Not Queer Enough
There's an event happening in San Francisco (of course) called "Not Queer Enough" on June 27th. Among the speakers are people like Max Wolf Valerio & Julia Serano.
I wish I could be there.
My own feelings of being "not queer enough" I've mentioned at various times, usually when I've felt shunned at an event or gathering, or been made to feel otherwise square for being married or monogamous or heterosexual. Shoot, I've felt "not feminist enough" for being heterosexual & married, too.
& I'm very very certain that plenty of trans people feel "not trans enough."
But not queer enough? What defines someone as queer? Their politics? Being visibly queer? Their worldview? Their haircut? Who they have sex with?
I don't know. But I'd like to be in San Francisco that night to hear other people talk about their experiences.
Here's the event details:
NOT QUEER ENOUGH: An evening of readings and screenings looking at interaction between the GL and the B and the T. From screenings of work that has been censored or rejected by the "GLBT" community as too straight, to readings from Bisexual and Transsexual writers on the shifting ground in the larger queer community, this night is relevant... and should be fun.
When: Friday, July 27th
Where: Fine Arts 101, The Coppola Theatre /Main Campus, San Francisco State University
19th and Holloway Ave
Reception: 6:00pm
Reading/ Screening: 7:00pm
THIS EVENT IS FREE.
The participant line up will include:
- Amy Larson,Founder: Chasing Amy Social Club
- Julia Serano,Author: Whipping Girl, a Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
- Gina de Vries, Bisexual and Youth Activist
- Clare Marie Myers, Masters Candidate in Creative Writing on her experience as a Bisexual Scooterist in a pack of Dykes on Bikes
- Max Valerio, Author: The Testosterone Files
- Peggy Munson, Author: Origami Striptease -Peggy's DVD, censored at the San Francisco Public Library as "too straight", will be screened
- Marsha Lanier, Adventures of A Former Fundamentalist: What happens when a Republican soccer mom discovers she's bi?
- Plus a clip from Ray Rea's film, The Sweet New, deemed "not queer" by the recent Frameline panel
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4 comments:
that's funny, I was just about to post that here, but you posted it first... Anyway, it should be a great (and much needed) event!
-julia
also, since Helen posted her thoughts about the word "queer," I suppose I should do the same (since the event's theme is "not queer enough." I think of the word queer as less of an identity (although it can be that) and more of an umbrella word to describe all people whose gender and sexual identities, expressions and preferences are considered "not straight" by the straight mainstream.
I get really really bothered when people in the queer community try to "out queer" one another. While some people's queerness is certainly more visible than others, all of us are susceptible to discrimination, suspicion, harassment, etc., once our identities and preferences become common knowledge. That pressure and fear effects all of us, regardless of whether we are initially read a straight or not. Even if you are perceived as straight, once someone finds out that you're transsexual, a crossdresser, genderqueer, engaged in a relationship with someone of the same sex or with someone who is gender variant, you still run the risk of being marginalized for it.
The sad thing is that when we start claiming that certain people are more legitimately "queerer" than others, all we're doing is setting up a new set of gender/sexual norms for our community. When we do that, we are no better than the straight people who feel that we do not have the same rights and deserve the same respect as people who are "appropriately" heterosexual & cisgender.
-julia
I just hope that this will be podcasted, youtubed, whatever for those unable to attend for geographic reasons among others.
so, how did it go? was it recorded so the rest of us can see it?
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