Queer Spaces are Open Spaces

In Response to: “Drag shows aren’t free-for-alls for straight women letting loose” by Jaime Woo, published in the Globe & Mail.

Perhaps the stage is a podium, an altar, and a sacred place for people to display their artistry to the audiences of the world, and has been for the duration of history; but if you alienate yourself from all audiences, to whom are you performing? The piece presented previously does exactly that, in an attempt to educate readers, the author alienates a large group of people important to the queer community.

A drag show, like any other show, requires an audience to exist, and as a performer you want this audience to grow. Your goal is to spread your art, but if you restrict this growth to within the queer community you prevent yourself from reaching a potential audience of over 7 billion people. Yes, the goal of universal acceptance of the queer community is still a distant dream, but it is still a dream we should constantly pursue. Articles such as these isolate the queer community from the greater population.

Allowing “straight, white women”, and honestly anybody else to attend drag performances is the best way to first, have a larger audience see the performances (while also increasing sales), and second, to spread awareness of the community.

If you want more people to understand the guidelines for appreciating your art, you need to educate the ones who come, but the way in which you educate people matters. Aggression, both verbal and physical, has been used historically to exact change, however these confrontations leave people battered, bruised, and generally worse for wear.

Education should change the ideas of people in a way that will encourage them to return, and to share their experiences and knowledge with others. Education is not meant to make the audience feel affronted as the piece suggests. This is especially true now, an era where openness and cooperation between communities is of utmost importance to the social, mental and physical health of members of the queer community.

In the aforementioned piece, “straight, white women” are singled out as a group of people who are unwelcome at queer spaces, namely drag bars. They are depicted as callous, bratty, physically abusive, and primarily ignorant. These four qualities describe all purveyors of clubs and bars, especially drunk people. Yes, the bachelorette party is a particularly onerous example of these traits; however singling out this group of people is a terrible way of promoting their inclusion in queer culture. If they are ignorant of queer cultural history and club guidelines, it is because they were not raised with, or have not experienced the social norms within which queer culture resides.

The actions of disrespectful club purveyors are inexcusable, but suggesting that straight white women are the sole guilty party is wrong. These actions are present in all communities, at all clubs, and all types of performances. Disrespect is a universal quality, although it may be more apparent in the straight, white female purveyor at the gay bar because they seem out of place, but that’s only because you’re not accepting of them. To quote the original article: “But you didn’t enjoy being treated that way, so why would you want to pass that off onto someone else?” This is exactly what the author is encouraging queer spaces do by alienating the general public, but this mentality promotes both segregation, and exclusion. The queer community should be leading by example, not resigning itself to committing the same bigoted mistakes of the greater population. Be inclusive and accepting of people, even when they are not accepting of you.

Is it really a dilution of queer culture if you include non-queer people, or is it an expansion, an evolution of queer culture? Queer allies are generally loved and praised by the queer community, especially those allies who have helped to build the queer community as it is today. Should their efforts be looked at as being worth less than those actions of queer individuals? Proposing that solely queer individuals were responsible for the growth of queer culture is ignorant of queer history.

The arguments proposed in the author’s piece are contradictory and do not support the growth of the queer community and its acceptance by the greater population.  In fact, opinions such as these, trying to keep spaces and cultures separate, are part of the reason there's so much fear and misunderstanding between communities. Awareness and openness are the friends of acceptance.