A friend told us that the summer, like the night, is a queer time. And June, in the west, is Pride month. We all came out in different ways at different times, and every June when we see all the posts about Pride, we think about what it means…
Privileged people like us three, Carolyn’s Fingers, can afford to be openly out and queer. And proud! But we can’t help but get a pang of self-consciousness sometimes when we see free and careless posts about ‘being out’ … we must remember those who cannot – those for whom coming out is inconceivable, a concept wholly foreign. ‘Coming out’ is, after all, a very Western concept and we should be careful of not trying to impose it to anyone else, or use it as a moral high ground.
We feel lucky that in our different ways, all three of us are now almost fully confident in our queer identities. But it’s important not to forget that we still have a lot to protest for, even in countries like the UK – violence against trans people (and specifically against trans women of colour), queer kids being homeless, suffering from disproportionately high mental health issues, LGBTQ refugee deportations.
We would like all of us to be thoughtful of our privilege when celebrating Pride, and fully seeing and understanding the rest of our queer family world wide.
Our songs are often about our queerness and about protest… Maybe because they are very complex issues, we find it easier to use myths to create our own queer utopia – like our latest (and second ever) track Twice Born, which is a love story between a god and a mortal.
Love, solidarity, empathy, pride,
Jess, Carmen, and Chess
