{"id":37877,"date":"2023-10-27T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T19:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=37877"},"modified":"2023-10-27T15:51:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T19:51:34","slug":"the-queer-punks-are-ready-to-piss-in-ron-desantis-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/10\/27\/the-queer-punks-are-ready-to-piss-in-ron-desantis-backyard\/","title":{"rendered":"The Queer Punks are Ready to Piss in Ron DeSantis\u2019 Backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s become something of a rite of passage for punk rock bands across North America to load up their vans and drive down to Florida every October to play\u00a0The Fest<\/a>, a long-running independent punk music festival in the quaint landlocked college town of Gainesville. Attendees and performers fly from around the world for the weekend bash, now in its 21st year, to reunite with Fest friends, mosh, and guzzle Pabst Blue Ribbon. Decidedly more small-time and community-based than bigger punk blowouts like Riot Fest or Punk Rock Bowling, Fest has cultivated a reputation as a safe, inclusive event where homophobia, transphobia, racism, and other prejudices are shut down by a crowd of progressive punks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Bay Area punk outfit Middle-Aged Queers played Fest for the first time last year, it felt like a joyous homecoming. So after Fest organizers reached out in January to invite them back for this year\u2019s edition, which runs from Oct. 27 to 29, the band immediately agreed. But by May, they were having second thoughts. Florida Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0<\/a>had announced the signing of\u00a0a slate of new bills\u00a0<\/a>targeting the\u00a0LGBTQ+\u00a0<\/a>community, including one that would\u00a0prohibit trans people from using restrooms\u00a0<\/a>that match their gender and one that would\u00a0restrict them from accessing healthcare<\/a>. Other legislation was aimed at\u00a0halting drag performances\u00a0<\/a>and banning\u00a0discussion of gender and sexuality in schools<\/a>. (The drag bill has already been overturned by a Florida judge.) Suddenly, being a queer band playing in Florida felt more dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat does it mean for a queer punk band to be playing in the midst of all this, and then also, how are we going to traverse public spaces as a queer punk band?\u201d Middle-Aged Queers vocalist Shaun Osburn tells The Daily Beast of their hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Fureigh, the band\u2019s guitarist, wondered what the bathroom situation would be in Gainesville. Florida\u2019s decision to\u00a0allow permitless concealed carry, which came into effect this summer, only compounded their anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not illegal anywhere else in this country for me to use a bathroom, as far as I\u2019m aware,\u201d the guitarist says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis\u2019 legislative assault on LGBTQ+ people in Florida has prompted conversations among diehard Fest fans, and especially queer and trans attendees and performers who, like Fureigh, began to question if they\u2019d be safe there. People began to ask: Will the Fest go on? Should it go on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pondering those questions with The Daily Beast, Fest founder Tony Weinbender said that on social media people pressed him about canceling or moving the festival. Ultimately, though, neither option was ever on the table for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t we do an event where you can bring thousands of people that oppose bills like this?\u201d Weinbender says. \u201cThe point is you\u2019re supposed to try to fight these bills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 23, Fest\u00a0shared on its social media pages\u00a0<\/a>that the event\u2014which last year drew around 8,000 attendees over three days\u2014would continue to celebrate \u201cLGBT+ expression\u201d and would investigate additional security measures. In Fest Friends, a Facebook group that boasts over 6,000 members, some wondered whether artists would drop out. But Weinbender and Sarasvati Seixas, who have worked with Fest for 10 years in different capacities, confirmed that no bands have canceled their appearances, and no ticket-buyers have asked for refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weinbender and Seixas say the Fest organizing team has held dozens of Zoom meetings to discuss safety and planning, but that for the moment, no additional safety measures are required. Fest is in its third year of enforcing strict bag checks at its venues, and Florida\u2019s concealed carry law still prohibits bringing firearms into bars and city parks, which are the main venues for Fest. And while DeSantis\u2019 anti-trans bathroom bill is indeed worrying, Weinbender noted that it applies only to bathrooms in state-owned properties, including government buildings and schools. Private businesses aren\u2019t impacted by the bill, and all Fest venues will have gender-neutral restrooms for the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weinbender says it helps that Gainesville is \u201ca diamond in the rough\u201d in Florida, with a strong LGBTQ+ community and progressive-leaning leadership. Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward signed a statement along with mayors from Orlando, Tampa, Tallahassee, and more to oppose DeSantis\u2019 anti-trans bills and pledge their support for queer residents. In late September, Gainesville announced it would\u00a0award a key to the city to Laura Jane Grace<\/a>, the trans solo artist and frontperson of the legendary Gainesville punk band Against Me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace, who is performing at Fest this year, moved from Florida to Chicago in 2013 to access better trans health care because \u201cbeing transgender in Florida back in 2012 fucking sucked,\u201d she explains. After the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando in 2016, Grace said she experienced heightened anxiety at shows, especially in Florida. But when she toured the state in April this year, some of her fears dissipated: the new administration\u2019s bills are just \u201cthe same shit it\u2019s always been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Ron DeSantis is a real fucker,\u201d Grace tells The Daily Beast. But she\u2019s prepared to fight the anti-trans bathroom bills by whatever means necessary. \u201cIf people wanna see me fucking shit outside on somebody\u2019s fucking lawn, fuck you, I\u2019ll fucking do that. I\u2019ll piss in the alley like a dog if that\u2019s what you prefer. I\u2019ll get really nasty and confrontational with people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jer Hunter, who lives in Gainesville and will perform at Fest with their band We Are The Union, has been attending Fest since 2013, and praises its unique connection with queer communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone that I know through Fest has been queer or at least in close proximity to queer people. I don\u2019t feel that way when it comes to punk in general,\u201d Hunter says, noting that DeSantis\u2019 beliefs don\u2019t represent all Floridians. \u201cDeSantis is doing X, Y, and Z at a state level, and those things are very heavy and make a lot of long-term change on people\u2019s lives, but DeSantis isn\u2019t forcing Floridians person by person to be anti-trans or racist. We have the power to cultivate whatever spaces that we create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, keeping those spaces safe for Fest attendees is more important than ever before. Online, people have offered to accompany other attendees to the bathroom if they\u2019re nervous\u2014a practice that\u2019s happened at prior Fests. Mike McDowell, who lives in Tampa Bay and has been to Fest seven times, said that in general Fest is a safe community, but that he and his friends will offer escorted walks to various venues for fans who may feel unsafe, directions to businesses that support LGBTQ+ people, or a call-out if people refuse to use proper pronouns. \u201cSafety looks like any good mutual aid effort,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weinbender clarified to The Daily Beast that Fest organizers haven\u2019t received any threats or signs of disturbance, but in previous years, Trump supporters and other hate groups have shown up to harass attendees. Some suspect that\u00a0an August shooting of a trans woman\u00a0<\/a>at a bus stop in Gainesville was motivated by anti-trans hate. Along with Floridian allies like McDowell, some bands have expressed that they\u2019re ready to protect their queer friends at Fest should threats arise. \u201clol I dare someone to show up to Fest looking to start shit,\u201d the Florida band Virginity\u00a0tweeted<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019ll find the fight you\u2019re looking for and you will be fucked up by a thousand punks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sentiment was recently echoed by Nikki Derella, whose band BUIO OMEGA is playing Fest this year. After a friend of the band suggested they drop out because it wouldn\u2019t be safe for trans people to be in Florida, Derella\u2019s immediate reaction \u201cwas a big-time \u2018hell no,\u2019\u201d and the band even wrote and published a statement <\/a>expressing their solidarity with queer Floridians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy should I ignore my own queer friends and exclude them from a half hour of fun and joy because their government is trying to eradicate them from society?\u201d Derella says. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful act of solidarity to show that no matter how hard the state of Florida attempts to eradicate trans and queer people from public life, we will stand up taller, yell, scream, and shout louder, and gather in larger and larger groups to show that we will never go back to closets or caskets ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Middle-Aged Queers, Osburn and Fureigh, along with their bandmates, ultimately decided that they would play Fest, along with a queer offshoot festival called Queer the Fest. They\u2019ve done some special planning to prepare, like getting a hotel room close to the venues to have access to a private restroom\u2014and Fureigh says, \u201cI am absolutely actively practicing to be able to pee outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they\u2019re confident that others at Fest will be on their team should any issues arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll we\u2019ve ever had is each other, and as long as we continue to organize and show up for each other, we\u2019ve dealt with worse collectively,\u201d Fureigh says. \u201cI\u2019m not too worried about being amongst the weirdos at the punk festival.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s become something of a rite of passage for punk rock bands across North America to load up their vans and drive down to Florida every October to play\u00a0The Fest,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[6477],"class_list":["post-37877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-the-queer-punks-are-ready-to-piss-in-ron-desantis-backyard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}