Queer

Today is National Coming Out Day. I think that's an important thing. I think everybody should come out, whether as gay, hetero, transgender, kinky or whatever. It should be a right of passage for everyone to announce how and with whom they want to have sex. Just clear the air and be upfront about it.

I wrote a column for the Advocate about the search for a queer music scene in New Haven, but it got killed prior to publication. Chris Arnott had already comissioned someone to write about the Outfest at Cafe 9 and didn't want the overlap. Also, he was unconvinced by my premise that there is no real queer music scene in New Haven. It's still strange for me to get used to the idea that I'm speaking as a voice of the paper, rather than just speaking as myself when I write Music Notes.
Anyway, I liked the column, so I figured I'd share it. After going to see Melissa Ferrick at The Space last week, I'm even more convinced of the central truth of the column. The Space was packed for that show, and all by people I never see out at any other shows. That's a vast untapped market of music appreciators that don't find anything appealing in the New Haven scene.


One night, a few years back, I was wandering around downtown. I was with my roommate, his Polish girlfriend and her German au pair friend. We heard some live music coming out of a bar, so we walked in to check out what was going on. We got upstairs only to find ourselves in the middle of a lesbian birthday party. The band was playing Melissa Etheridge covers and the party attendants gave us cake. It was a pretty good time. That was the last time that I went to a queer musical event in New Haven.
(Let me state that I use the word queer not for political reasons or with any kind of agenda. It is just the most precise tool I know. It seems to encapsulate the variability of gender and sexuality more concisely than any LGBT*** acronym I can come up with.)
A unique set of circumstances has compelled me to think about the state of queerness around these parts. We’ve got touring acts Melissa Ferrick, Erin McKeown and Ember Swift playing at The Space this month and Wild Woman Radio has organized their OutFest at Café 9 on the 13th. OutFest features Jennifer Taylor with Sweet from Hartford, Brooklynites Boyskout and Nicky Click from New Hampshire. All this got me thinking – Where are our queer musicians?
I started asking around and got pretty much the same response from everyone– there is no queer music scene locally. Partners has performers for lesbian nights, occasionally. I never see anything listed for 168 York Street. Some of the other venues have musicians who are queer, but that doesn’t make a community. For the local queers, it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Either they’re closeted or they’re out, but they don’t make an issue of it.
Maybe this isn’t the right thing to be concerned about, after all. If the people aren’t vocal, can we assume they’re content with the way things are? Maybe New Haven, as a whole, is accepting of queerness as part of the general populace and people don’t need to segregate to find solace. Or, maybe people just run away. Maybe everyone who wants to be outspoken heads off to New York or San Francisco. Are we so hip and progressive that there’s nothing left to complain about or are we so unhip and conservative that people are driven away?
Or maybe this quote from Leila Crockett of Baby G sums it up best of all:
“I believe that the choice to put first my minority interests (i.e. I am gay, I am a woman, I am 6'3", etc.) excludes the greater whole. I don't interact exclusively with gay people nor would I sing exclusively to them. As an artist, I feel that misses the point. I have a gift that enables me to communicate ideas to others and my belief is that I am obligated to use this gift with the greater good in mind.”
The other contributing factor pushing me to think about queerness on the scene is that I knew this would see print one day before National Coming Out Day (October 11.) I would like to invite the queer musicians in the Advocate's readership to come to my blog bewarethehippiemenace.blogspot.com and comment on their experiences on the scene. I'll put up a post on Thursday to get the conversation going.
I hope this is not my last word on this topic. I hope there are vast undiscovered pockets of queers rocking out in undisclosed locations all over the city. Not for security, but just because it’s fun. And I hope to find them one day.