Objectionable Activity!

We live in a country where we tout life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Here's a little window into being queer and pushing the envelope.

For those unaware, when you have a significant following on certain social media platforms, and create content, you may be invited to participate in getting paid for content you create. Recently we received one of these invitations and we completed all the requisite forms.  We just happened to take a look at our eligible "content" and if you ever questioned whether queerness is political check out how much of the recent content is "objectionable". We are ready to accept how pushing the envelope may get pushback, but it seemed worth sharing some recent posts deemed to contain "objectional activity" to give a window of the "censorship" behind the scenes.

A recent post for Perry Brass's birthday featuring a quote: “Although some fools find rudeness sexy, it is never the path to seduction” and sharing some biographical information.

Happy Birthday Perry Brass.

"Perry Brass was born in 1947 in Savannah, Georgia. His family was part of a close-knit community of mostly Polish Jews. Perry’s relationship with his mother was troubled, but his father exhibited a deep acceptance for Perry—just as he was. When he took Perry hunting, the sound of gunfire literally made Perry throw up. But his father took him aside and said he would never take Perry hunting again...

"At 18, Perry fled the South, moving first to San Francisco for a year, then ping-ponging across the country to New York City... In 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, and the gloves finally came off. Perry was exultant. In the violent street protests, in the shattered glass covering the streets of Sheridan Square, Perry saw something powerful – an intangible force that, nearly a century earlier, Walt Whitman had called “adhesion.” Perry immediately joined the Gay Liberation Front, publishing the organization’s groundbreaking radical newspaper Come Out! from his Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Soon after, Perry and two friends founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic to look out for the unique health needs of gay men. Organized and run by the men who used it, rather than doctors, the clinic still exists today as Callen-Lord Community Health Services, with an annual budget of more than $70 million.

"But Perry’s true vocation was to become “a writer for the community.” His aim was “to bring the entire life cycle of gay men into focus”... Today, he has published a total of 16 books and been a finalist six times in three different categories (poetry; science fiction/fantasy; and spirituality/religion) for prestigious Lambda Literary awards. Perry’s work has been anthologized in countless anthologies as well as the Huffington Post, and he is a member of the PEN America Society." Outwords Archive

A post recognizing Sylvester's birthday and lyrics to "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real"; we're guessing the words "haters" and "homophobes" may have been flagged by the algorithm, however there is plenty of context.

Sylvester was born on this day in 1947

"Sylvester James was born in Los Angeles to a family that included the blues singer Joan Morgan. After moving to San Francisco, where he was one of the stars of the gender-fuck drag street troupe The Cockettes, Later in the 1970s, Sylvester put together the rock-oriented Hot Band. He began recording for the Blue Thumb label but sales were disappointing. Returning to San Francisco, he began to build up a loyal audience with his outrageous stage shows.

"Harvey Fuqua, one-time producer at Motown but now a scout for Fantasy Records saw Sylvester and signed him to begin work on an album. In a stroke of luck, Izora Whitehead and Martha Wash were discovered singing background vocals at a concert and Sylvester jumped at the chance to hire them. Renaming the hefty pair the Two Tons of Fun, they were an integral part of Sylvester's success, adding stage presence as well as reminders of his gospel roots.

"The self-titled Fantasy debut, Sylvester, dropped in 1977 without much fanfare but gained cult status via the remake of the Ashford and Simpson's "Over and Over."

"His greatest achievement would be Step II. As the LP was being recorded, Sylvester let Patrick Cowley, then an up and coming remixer, hear an early version of "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real." Cowley's synth overlays transformed the former ballad into a disco tour de force. The driving beat and keyboard flourishes reflected the intensity of Gay disco at its best, while Sylvester's impassioned vocals communicated the anticipation of sex. Arriving at the height of discomania, the combination proved irresistible and much to the horror of disco haters and homophobes (who were largely one and the same), he was launched into the mainstream. The accompanying video made a mockery of Fuqua's attempts to tone down his flamboyance, as Sylvester strolled around a disco in full drag.

"Mighty Real" won several Billboard disco awards, establishing Sylvester in disco's pantheon." White Crane Institute

We still enjoy remembering that Sylvester's Step II LP was one of our first record purchases.

The third post to highlight as sharing "objectionable activity" was a post highlighting the anniversary of an ACT UP action at Jesse Helms' home.

This action took place on this day 33 years ago. We cannot let history repeat...

"On September 5th, 1991, I put a giant condom over Jesse Helms’ house.

"Why? Because, as the condom said, “Helms is deadlier than a virus.” Senator Jesse Helms was one of the chief architects of AIDS-related stigma in the U.S. He fought against any federal spending on HIV research, treatment or prevention. He once said, referring to homosexuals, “it’s their deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct that is responsible for the disease.” Here’s another choice one: “There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.”

"By saying words like this on the floor of the Senate, Helms gave a veil of legitimacy to every parent who threw their HIV-positive kid out of the house. ACT UP New York was filled with angry young men who experienced this kind of Helms-related hatred.

"He proposed and passed laws that are still on the books, enshrining this stigma as official government policy. People with HIV couldn’t travel to the U.S. The CDC was not permitted to spend money on preventing the spread of HIV among gay men. Our country never launched a single well-funded HIV prevention campaign because of Jesse Helms. To this day, fifty thousand Americans become infected each year in no small part due to “Senator No”.

"In the summer of 1991, it was bugging me that gay and AIDS activists had largely left him alone. Sure, there were thousands of angry words said and written excoriating the man for his hate-filled agenda, but no one got up-close-and-personal with a response. We needed to send a proverbial shot across his bow.

"One of the best tools an activist can use is humor. If you can get folks laughing at your target’s expense, you diminish his power. I wanted the country to have a good laugh at Helms’ expense. I wanted his fellow senators to have a little chuckle behind his back. And I wanted Senator Helms to realize that his free ride was up - if he hit us again, we’d hit back." Peter Staley; POZ Magazine , July 8, 2008

We always like sharing some of the behind the scenes censorship we encounter that people may find as surprising as we do.  Queer history is history, and our lives and activities are not objectionable, but expressions of exercising our liberties that have no harmful impact on others seem to be objectionable to the social media overlords.