Be gay do crimes origin
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Reading this book is essential to understand how far we’ve come and how much danger still exists. As LGBTQ+ people continue to face challenges today, we must return to our roots and Be Gay, Do Crime.”
—Allison Chapman, LGBTQ+ activist and legislative researcher
“Be Gay, Do Crime is a provocation.
Do yourself a favor—steal this book and learn our history that has been hidden for far too long.”
—Josh Davidson, coeditor ofRattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisonersand Certain Days calendar collective member
“This book brought me to tears. Packed with daily snapshots of radical queer history, this book celebrates the bold, the brave, and the beautifully defiant moments that have shaped the fight for justice.
Ever wonder why the Stonewall protests became an uprising or what the earliest acts of queer resistance looked like?
Their academic writing has appeared or is forthcoming in journals likeGLQ: The Journal of Gay and Lesbian StudiesandPUBLIC: A Journal of Imagining America, as well as edited volume chapters inBlack Feminist Sociology: Perspectives and PraxisandUnsafe Words: Queer Perspectives on Consent in the #MeToo Era.
Reading it should reignite anyone’s commitment to social justice.”
—Beck Banks, transgender media studies scholar and activist
“Be Gay, Do Crime is a beautiful collection of daily bite-sized lessons in queer history. By disrupting our commonplace ideas about chronology and progress, Be Gay, Do Crime offers a way to think about history differently: not as a straight line leading to a single inevitable present but as a queer tangle, spawning multiple possible futures.
As necessary remedy, this collection invites us all to know collective revolt’s past so that we might also make its future.”
—Eric A. Stanley, author of Atmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable
“It takes a multiplicity of tactics and histories to make liberation, and we can only win by struggling persistently together, day by day.
What if learning about queer and trans histories was an everyday practice? It is an honor to read this history and stand with the gay community as the struggle against bigotry continues to this day. Mark Bieschke, a curator at the GLBT History Museum, claimed that the slogan is meant to stand against the "polished, corporate narrative of Pride".[1][2]
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Meaning
"Be gay, do crime" is meant to be anti-capitalist and anti-authority in nature.
The phrase is meant to imply some crime and incivility may be necessary to earn equal rights considering the fact that being gay was illegal in the United States and is still illegal in various other countries, along with the fact that the Stonewall uprising was a riot and was crucial in advancements for LGBT rights. This book reminds us that we are bound across time and space with others who challenged and continue to challenge the criminalization of difference.
As necessary remedy, this collection invites us all to know collective revolt’s past so that we might also make its future.”
—Eric A. Stanley, author ofAtmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable
“It takes a multiplicity of tactics and histories to make liberation, and we can only win by struggling persistently together, day by day.Be Gay, Do Crimeoffers insight to forge queer and trans revolt and inspires new futures by naming our collective past.
Up the Queers!”
—Eric King, coeditor of Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners
“When conventional gender and sex behaviours become enshrined in law, queers must become law breakers. As LGBTQ+ people continue to face challenges today, we must return to our roots andBe Gay, Do Crime.”
—Allison Chapman, LGBTQ+ activist and legislative researcher
“Be Gay, Do Crimeis a provocation.
Up the Queers!”
—Eric King, coeditor ofRattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners
“When conventional gender and sex behaviours become enshrined in law, queers must become law breakers. What if learning about queer and trans histories was an everyday practice? Learning and sharing this history of radical resistance is as urgent now as it has ever been.
It is an honor to read this history and stand with the gay community as the struggle against bigotry continues to this day. The slogan has spread into becoming commonly put on signs at Pride parades and LGBT-related protests, as well as being frequently used in graffiti.
This daybook is a keeper!”
—Rahne Alexander, intermedia artist and writer from Baltimore
“Without an understanding of trans/queer insurgent history it’s hard to Imagine beyond the cage of gay pragmatism. Organized like a daily calendar rather than a history textbook, this unique and useful book brings together stories that are usually separated by centuries: the birth of Emma Goldman in Lithuania on June 27, 1869, for example, appears alongside the launch of the first Trans Pride March in Toronto on June 27, 2009.
Let’s be gay, do crime, and build queer worlds—together.”
—Craig Jennex, coauthor ofOut North: An Archive of Queer Activism and Kinship in Canada
About the Contributors
Zane McNeillis the editor ofY’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia(PM Press, 2022) and coeditor ofDeviant Hollers Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future(University Press of Kentucky, 2024).
Blu Buchananis an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at UNC Asheville.
Learning and sharing this history of radical resistance is as urgent now as it has ever been. The love, compassion, empathy, and rage of the queer community in the face of white supremacist violence and ignorance shows us the way forward.