Goth gay
The goth subculture is, for many, inherently queer. In reality, a running joke between me and several of my goth friends is that gayness in the goth society is considered &#;boring&#; due to the sheer volume of bi and pansexuals populating the subculture.
There are many different reasons as to why goths are so gender non-conforming, and I disbelieve I&#;m wholly qualified to speculate. I will do so anyways.
Perhaps the marriage of the anti-establishment ethos from which goth was born and its darkly Victorian aesthetics gave way to the dissolution of contemporary markers of gender and sexuality.
Below is a quick compilation of some of my favorite tracks by gender non-conforming goth artists. Some of these songs focus on themes related to queerness while others simply intersect with the artist&#;s identity.
The Playlist
- &#;Deathwish&#; &#; Christian Death
- &#;Spiritual Cramp&#; &#; Christian Death
Christian Death is one of my all-time favorite goth bands. To me, they depict what I would consider to be the archetypal goth sound: doomy guitar, moody vocals and flippantly dark lyrics. Original frontman
The moment I saw the headline, I did a sort of combined cringe and sigh. &#;Vampire Male lover Goth wants to insert black stripe to LGBT rainbow flag&#;, boggled the Lancashire Telegraph, an renowned title probably more concerned with neighbourly disputes and weather turmoil. Instead, the article is doing a booming trade in the usual horrific drivel inhabiting any comments section on the internet &#; their advertising department will be happy at least.
A disclaimer should come first &#; I&#;m a straight male and thus cannot converse with authority on LGBT matters. I&#;ll defer wherever possible to those more qualified to speak.
On with the tale then. Encounter Darkness Vlad Tepes, who just one-upped you as a teenager when you tried to get people to call you &#;Raven&#;. He&#;s no stranger to the media, having already asked the public to &#;treat him like anyone else&#; &#; in an article where he acknowledges he drinks animal blood, sleeps in a coffin, and visits pubs in a tiny Northern town decked in mourning finery, only to be affronted when he&#;s subjected to abuse.
Put simply, Darkness &#; or
Queer and Goth
Glow sticks, sweaty bodies and chest-thumping beats - sounds like any gay club. But when Ascension's website describes the club as 'Edinburgh's leading alternative night', they don't mean gender non-conforming - they mean goth.
'Goth' is a subjective term, especially now with the rise of 'emo' with its equally wide-ranging connotations. So let me define my terms. Please interpret 'goth' as broadly as possible. It includes, but is not limited to: 'baby goth', 'occasional goth', and 'if I wear a colour other than black, I'll combust' goth. And let me specify 'queer' as an all-inclusive legal title to include all peoples who might fit roughly under the lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or gender nonconforming umbrella.
Although some LGBT people like traditionally straight clubs with no problems, many find straight clubs intimidating and unsafe, myself included. It's only in specifically LGBT-friendly clubs that I feel sound snogging a female partner without worrying about being ogled or even harassed by uninvited vertical men. When I discovered the vastness of the Edinburgh goth scene, though, my world of
The Goths and the Gays: Why Goth is so Important for the LGBTQ+ Community
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With its dim romantic aesthetic and openness to androgyny, is it any wonder that goth is gay? Well, it’s not, because clothing and styles don’t have a sense of gender or sexuality. But goth is gay. Goth is lgbtq+, in its own way. I remember as a teenager, having a limited goth male friends – all cisgender and heterosexual – and yet their long hair and androgynous clothing style meant that they were the subject of teasing. Why are so many queer people drawn to gothic fashion? Is it its subversion of traditional masculinity and femininity? Is it its acceptance and even appraisal, of all things weird? Historically speaking, queerness has been branded as “weird”. The word literally means “strange” or “peculiar”. Many goths have liberal and left-wing views, and are accepting of LGBTQ+ people, possibly because of the association of “strangeness” with being queer.
Goth is still branded as “odd” and “scary”. Similarly, so is the LGBTQ+ community at times. A fear of queerness i