The Faeries were started up around 40 years ago by white, middle class, cis gay men. They wouldn’t have seen themselves in these terms; what they knew was that:
a) as homosexuals, they were gravely persecuted,
b) there was a gay civil rights movement pushing a conservative assimilationist agenda (i.e. we can earn equality if we just keep quiet and act straight) and
c) there was a need for space where faggots could 'shed the ugly green frog skin of hetero-imitation’ and explore the true and natural purpose for their sissy selves.
Harry Hay, one of these cis-gay-men, had been pushing for gay men to be seen as a human rights minority, but the Mattachine Society (the first gay rights organisation which he himself had founded) expelled him because of his communist background. After his expulsion he spent time reflecting on what might be nature's reason for creating sissies and came across writings referring to the Native American 'Berdache' (later referred to as Two-Spirit).
They were honoured members of many North American tribes. Combining male and female traits, they performed sacred ceremonies and passed on arts traditions. Harry's discovery of the Two-Spirit radically confirmed his view of gay people's role in the world.
Harry Hay chose the word ‘faeries’ rather than ‘faggots’ to describe what gay men might be(come) because, he said, “faggots (as bunches of kindling- used to set fires under witches during the burning times) can be burned or broken in half over your knee, but faeries are magical, elusive and frustrating to the "straights" who can't pin them down”
Forty years on and many of us have a well developed awareness of the workings of patriarchal, classist, racist, ableist, and colonial, systems of oppression. I am a white, middle class-ish, cis-ish gay man and, as such, am aware that I sit at the most privileged end of the LGBTQIA+ acronym within my Faerie community.
For gay men there is a tribal memory of our past oppressions, however these are nothing compared with the experience of those who are most oppressed by virtue of their positioning at the intersections of the so-called 'protected classes'.
So how do we all respond to the persisting inequalities and inequities experienced by our queer siblings? One response is to recoil from calls to check our privilege and (with an outrage akin to the weaponised ‘white tears’ of the fragile non-black privileged) maintain that since the Faeries were started by cis-men then the Faeries are for cis-men only and that non-cis-men are spoiling the fun of the party.
The alternative is to attempt the practice of radical inclusivity. To take the pains of past oppressions, transmute them into a determination to ally with the oppressed, and to address inequalities of access to our transformative Faerie-space. After all, in the cis-male gay struggle against straight oppression haven’t there been privileged allies who were kind enough to have done the same for us?
The alternative is to attempt the practice of radical inclusivity. To take the pains of past oppressions, transmute them into a determination to ally with the oppressed, and to address inequalities of access to our transformative Faerie-space. After all, in the cis-male gay struggle against straight oppression haven’t there been privileged allies who were kind enough to have done the same for us?
