Anonymous asked
what homophobic band dropped out of warped tour?
guttermouth! its even on their spotify page ↓ i love “political comments”
gerard never named the band when he talked about it or went into much detail about what happened behind the scenes (besides the fact that the creator of warped put them nearby each other on purpose for the drama which is a whole different thing and that guy is insane), but accounts from people who attended that warped are soooo telling
Anonymous asked
👩🦲To quote Gerard Way: "[...] There was so much macho agression at punk shows and when Bikini Kill came out diametrically opposed to that, I got it immediately. I always felt like I belonged there, instead of some hardcore show. When My Chem would go on early tours there'd be bands opening for us telling girls to take off their tops, and we'd get agitated- all the problems that nu metal caused were still around and in this scene. That awareness came from Bikini Kill. Sonically, they were the best: Fast, noisy punk that was completely arrogant, reckless, bold and daring."
TELL ME WHERE THATS FROM OR I’LL DIE. and have you seen this one also i think youre the only person who understands me
“it was really freeing to be able to talk about gender identity btw”
i hope anyone who belittles what gerard's made public of his personal relationship with queerness sees this. i think it's important to understand all kinds of queerness, including the ambiguous. tho i dont know how ambiguous gerard is. he consistently goes out of his way to show his connection to nonconforming gender + sexuality, and investment in queer art + culture, and love for queer people.
he explicitly began sharing his interest in gender nonconformity around this time, 2014. he has said that it was awakened by laura jane grace's coming out. she came out in 2012, but ive only seen him mention this in 2015 (hesitant alien tour video) and 2018 (the advocate, which is alllll about this topic). his 01/2014 tweet praising against me!'s transgender dysphoria blues sparked a long conversation on trans rep with trans/nonbinary fans (including mention of when he dressed in feminine clothes pre-my chem (with reply), something he only talked about in 2013 (with replies) and some mcr interviews (2004) (2005)).
and he kept getting shit for it. i just went down the nastiest rabbit hole of (former?) mcr fans circa 2014-15 arguing in horrendous faith against his engagement with queerness. that he did it for attention, without purpose, to hide closeted relationships. that he was Hurting gay kids by "being in the closet". that he was prioritizing allies over queer people. that he was willfully ignorant. that he was appropriating queer culture. i dont want to link full posts for a few reasons (the posts are years-old, they were unhealthy, this isnt a Call Out), but they are not hard to find.
the issue even made it to print when gerard discussed his shelved comic series "all ages", which is the subject of the 2014 trans rep threads (one of the people in the same thread even predicted the push back).
ALThe got shit for using neutral "they" on laura jane in the 2015 video. she was fine with it. it lead to a nice point of connection.
this was controversial enough he not only asked ljg about it but asked her publicly. and not only did she express neutrality but PREFERENCE for "they" pronouns. AND NOT ONLY DID SHE EXPRESS PREFERENCE BUT GERARD DID TOO! this is an indication of the critics' severe unwillingness to understand queerness outside their own.
there is a push for hegemony in how to be queer and how to treat queer people. as if there is an agreed upon "good" and "bad". this ignores 1. the personal relationships people have with their gender and sexuality, 2. the varied understandings of queerness across education and generation and lifestyle, 3. the unpredictability of emotion, 4. the context including other people, the place, the intent, and 5. the individual capacity for exercising empathy. as if we shouldnt ask questions. as if we should just know by referring to an imaginary handbook. which, oh, turns out to be wrong in this case.
on the flip side, this conversation is a demonstration of what queer understanding should be. asking direct questions, being respectful, connecting to each other. learning new shit (or new ways to express shit) about yourself through others. gerard tweeted he preferred he/they pronouns with no preference 2 days after this interaction.
i should say now that this post isnt about finding evidence. if you take one thing out of this, it's that queerness is more complicated than single experiences. these tweets and interviews mean as much as their content. im collecting them to show a thread of how gerard has publicly identified with gender nonconformity outside of performance art.
there are many reasons why someone would be interested in trans identity and representation. why someone would adopt non-conforming presentation. why someone would express their personal experiences in a vulnerable topic. personally, i dont identify as transgender but ive recently discovered a strong connection to gender nonconformity and agender identity. gerard's interactions with gender queerness is one of the few times ive seen myself reflected, which is maybe why im so invested in this.
if all these diverse developments (and more i didnt include) happened within a year or two, there is a dozen-fold that happened in private throughout his many years. they wouldve been public if they needed to be -- they didnt.
i wanna go back to were this post started.
later, they reiterated this sentiment.
and again. and again.
this was the only part of the ama that carried over onto his twitter. unlike the original ama answer which focused on personal identification, these comments are a celebration of connection, expression, and freedom.
i dont know how the two common conclusions are: "this person is cis -> he shouldnt talk about trans people" or "this person is trans -> his personal identity is the only thing that matters". my theory of purposeful ambiguity as queerness aside, this isnt about gerard. all these public interactions are about trans / gnc / queer fans. as it happened: importance of trans representation in the 2014 all ages threads, sensitivity of trans issues in the 2014 kerrang article, relation to trans fans in the 2014 ama, acceptance of trans people in the 2014-15 hesitant alien shows, respecting trans people in the 2015 laura jane-gerard thread.
connection, expression, and freedom. literally what's more queer than that.
not the mcr archivist in sellout spitting about the band’s longstanding no sexism, no racism, no homophobia philosophy, gerard way feminine performance, inclusive pit etiquette, and broken beaten damned dynamic. all at once. all in print.
I've literally never read any of this segment Gerard Way wrote (?) for Rolling Stone about Queen before?? lowkey got jump scared by his name while reading this article /pos
My dad was a mechanic. He worked on a lot of bottom-of-the-rung cars that didn't have cassette decks. But they had 8-tracks. Somebody left an 8-track tape of Queen's Greatest Hits in a car — the one where they're wearing leather jackets on the cover, and Freddie's got the mustache. I loved it immediately, and I came to emulate Freddie both as a child and as an adult.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is arguably the greatest song ever written. I'm sure people told them it was too long or had too many movements. But then it came out and just took hold of the world. When you're in a band and you find something that breaks every rule, it gives you creative hope. And Queen were always trying something new; none of their hit songs were paint-by-numbers.
When My Chemical Romance were making The Black Parade, we watched tons of documentary footage about A Night at the Opera, Queen's best album. We used Brian May amps and wrote songs with different movements. But we didn't try to make another "Bohemian Rhapsody." Whenever someone tries to do that, they fail.
I love the way Freddie performed. He would strike amazing poses; maybe he practiced them in front of a mirror, but he wasn't pretending to be somebody else. That was him telling the world, "This is who I am." I remember when the surviving members of Queen were looking for a singer a few years ago, I was like, "I would love to try it." Freddie's songs are just so much fun to sing, and he had such stamina. I would definitely have to quit smoking to be able to do what he did.
Queen fell in and out of being cool, maybe because they were so sincere. Rock music is all about being phony sometimes. And they weren't. They were obviously so psyched to be doing what they were doing.
They had a polarizing quality. I heard a story — maybe apocryphal — that Queen played a festival and got booed off the stage. Freddie vowed they would return as the biggest band in the world. And they did. When we played the Reading and Leeds festivals, we had to follow Slayer, and got bottles of piss thrown at us. I thought, "If we ever come back here, we're gonna headline it." I've always held on to the same dreams as Freddie.
Best Musicians, Artists of All Time According to Rolling Stone – Rolling Stone
“But it did seem like something was always coming up, getting in the way of communication. Over the years, I just think this is how I operate—sometimes I’m around, and sometimes I’m not. I used to attribute the times when I was around to manic episodes, and then the times when I am gone to depressed phases, but I think it’s a little more basic than that. I think I just have a limit to how available I can make myself over long periods of time, especially when I’m learning things. So, I think my life will always be a series of disappearing and reappearing acts. I’m at peace with that.” Gerard 28/12/2016
He’s doing it…he’s taking over tumblr.
knittingandtears
g EA RARD
SOMEONE STOP HIM
may-gerard-never-stop-you
OH MY GOSHSHHSHSHSHSH GERARD
gerard-hey
CLICK HIS URL
M6 Music interview, 1999