisting many styles of writing and the D.V.D.is as much a part of the plots as anything else it will have poems on it that don't feature in the book but are integral to the not so linear narritives invoved, I'm terribly exited. See you in a minute Comrade Poems X 3:46 PM - 4 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Fuck Shit Piss! Comrades Pissed Off I have just spent an hour and a half blogging you with whats been happening in my time away from you,only to lose the fucking thing by pressing the wrong fucking button. Christ I'm LIVID I'm LIVID in fucking capatals. I'm so fucking stupid sometimes I love this cyber-space thing but I'm not terribly good at it. It's not the first time I'v fucked the blog thing up but this blog was really long and involved and about a lot of things Im passionate about. I have to leave this dreary and insubstantial computer and drink it's the only thing that will calm me down Im fucking howling here. Not the nicest reintroduction to blogsville but extremely heartfelt. Will re-blog tomorrow people. Comrade Raging Stinking Poems! 5:53 PM - 8 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, October 04, 2006 Theatre Dahling Comrades Luvvies Hope your well and feeling the etherial energy that is October,love October, Strange things happen in October. Well i'm in the middle of directing a play. a new piece of work by local playwrite and poet Dominic Berry. It's called "I Know What My Beer Is For" and is an exploration of some of the more difficult aspects of the gay scene. The main protagonist is a young over wieght drag queen who goes by the unsubtle monika Dame Phillipa Crack, her drink problems are matched only by her lack of self esteem, it is a difficult story. It's also a comedy, a comedy of bad manners if you like. The plays main device is how we see Dame Phillipa not as one character but as three manifestations of her psyche,the butch the camp and the undecided each played by a different actor. Both Dominic and I have talked long and hard about the varying affects the scene has on both ourselves and the wider community and recognise that it can be a Heaven away from Hell and at the same time be a Hell on Earth. Dominics play tackles head on the complexities of the character from dodgy parenting to arriving in the big city with a head full of dreams and pockets full of dust. It explores the damage and isolation caused by misfits to misfits looking at who we allow in and who we shut the doors on. Lets be honest the gay scene isn't the inclusive party both straight and queer media present. What attracted me to the piece was it's honesty about the subject and the poetic way in which it was written believe me a nervous breakdown has never sounded so beautiful. Dominic himself has had problems with the scene about his place in it and what it has to offer him, he found it very dificult to be around and felt it without warmth and aggresive. This is something we seldom explore the scene as aggresive. I believe it's as polluted by as many alpha males as a football match. We can look terrifying my pink Comrades to first timers,loud gregarious,vivacious party animals alive with the time-bomb of booze and drugs. I'm not saying we shouldn't be this, my goodness no we deserve the best time we can have. I got to thinking though about our young folk and what they see. So often they've come from difficult places where the veneer of emancipation hasn't landed like the fog it is and find themselves faced with this barrage of what looks like over-weening apocolyptic confidence. You know as well as I do Comrades that it's not always that way. I often wonder just how confident, together and sorted we and the scene are and does the scene sort us out or does it fill us with a whloe load of different insecurities. I love the gay scene well the less comercial aspects of it,Im more cozy bar{hopefully with dark room or very accomadating toilets}than G.A.Y. I love drinkling and dancing,I'm a boozer and it siuts me fine. That doesn't mean I turn a blind eye to the other side of things,I'v been wrapped on the Frankie knuckles before for saying this but the amount of mental health issues that populate and go unnoticed in our pubs and clubs is astounding. We have to look at it because if we don't then we just let it happen. The scene dosesn't neccessarily sort you out. Dominics play hits these issues head on unafraid of appearing serious and aware. It's refreshing that a young gay man and playwrite is taking this on boared,for me it's important that he's young because he's the age group the gay scenes meant to be for. I would love in an ideal world to think we look at our young folk with a concerned eye. I think they are somehow our children and need occasionally a subtle guidence,we often sexualise young queers before we even know who they are and what they feel,they then in turn behave precociously sexualised just to keep up, its peer pressure. Do come and see the play if you can I will send a bulletien soon. Keep the autumnal joy of October cascading in your hearts and souls it's a month of magic and miss and mr chief. Comrade Poems X 11:06 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment Monday, October 02, 2006 video: Performance poetry, Chloe Poems live at Joshua Brooks 22-02.06 Posted By:Chloe Poems Get this video and more at MySpace.com 1:34 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Video Comrades Square Eyes Mr Plastic Trash has only gone and uploaded video of me,live at Joshua Brooks. I can't seem to get a picture but can hear sound,could you check it out for me and tell me if it works. This is not a ploy to get you to see it but a plea from the heart. My computer is Methusalas old one he threw away after the fall of man,not exactly an Apple Eves got that. Ta Comrades, Comrade Poems X 1:19 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Friday, September 29, 2006 Bitchin' Back I wrote this a few years ago and it has appeared on BBC radio, a gay mag I can't remember the name of. Since then it's rested snugly on my website http://www.chloepoems.org.uk I think I've been rather kind to the gays in my last few blogs,time to redress the balance methinks. Comrades Queens Before I start this eulogy, I just want to make clear that I am, in the words of the almighty Bananarama, a creature of "Love, Truth and Honesty", and everything I say to you, I offer with genuine feeling. Now, contrary to popular belief, I want to tell you I LOVE being gay, my homosexuality has given me some of the finest teachings and continues to be a multi-coloured rollercoaster ride of self exploration, political profundity and glorious hedonism. It still has me spinning around with glee on the helter skelter of experience and screaming to go faster on the waltzers of joy, in fact you could say I enjoy all the rides and have all the fun of the fairies. But there are certain aspects of the gay psyche that leave me cold, very cold indeed. In fact they send an icy blast so chilly, it could turn the sun into a snowball, so I want to take time to share with you a critique of some things gay, and I'd like to start with the very bizarre concept of bitching. Bitching! The very word rings in my ears with all the melody of an unseat-belted child's head shattered on a windscreen. What's it all about? What does a bitch look like, and ultimately what does it achieve? Now I know that the heinous treatment offered by society to gays can leave one raging and bitter but why must we as a culture turn in on ourselves and bite. There are some people in the gay fraternity who think that the feroucious art of bitching is somehow funny, witty and clever,and of course it can be I believe, however, that it can also be quite the opposite. To me, bitching can be the lowest common denominator of humour, little more than a veruca-shaped wart on the fine athletic legs of comedy. At worst, it is bog-standard repetitious vulgar sloganeering without any heart and soul. At best it's a sort of Bernard Manning (a vile Northern comic who delights in insulting oppressed minorities) in hipsters. The bitch delights in finding fault with everything he thinks substandard, which is very easy for the bitch, because in his wretched world view everything except him, or perhaps Joan Collins and maybe Victoria Beckham is substandard.The bitch would slaughter children to be Elton Johns friend. This must be a terribly lonely, isolating space for any adult gay man in which to inhabit. Why, it must be like being a single solitary petite-pois in a tin of mushy peas. The bitch is primarily a coward, for there is nothing a bitch likes better than sniffing out the most underconfident member of the group (usually a young first-timer to the gay scene) and trying his damndest to make him feel insecure, "ripping him to shreds", I think is the phrase, with such brilliantly thought-out witticisms as "where did you get that top, Oxfam?" or that old perenial chestnut "Have you seen the state of her hair, she looks like Phyllis Diller on acid". These dire attempts at humour will be followed by hyena-like laughter from the bitches cronies (notice I don't use the word 'friends'), a motley crew who will laugh pack-like at any of the venom the bitch spits out. I think they must be frightened not to, in case the bitch then uses his God-like powers of observational wit on them. These cronies are also cowards, without the will to think for themselves, therefore allowing the bitch to be their voice, thus sharing all the worst aspects of the bitch without taking any of the responsibility. I've always thought that if these people rejoice so much in the pain of the vulnerable, that they should perhaps think of a career change and become New Labour politicians instead. What does a bitch look like? Outwardly the bitch will probably be dressed in all the latest designer fashions, for example he might be head to toe in Armani, dripping in jewelery, and reek overwhelmingly of CK1 or Issay Mayarki, but no matter how well turned out the bitch is, or how sweet and heady he smells, he will in my humble opinion, and I stress ONLY my opinion, carry with him a graveyard stench. And no matter how many super-models he models himself on, he will walk with the unmistakable lumbering gait of the undead. To me, bitches have always resembled very glamourous zombies. The bitch will also pride himself at appearing impenetrably diamond hard, but sadly and so often in reality, inside this fragile fractious shell is a desperately insecure frightened man in possession of a soul with all the fluidity and grace of a fossilised raisin. Indeed if the face is the mirror of the soul, be sure my pink comrades that no matter how attractive the bitch may at first appear, there will be something about his visage that will look like a dehydrated shrew sucking a lemon stuffed with razor blades. And what does this achieve ... nothing! I believe it continues to perpetuate the same old tired stereotypical roles we as gay people say we're trying so hard to move away from. I can assure you that from most people's point of view, the sight of an adult gay man fast approaching forty, laughing raucously at another adult gay mans choice of clothing, doesn't do anybody any favours. In fact it is no different from the bullying so prevalent in childrens schools, therefore leaving me with the sumation that we have simply swapped the playground for gay clubs, that the bitch ultimately has to be pitied and that the art of bitching is about refusing responsibility and not growing up. So, my pink comrades, if you ever find yourself on the receiving end of a bitch's facile vitriol, just say to him, "you have my pity, you stupid, silly, immature little bitch. Thank God I'm not you." And if any self-confessing bitches out there are reading this, I just want to reiterate that if after 30 years of out gay politics, all you can do is bitch, then you have failed. Everything I've said I mean with love, and positive healing energy. Who knows my gingham thoughts might help stop you being such a pithy, mealy-minded xenophobic bully and put you on the road to becoming human again. I wish you all (especially you bitches) health, happiness and healing. Comrade Poems P.S I thought this poem appropriate. What is this thing called Gay? What is this thing called Gay? I thought it was about life, love and passion That is was way more original Than the latest high street fashion That it was more than a business proposition. I thought it lived in glorious opposition To some of the hideous wrongs of our society That gay meant colour Of more than the rainbow variety That experience was our college, Life, our university I thought this thing called gay Meant we were warriors of diversity Banners flying high Weapons in hand Marching mincing To the Promised Land. That it was way more important Than the newest celebrity in vogue Call me old-fashioned But I think this thing called Gay Means so much more Than just Kylie Minogue, So much more than wanting more So what is this thing called Gay? And who is it for? Well This is for the rent boys Disadvantaged and the poor This is for the people our magazines ignore This is for the volunteers And the mobile-phoneless This is for the streets And the gays who are homeless. This is for the queers Who first answered the clarion call Those magnificent men who were drag queens Breaking rules and breaking nails By throwing bricks at Stonewall. This is for their sparkle This is for their spangle This is for those who wore the pink triangle. This is for the ladies, transgendered and the gents And those sassy saucy Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This is for the slogan "No surrender" For every diesel dyke And lipstick lesbian avenger. This is for the complex, the confident and banal And for all those wonderful times Cruising Manchesters canal. This is for the bitter, this is for the sweet And for all of you out there Who love an anal treat. This is for the people who survived their abusers This is for the sex workers and the wheelchair users For families, friends, partners Who've watched their loved ones die For the lowest of the low The highest of the high. This is for those of us who live with this disease This is for anger This is for peace. This isn't for Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey or Madonna This is for unity, integrity and honour For individuality and its increasing rarity For S&M And its liberating perversity. This is for the fat This is for the skinny This is for the screaming queen And the moaning Minnie. This is for the winners But more for the losers And for all my friends The pill-poppers and boozers Rave on Gaychester! This is for movement This is for stillness This is for sanity And mental illness. This is for the families who have never pretended This is for the forgiving And the offended This is for coming through the violence and hate This is for the end Of Clause 28. This is for the isolated This is for the crowd. This is Chloe Poems And why I'm out and proud. 10:56 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Time To Go Two! Comrades Daleks Theres a Doctor Who adventure,Jon Pertwees first in fact called Spearhead From Space. It deals with an alien inteligence called The Nestene Conciousness a gestalt life-form able to inhabit and animate any form of plastic. Theres a kind of foot soilder called the Autons fully plastic looking mannequins,hideous and hollowed eyed able to totally destroy by a limp wrist{it's hand falls off at the wrist producing a smoky ray gun.} Then theres the facsimillies,Allmost human replicas able to infiltrate and replace key figures in the corridoors of power. The only difference between a facsimillie and a human is a thin film of plastic covering the skin,seemingly invisible but if you get up close enough you can just detect it. I believe Manchester is the focus of an Auton invasion because descended upon the city centre is what looks like a huge spaceship and spilling like a tide of broken promises are hordes of the above aliens described. It's truly terrifying,all moving with a static fluidity rerserved for super-models and androids. Thier skin flawless allmost human smiling like jack-o-lanterns with Hollywood veneers. I am frightened and issue a warning to all who can accsess it, stay away from Manchester City Centre. I have reason to believe that The Conciousness itself spoke to....well to whatever it is gestalt conciousness's speak to. It's known to have taken the form of a charismatic slightly effete{explains the wrist action} politician. A dangerous man bent on destroying the world,you will recognise him by his lisp, messianic zeal and rather bullish wife. His plan is to lull us all into a false sense of security. He will tell us he is about to leave this planet and for us to put our faith in his legacy and ideals. Comrades I fear him his legacy or his Autons will never leave. They will remain animated by his obscene desire to take over the world and to posess the very last drop of a mineral slime called oil, for as long as we're dependent on it he,it ,they ,whoever will have us by the short and curlies. It's not to late I have heard several invasions by this so called intelligence have been thwarted. It seems we have the resources here amongst ourselves to stop it, to stop them. We have to collect to form a super army if you like and engulf ,extinguish it's very life essence,leaving no trace of it behind,allowing us to rebuild and renew our society providing a more organic lifestyle,equally balanced according to our needs,leaving behind the plastic pseudo modernity so favoured by maraudering alien intelligences. Seriously they do look plastic. I was swanning through town yesterday and came across them polluting our Starbucks and pavements. They had an air of arrogance which seemed indellible. Huge figures from thier party, dark suited and overcoated sadly not withering in the blistering sun.So vivid in thier almost monochrome technicolour. The grandeur of thier forms a bullying monolith disturbing the borgening Manchester skyline.Like paedophiles in a nursery, they just didn't fit in. Like thier Prime Minister they really are Teflon coated seemingly unscathed by the barrages thrown at them,God they're hard. I wonder sometimes what it must be like to be them and then I stop, because I find it disturbing to inhabit it for more than a second. I wish they really were Autons,Daleks or Cybermen because then someone I really believe in could stop them. A benign leader who isn't power hungry or acquisitve who believes paradoxically{he is an alien} in the freedom of the human condition. I envy the imagination. Doctor your needed. Happy times and places,Comrade Poems X 1:35 PM - 10 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Family Friendly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Comrades Children. I hope you were brought up well. I hope your parents were good ,kind,just and aware of the needs and desires of thier potentially homosexual child. It would be great if you could tell me that your parents allowed your young effeminate spirit all the room and chiffon it needed to develop and fly. That in pre and post pubescent teenage angst they gave without question or regret all the information your forming , burgeoning, magnificent and malleable sexuallity needed. I really do hope your young life was a wide eyed fairyground journey to adulthood..... I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say that for some of you it probably wasn't. That it was hard,violent,difficult and confusing. Confusing because you could read in the Janet and John books just how it should be. I imagine you imagined every family exept your own was a soft focussed idyll, thatched roofed and gingham, nestled like a duckling to it's mother near the optimimistic homely landscape of Waltons Mountain sugar coated and bon bon. I hate the Janet and John books. I think the family experience can leave you shadowed and lacking in self esteem.The family way, the way it's socialised and set in stone could ball and chain you forever if your not careful. I think it's this lack of self esteem and damaged love that can lead young gay people into taking difficult sexual decisions, decisions wich stay with them for the rest of thier lives. No-one knows more than queer people the negative impact being obviously gay has on thier young lives. We are geniuses when it comes to knowing whats good for one is not necessarily good for the other,that someone elses rythm is not your own{thats why I think dancing comes easier to gays.}So you must understand my contiuining rage when i'm rung up by gay festivals and events and asked if I have family friendly material. It happened again yesterday . I was once again furious at the gross insensitivity and ignorance of the remark. I'm staggered by it and by the question being asked so politely. "NO!" I said. I went on to scream I am a 44 year old gay man who like so many other gay men has been through some of the most horrifically profound life experiences. That I had wittnessd grief and death on an unanswerable scale and as an adult gay man I have been through a number of extremely exiting some might say dangerous sexual circuses. I told them I write about these circuses because i'v found a way of being empowered by them, that they matter not only to me but to other adult gay men and that these adult gay men should be able to hear them at thier festivals,festvals brought about by the brave sexual revolutionists of the seventies and eighties revolutionists who would have experienced family life at it's most ignorant and barbaric. I told them they were helping make redundant the lives of these people that they are responsible for a new conspircy of silence around the complex sexualites of gay men. Needless to say I didn't get the gig. This has happened before. I am totally pro queer people having families I'v marched and stamped my feet for it, spoken out on stages around the world for it,but I wont have these new family values becoming as invasive and homophopbic as the last ones. Yes I said homophobic. It seems some not all gay families are complaining about the material used at festivals ,that it's highly sexualised and vulgar,well dah! Queer is many things to many people I know but surely we can all agree on one thing that part of it and therefor part of us is sexualised and vulgar,these people are anti-gay. There is a Stonewall sensibility pervading everything we touch. I'm not saying Stonewall are evil,they do some great work but I'm convinced they wont rest until we're a hybrid of Michael Cashman and Sandi toskvig a kind of Skandel Vigman with our middle class Ruperts and Henriettas cantoring daintilly around our ankles asking politely for more yoghurt on thier muesli, covering thier little babies ears in the company of adult gay men in case theres even a hint of violent anal sex in the conversation. I have been told many times that my material is unsitable for family audiences. Family audiences make up a small part of our festivals I hope one day they make up a large part but they have to take on boared the massive variance in gay identity. Queer isn't the New Labour mask worn by Stonwall it's a small part of it. I believe there a new puritanism entering the gay world based on what can only be described as old family values and by that I mean families terrified of sex and sexuality. I'm not saying we must all be on the same side simply because were queer but to understand queer on any level we have to look at the damage that can be and continues to be caused by family, and I think it's damaging to silence gay men who want to talk of thier experiences in an honest if not sometimes brutal way. I fear Stonewall are creating a class divide in our allready divided world. I hope were are not making a new Janet and Janet John and John generation, a view of family as idyll and perfect because I can assure you if we are ther will be future generations as fucked up as we were. When the gay community start saying family friendly they are saying don't offend the family, well familys have been offending queers for ceturies and now it seems it's the queer families turn. Its cencorship Comrades censorship. In this new era of queers making queers we have to ask ourselves what are we creating? In the words of Larry Grayson "I love you all." The mother of all comrades Comrade Poems X 11:51 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment