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| Queer British Art - the Tate poster |
I have a small claim to fame in that my partner Leena and I attended the first gay church wedding in Britain. At least I think we did. Whether someone else had beaten our friends to this odd distinction I neither know nor greatly care, but it is still impossible for two men or women to marry each other officially in a church in the UK – and that is unlikely to change anytime soon with the openly hostile Democratic Unionist Party keeping the Conservatives in power after Theresa May’s spectacularly unsuccessful election call recently. Actually very few of those present at the event registered that it had no legal standing. It was a good ceremony and a good party afterwards and that was enough. The priest who performed the ceremony was near to retirement and, provided we were all discreet, he was happy to bind our friends together in the eyes of God, which one of them at least wanted.
Recently I stumbled across the Gay Pride
March in London. It was one of those sweltering days we have had plenty of this
summer and I did not spend a lot of time observing the march but it started
before I went into the matinee and was still going strong afterwards, so they
spent a whole afternoon marching and partying.
Whatever you think of gays, you have to admit they know how to
party. I took some photos and later used
them on the front page of a magazine I edit when I had to spike the article I
was planning to use at the last minute. You can se
Having established my gay-friendly credentials,
I can now express my reservations. When
I did not know better, I used to use the word ‘queer’ quite casually when
referring to gay people but I have now expunged it from my vocabulary. Like the ‘n word’ it was considered casually
derogatory by many who adopted the word ‘gay’ as an alternative, a good one I
thought as it gave off a positive vibe which was totally at odds with the
furtive, frightened outlook and lifestyle so many gay/queer/homosexual people
had to adopt when it was still illegal for two men to have sex together. This law was repealed fifty years ago and
this was one of the things they were celebrating in the march, while expressing
support for those who still face persecution.
What gays have been suffering in Chechnya recently is beyond misery.
Now, however, the word ‘queer’ has
been re-appropriated and we are seeing references to the LGBTQ community rather
than the LGBT one. Four letters are
quite enough to cover all bases in an effective and economic way – male and
female homosexuals, bisexuals and trans people.
Why is it necessary to add queer to this list in a kind of ironic
throwback to the days when its use signified lack of acceptance and
intolerance? I can only think that its
use is similar to that of African-Americans who use what we now refer to as
‘the n word’ when referring to each other.
You see this is films featuring black characters – although its use is
much less frequent than previously – and it presumably reflects what actually
happens. Black women were particularly
prone to referring to their men as useless/feckless ‘n…rs’ with the implication
that they needed to shape up if they wanted to enjoy the rewards and comforts
of a relationship.
I asked a gay friend why the ‘q’ word
was coming back. I gathered from
Andrew’s answer that it was through an identification with the alternative to
the mainstream, that some gay people did not want to be accepted by a society
that had previously rejected them and wanted to preserve their otherness
intact. In order to do this they re-adopt a word I – thoroughly in the
mainstream – have rejected in the name of tolerance. There is something a little middle-aged
trendy in this, like a conventional dad trying to get down with the kids. Or the public school-educated former
stockbroker Nigel Farage referring disparagingly to ‘the establishment’ as
though he were not completely part of it himself, trying to put across the idea
that he was a radical because he disagreed with what a lot of other people
believe. Farage, incidentally, is
against allowing gays to get married. So
much for his alternative image.
When a couple of gays – say the two
whose wedding we attended – celebrate their silver wedding and invite people
over for sherry and cake and we all accept just as we would do if they were a
straight couple, only then will homophobia be dead in the UK. In the same way, only when it seems perfectly
natural for a white actor to play Othello can we be sure that racism has died
(link). When people are accepted they
inevitably become a little bit boring, living lives in which they drink sherry,
tend their gardens and listen to the BBC.
They also be able to serve in the army, a privilege just denied to trans
people by Donald Trump, who had previously promised to protect them.
I was thinking of this when I went to
the Tate Gallery to see an exhibition of gay paintings called ‘Queer British Art
1861 to 1967’. Admittedly this covers
the period when there was an element of queerness in being gay because it was
still illegal. However, I would have
much preferred it to have been called ‘Gay British Art’. I was going to boycott the exhibition because
of the name but that seemed churlish so I went along and enjoyed it – all
except the title. I will continue to
boycott the ‘q word’ and think all gays and gay-friendly straights should do so
as well.
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com. EDWIN LERNER
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