Elrgays: Tell Me About The Grateful Dead

RABOW OVER GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT EVOK VISNS OF JERRY GARCIA, GAY PRI DURG EPIC WEEKEND

" The eight-person llective, formed fiant rponse to Tennsee's newly ked anti-drag and anti-trans laws, raised funds for lol queer- and trans-supportive 's revolutnary for other reasons, too — namely, for mergg a queer, femist ethos wh what's largely been a male-domated, heteronormative Deadhead scene, says -founr Melody Walker, who lls Bertha a band "for the girls, the gays and the theys. “Part of the experience of beg a Deadhead is embracg the eedom and joy that mic brgs you, and that same embrace go hand hand wh the gay muny, " he tells Yahoo Entertament. Pomona’s welg attu and s lotn midway between gay-iendly L.

“I’d like to pot out that last week, a distguished reprentative om the State of Geia went on the floor of the Hoe of Reprentativ of our untry and started quotg Bible vers which he basilly promoted, or at least ratnalized, ath to gay people as a reward for the way they were born. I was not among the privileged 71, 000 who got to see the fal ncert the flh, but I jammed and cried along wh my iends and the lns of live-streamed webst viewers who ma the largt onle mic pay-per-view event of all a technologilly cled, black, gay hip-hop artist om East Baltimore who grew up on punk rock, I am not what most would nsir a “typil” Dead fan. The exhortatn of “Sugaree”—“jt one thg I ask of you…jt don’t tell ‘em you know me”—would ronate wh every adulterer and closeted gay man on Earth.

I’M A BLACK, GAY RAPPER OM BALTIMORE, AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD’S LAST SHOW MA ME WEEP

As one adhead blogger rells, the band has always managed to brg together diverse elements of humany:You uld see birds of every lor at a show, black adheads, lato adheads, whe adheads, purple adheads, gay adheads…straight adheads, junkie adheads, rporate adheads, tellectual adheads, stoner adheads, punk adheads, jewish adheads, christian adheads, pagan adheads, buddhist adheads, atheist adheads, adheads wh ti, republin adheads, mie adheads, activist adheads, rich adheads, poor adheads, kd veggie burro adheads, I need a miracle adheads, gbby parkg lot adheads, tapers, spners, the whole panoply of universal lor and Sunday I stood next to my ex-punk rocker iends, plete wh tattoos, tearg up durg “Cassidy” at the le “fare thee well now, ” and cryg as hard as any “hippie” durg the send set. Were there gay Dead Heads and was Dead-Head-dom generally gay iendly? I thk would be tertg soclogy to intify gay Deadheads (ie, openly gay fans of the group) there's nothg homophobic about the Dead or their fans, there's nothg pecially gay about them.