How Pansy Divisn blazed a trail as one of rock's first openly gay bands: 'It seemed like there were a lot of people wag for somethg like to happen'

Contents:

• SMELLS LIKE QUEER SPIR: HOW '90S PUNKS PANSY DIVISN BLAZED A TRAIL AS ONE OF ROCK'S FIRST OPENLY GAY BANDS
• GAY PUNK ROCKER WR MEMOIR
• TOP 5 GAY, BI, AND QUEER MEN POP PUNK
• GAY PUNK MIC

SMELLS LIKE QUEER SPIR: HOW '90S PUNKS PANSY DIVISN BLAZED A TRAIL AS ONE OF ROCK'S FIRST OPENLY GAY BANDS

Pansy Divisn, "Fem a Black Leather Jacket" Fun-lovg Bay Area gay rock mastays Pansy Divisn brought homopunk to the mass when the group toured wh Green Day the 1990s.

As the volist and bass player for the semal proggy metal-tged hard rock band Kg’s X, Doug Pnick me out 1998, durg an terview wh the Christian magaze, an irony due to the spirual and upliftg nature of the mic and lyrics which attracted many Christian fans who were agast homosexualy. But spe this vlent past, he has been an open homosexual wh no reluctance or remorse, and 2010 even won Gay Person of the Year Bergen, Norway. Before Cynic both Reert and Masvidal played as members of the legendary band Death, wh the one and only Chuck Schulder, and durg this time, and their time wh Cynic, they most likely led double liv as secretly homosexual mal a predomantly macho male extreme metal aggrsive ttosterone filled mil scene.

GAY PUNK ROCKER WR MEMOIR

Led by openly gay ontman, volist Gary Floyd, the band broke up 1986 but was revived aga 2004. At, Texas-based hardre punk band MDC might be known by different nam cludg Millns of Dead Cops, Multi-Death Corporatn, Millns Of Dead Children, and Millns Of Damn Christians, but sce the begng of the band, 1979, the one nstant has been the antic, charismatic ontman Dave Dictor, who has ed the fury of punk to sg agast racism war, rporate ntrol, and favor of animal and human rights, equaly for gays, mori, and women.

TOP 5 GAY, BI, AND QUEER MEN POP PUNK

Sce then the band has been ragg on agast homophob, palists, and racists g the force of hardre punk. Lookg back, wh the black tight leather, chas, and suggtive lyrics, ’s no surprise that Halford is a gay man, and proud of .

Fans may openly embrace a gay Elton John, Melissa Etheridge or Ricky Mart now, but over the past 50 years or more ’s been a stggle for most queer artists to live their liv openly and whout shame and persecutn. His theatril scream-sgg, macho stage prence, and all-around badassery (bt showsed on inic rerds like 1980’s Brish Steel and 1982’s Screamg for Vengeance) prompted many fans to ll him “Metal God:” a tradnally mascule trope Halford boldly upend Febary 1998, when he me out as gay an MTV News terview. As the earlit show of queer solidary om a proment metal mician, Halford’s admissn proved val rhapg the public perceptn of heavy metal, repostg an earspltg, heteronormative boys’ club as a safe space where headbangers of all typ uld be themselv, sheltered the flailg arms of not jt a benevolent (and openly gay) God, but the scene wr large.

” The fact that he did all while beg pletely open about his sexualy – llg himself “rock’s tt fairy” – is astoundg and, for a brief, shg moment 1974, Jobriath beme the most visible gay man popular mic.

GAY PUNK MIC

While the “Queen of Dis” is a tle most monly btowed upon Donna Summer, also appli to Sylvter, who was a fixture of the dis scene and an in of the gay liberatn movement that spawned out of San Francis. It wasn’t until after hostg var episos of the show for a uple years – which all centered on LGBT issu – that she spoke openly about her partner of over two s and the stggl of beg gay the mic dtry. “I thk the rerd dtry – by and large what’s left of – is still totally homophobic, ” she said, notg that she me out her twenti and never went to “lengths” to nceal .

Brish punk rocker Tom Robson achieved chart succs wh h songs “2-4-6-8 Motorway”, “Up Agast the Wall” and “Don’t Take No for an Answer, ” but he’ll always be immortalized for his sgalong prott anthem, “Glad to be Gay. ” Origally wrten for a 1976 London gay pri march, the song was nearly banned by the BBC 1978 – although DJ John Peel fied the stricture. Swappg out punk moralist clichés for LGBT issu, the them unrlg the group’s mic give voice to both fury and hope for gay punks.

One of the very first openly gay rock bands, they formed 1991 right the middle of the AIDS crisis, and almost lerally lghed the face of tragedy wh their sophomoric but ultimately unifyg and healg humor.

Their NSFW songs — image, say, a gay Blk-182 —over the years have clud “Bill & Ted's Homosexual Adventure, ” “Touch My Joe Camel, ” “The C***sucker Club, ” “That’s So Gay” “Dick of Death, ” “Blame the Bible, ” and a rto ver of Prce’s “Jack U Off” and Weird Al-style Nirvana spoof brilliantly tled “Smells Like Queer Spir. ”And while Pansy Divisn didn’t exactly w over the mass, the unpromisg pop-punk band quickly veloped a cult followg among queer rockers seekg an alternative to the Hi-NRG dance mic pumpg through SF’s gay clubs. ”Much has changed over the past three s, but the dark and creasgly homophobic tim, Pansy Divisn’s si-spltg lyrics and balls-to-the-wall powerpop jams are clearly still as need as ever.

) To celebrate Pansy Divisn’s anniversary as well as Pri Month, Yahoo Entertament spoke wh the band's founrs about Jon & Chris’s 30-year homosexual Entertament: I feel Pansy Divisn hered a lot of change, and you've certaly wnsed and experienced a lot of change sce your first album. We thought we uld have fulfillg, happy liv as gay people — spe all of the prejudice, spe all of the bias — and we thought, “We're jt gonna go out and show our bt selv, and we're gonna do that by g humor and beg fiant about the suatn that we fd ourselv .

Speakg of early punk, sce you vered Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien, ” how big an fluence were his band the Buzzcks on Pansy Divisn?

We’d done that ver of “Homosapien, ” which was a real landmark song for me, and I told him, “You know, you are a gay hero.