The Queer LA Punk Scene?
Punk is more than music. Punk is "style."
As a subculture, it provides a community for mainstream rejects by illustrating the unbelonging and disconnection necessary for its creation. Queer punk challenges hetero- and homonormativity by reconsidering what it means to create this community in opposition to both the punk movement of the 1970s and gay cultural production. Examining queer punk as style rather than as merely music reveals that participation in the subculture extends far beyond being in a band. This chapter utilizes performance, generational relationships, and cultural ephemera to document the history and highlight the presence of queer punk in Los Angeles.
Alienated and turned off by the disco scene in West Hollywood, queer punks migrated to less upscale areas, such as La Brea, to establish punk clubs where people of all races, classes, genders, and kinks were welcome (Faderman 251). The sexual ambiguity of the punk scene allowed club-goers to reject lifestyle categories and provided for more “thrilling” sexual encounters. However, the punk scene was not always this inclusive. Punk machismo often manifested itself in violent homophobia against gay men and forced many to remain in the closet. On the other hand, female punks were expected to be and accepted as pansexual, yet very few embraced lesbian identification. Despite ideological and practical rifts between mainstream feminism and these pansexual punk rockers, female punk groups “demanded what most women were still to timid to claim,” likely earning the support of mainstream feminists (Faderman 254).
Join us as we come out of the closet and into the pit.
By, Casey Diaz and Brita Loeb
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- The Queer LA Punk Scene? Brita Loeb