WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED GAY?

What is this thing called Gay?
I thought it was about life, love and passion
That is was way more original
Than the latest high street fashion
That it was more than a business proposition.
I thought it lived in glorious opposition
To some of the hideous wrongs of our society
That gay meant colour
Of more than the rainbow variety
That experience was our college,
Life, our university
I thought this thing called gay
Meant we were warriors of diversity
Banners flying high
Weapons in hand
Marching mincing
To the Promised Land.
That it was way more important
Than the newest celebrity in vogue
Call me old-fashioned
But I think this thing called Gay
Means so much more
Than just Kylie Minogue,
So much more than wanting more
So what is this thing called Gay?
And who is it for?

Well
This is for the rent boys
Disadvantaged and the poor
This is for the people our magazines ignore
This is for the volunteers
And the mobile-phoneless
This is for the streets
And the gays who are homeless.

This is for the queers
Who first answered the clarion call
Those magnificent men who were drag queens
Breaking rules and breaking nails
By throwing bricks at Stonewall.
This is for their sparkle
This is for their spangle
This is for those who wore the pink triangle.
This is for the ladies, transgendered and the gents
And those sassy saucy Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

This is for the slogan “No surrender”
For every diesel dyke
And lipstick lesbian avenger.
This is for the complex, the confident and banal
And for all those wonderful times
Cruising the canal.
This is for the bitter, this is for the sweet
And for all of you out there
Who love an anal treat.

This is for the people who survived their abusers
This is for the sex workers and the wheelchair users
For families, friends, partners
Who’ve watched their loved ones die
For the lowest of the low
The highest of the high.
This is for those of us who live with this disease
This is for anger
This is for peace.
This isn’t for Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey or Madonna
This is for unity, integrity and honour
For individuality and its increasing rarity
For S&M
And its liberating perversity.
This is for the fat
This is for the skinny
This is for the screaming queen
And the moaning Minnie.
This is for the winners
But more for the losers
And for all my friends
The pill-poppers and boozers
Rave on Gaychester!

This is for movement
This is for stillness
This is for sanity
And mental illness.
This is for the families who have never pretended
This is for the forgiving
And the offended
This is for coming through the violence and hate
This is for the end
Of Clause 28.
This is for the isolated
This is for the crowd.

This is Chloe Poems
And why I’m out and proud.




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