THE QUEER CRISIS COLLECTIVE 2014

WHO THRIVES? WHO DIES?

WHOSE BODY MATTERS?

WHOSE HISTORY SURVIVES?

WHO GETS POLICED?

WHO IS SAFE?

WHO IS MISSING?

When
the rainbow flag was first designed in 1979, each color represented a
different aspect of queer life, including hot pink for sexuality and
turquoise for magic and art. By the 1980s, those two colors were removed
and quickly forgotten about. We oppose the erasure, corporatization.
and commercialization of any radical aspects of queer culture, and so,
we reclaim the colors that remain:

RED IS FOR LIFE: WHO THRIVES?
WHO DIES? Of what value is queer success in a system fueled by
capitalism, racism, and misogyny? Why must the ascent or those who
already have money, power, and health come before the lives of those who
persist with nothing? What is the meaning of power for some or us, when
far more of us must struggle for the resources we need to live? Who do
we become when we ignore this injustice?

ORANGE IS FOR HEALING:
WHOSE BODY MATTERS? The man who leaves the gay bar, alone, week after
week—not young enough, tall enough, thin enough, light—skinned enough,
buff enough, to catch anyone’s eye. The young person who is harassed in
school by classmates while administrators tum a blind eye The person who
can’t attend activist events because the venues aren’t wheelchair
accessible. The college student who is raped on campus and leaves
school, but whose rapist goes unpunished. The trans person whose health
insurance doesn’t cover the services they need to stay alive and
healthy. The woman who finds that wealthy, white, male legislators have
more say over her reproductive health than she does. The worker whose
sweat produces the food we eat, but who is underpaid, jailed, deported.
Each is being told the same thing: Your body is not welcome here. But we
know that everybody matters.

Every body matters.

YELLOW IS
FOR SUNLIGHT (ILLUMINATION): WHOSE HISTORY SURVIVES? We walk in the
foot-steps of those who came before us: the unnamed, unknown, and
forgotten. The drag queens, fairies, fags; bull-daggers, dykes, whores.
The beaten, raped, and murdered. The homeless kids hanging out on the
piers. It was a black lesbian who threw the first punch back at police
during the Stonewall Uprising—and it was a rebellion, not a riot. Our
histories are many. But our voices have been silenced. Our stories have
been retold and twisted into narratives that no longer resemble our
truths, but parrot the ideas of those in power.We live in a world where
complexity is reduced to easily digestible sound bites, where new ideas
are tossed aside for the more familiar. How can we claw our way into the
future when we do not know our past?

GREEN IS FOR NATURE: WHO
GETS POLICED? Today, in the same neighborhoods where white gay men live
comfortably, trans women and people of color are routinely harassed by
the police. When queer and trans youth age out of the foster system,
there’s literally a prison waiting tor them. We oppose the prison
industrial complex that disproportionately incarcerates trans, black,
and Latino people. We oppose the policing of our bodies and gender
identities—not only by the actual police, but also by family members.
employers, doctors, teachers, friends, our communities, and strangers on
the street. We oppose a world where we, or anyone, are the objects of
harassment. judgment, ridicule, shunning, violence, imprisonment, and
murder.

BLUE is FOR SERENITY: WHO IS SAFE? Safety is capital We
are coerced into thinking that we need to be safe, and it’s that
delusion that pits us against each other. Capitalism is based on our
isolation from each other; power thrives when we are balkanized. For
someone to be protected, someone else has to be put in a cage. And cages
make money. Space is also capital, and it is only safe when policed. Do
we desire violence upon our bodies in the streets by random idiots?
Fuck no, but nor do we desire violence at the hands at the police, our
landlords, real estate developers, politicians, or each other.

PURPLE
IS FOR SPIRIT: WHO IS MISSING? The ubiquity of the rainbow flag has
replaced actual political engagement, and has turned those with less
privilege into ghosts. Those with resources and a birthright to
normativity are satisfied with having their rights served to them like
it’s a five-course dinner.  But who is missing? The erased are missing.
The imprisoned are missing. The millions who have died of AIDS because
of government neglect, or were murdered because they hate us, or
committed suicide because they’ve made us hate ourselves, or perished
from poverty because we lacked access to resources and medical
treatment. Our ancestors are missing from our streets and our minds, as
we forget our history.  We stand with the missing. In every story:

who
is missing?  In every neighborhood: who is missing?  In every room: who
is missing? In every bar: who is missing?  In every parade: who is
missing?  In every dream: who is missing? In every rainbow: who is
missing?