How Queer!

This past weekend was Pride Weekend in Portland, Oregon. A weekend full of block-parties, parades, queer dance parties, marches, and lots of gay shit! This weekend is about celebrating queer spaces and queer bodies, however that may be.I started out this weekend at Crush bar for the Neon Pride Black-Light Dance Party, DJed by DJ Aurora. The night was filled with queer bops like Lady Gaga's Born This Way, and The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men, as well as amazing neon costumes and body paint. One of my favorite things about Crush is their wall of queer icons, which was highlighting Stonewall this month. There were photos of Stonewall heroes such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. One of my favorites was a large print of a group of activists holding a banner stating, "Stonewall means fight back! Smash gay oppression!". Crush also has a large selection of mixed drinks, my favorite being the "A Little Switchy", a bitter citrus and hibiscus concoction

Queer-coding is when characters are given attributes, traits, or behaviors to suggest that they are queer without explicitly stating that they are. Queer-coding can also be used to mark a character as an outsider, a villain, or a target of ridicule because of the queer-coded traits. Team Rocket from Pokémon This practice originated from a code in the 1920s and 30s called the Hays Code. The Hays Code was a censorship law that was meant to discourage "bad" people or "bad" actions; this would include crimes, sex, and blasphemy, among others. It was against the code to portray a protagonist committing a crime or doing any sort of wrongdoing, unless they were subsequently punished for it. This code was technically optional, but if you wanted to be making movies in Hollywood, this code needed to be followed, otherwise no movie company would endorse it. Writers, directors, and producers would not want to sanction a film that would not be approved by the Hays Code, b

The movie "Jongens" is a Dutch language movie which follows Siger, a teen athlete, through training for the championship relay race and discovering his sexuality. A flirtatious friendship develops between Siger and Marc after the two share kisses at the lake, while swimming after practice one night. The boys also attend a training camp for the upcoming relay race, which they are both part of, and the two sneak out to go to the beach together. When Siger's friend Stef begins to date a girl, encouraging Siger to do the same, Marc gets pushed away due to Siger's confusion and misunderstanding of his own emotions. Throughout the entire movie Siger seems very pensive and a bit hesitant about the relationship, and seems to be confused about his feelings for Marc; this leads to Marc feeling confused and ignored, and the boys have a fight, after a girl kisses Siger in front of Marc. Siger tries to apologize to Marc, but Marc, who was expecting more of an explanation, brushe

"Der Eigene" (English: The Own) was the first magazine in the world catered to gay men, founded in 1896 by Adolf Brand. The name of the magazine comes from Max Stirner's 1844 anarchist text "Der Einzige und sein Eigentum", which literally translates to "the individual and his property"; a revolutionary piece which argues that every person should have complete autonomy over all aspects of their lives. Inspired by this classic anarchist work, Brand decided to call his magazine "Der Eigene" to symbolize autonomy over one's own life and body, including sex and sexuality, which was the main focus of the magazine. The magazine came from German creators, mainly Adolf Brand, and featured poems, articles, prose, art, drawings, and nude photographs, as well as contributions and collaborations from other German poets and artists. In the 1920s, the magazine's content shifted from primarily gay prose, culture, and art, to have a more political

Alfred Kinsey was a sexologist who founded the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, now known as the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University. The institute is meant "to advance sexual health and knowledge worldwide." Kinsey and the Institute itself were very controversial in the 1940s and 50s when Kinsey was the director, due to the open discussion of sex and sexuality that Dr. Kinsey and the Institute itself were encouraging. Alfred Kinsey also developed the Kinsey Scale, which is a scale used in research to describe a person's sexuality at a specific time. The scale ranges from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. Kinsey also included an “X” range, which would indicate, "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions". The Kinsey Scale was first published in Alfred Kinsey's 1948 report, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”, then later in the 1953 report, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Femal

English poet and groundbreaking lesbian author, Radclyffe Hall, who identified as an "invert". The word “queer” originally meant "strange", "odd", "peculiar", or "eccentric". We see "queer" being used in this way in the old northern English expression, "There's nowt so queer as folk", meaning, "There is nothing as strange as people." It wasn't until about the 1890s when "queer" was beginning to be used with a somewhat negative connotation. This word had started to imply sexual deviance, and referred to feminine men or men who would engage in same-sex relationships. In the early 20th century, people who had a sexual or gender identity that was considered abnormal, preferred to identify themselves as an "invert", referring to the reversal of gender roles in queer people at the time. By the mid 20th century, the "invert" identity was not being used as much, and peopl

The rainbow flag has been used by the gay community since its creation in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, and artist in San Francisco. Openly gay activist and politician Harvey Milk approached Baker and asked him to come up with a symbol of pride for the gay community. Previously the community had been using the pink triangle symbol, which had been reclaimed by queer people after it had been used by Nazi Germany to identify and persecute homosexuals. This pink triangle was used as a symbol of remembrance and action against persecution. The original pride flag included eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet, where each stripe stood for a different aspect of the gay community. The original Pride Flag design by Gilbert Baker in 1978. Pink represented sexuality, red stood for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, indigo for serenity, and violet represented spirit. The first two rainbow flags were

In late 1959, New York City's mayor Robert Wagner began ordering the closing of the city's gay bars, which had numbered almost two dozen in Manhattan at the beginning of the year. Existing gay bars were hastily closed and new ones barely lasted. The election of a new mayor, John Lindsay, in 1965 began a major shift in city politics, and the social atmosphere of New York shifted. This was the only photograph taken during the first night of the riots. It shows homeless youth scuffling with police. This photograph was on the front page of the New York Daily News on June 29th, 1969.   On April 21, 1966, several gay activists staged the Sip-In at Julius' Bar on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. This Sip-In resulted in the anti-gay accommodation rules of the NY State Liquor Authority being overturned in subsequent court actions. These SLA provisions that had been overturned stated that it was illegal for gays to congregate and be served alcoholic beverages in bars