After I photoshopped it up I made prints of my version to give to a few people who supported a comic book anthology done by queer prisoners called ABO comix and have kept printing them since then.’
As far as I know “Be Gay Do Crime” is from the communal grab-bag of anti-assimilationist queer slogans. Like “ACAB” or “Stonewall was a Riot” it was pulled from the chaotic ether, originated nowhere and belongs to nobody.
But I guess you could claim this meme popularized it further? After it was released to the internet I suddenly started seeing it used way more on banners at Pride, tagged on more walls, heard it shouted as people jump train turnstiles.’
Crime” is the word used to describe the survival tactics many
marginalized people must use to survive under capitalism, one reason
queers are among those most likely to be locked up. Especially if you
also happen to be trans, PoC, sex worker (especially post-SESTA/FOSTA)
or just any identifiable type of lower caste.‘So what else should we do besides thumb our nose at the very idea of law? We’re still out here risking arrest, filling up the frontlines, countering fascists in the streets.
We’re still out here risking arrest just to stay fed, housed and alive while waiting to drown in boiling sea water and no cis-gay winning elected office has done a whole lot to change that material reality.
But expropriating entire shopping carts worth of video games, art supplies and baguettes to redistribute amongst all the poor gay kids like faggot Father Christmas has at least brought us some comfort.
So I guess the slogan means we’re done negotiating with mainstream gays over respectability. We realized being a gay criminal is the coolest thing you could be and war on bourgeois morality is the coolest thing you could do.’
DAMN THAT’S WELL WORDED AND JUST YES
I got interviewed about the Be Gay Do Crime meme because the future is fucking wild.
QueerAnarchism 