… but not against our own community.
And that’s how I feel right now. Yesterday I did a little research into the acts playing at Glasgow Pride, getting excited, looking forward to the protest march, meeting my friends and celebrating our community! I looked through the line-up and realised Heather Small is playing (I love Heather Small) and then noticed that the ‘Queens of Pop’ were also performing. Now not having heard of them before I popped them into YouTube, and from there my day got progressively worse.
Yes, in case you were wondering, that is a white man ‘blacked up’ to take the piss out of a black man. All together now, can everyone say “privilege”?
What I found was a bit fat dose of what I like to think of as anti-pride. As I have written before, to me Pride is about celebrating how strong we are in the face of adversity. It’s a beautiful, positive space where our community comes together to celebrate all we have achieved. The Queens of Pop however, seem to me to be the total opposite of this. In particular they take pleasure in taking the piss out of people with AIDS, black people, women, and domestic abuse. Woo!?
This is Beyonce being physically abused by her dad. You see how this is funny, right?
I understand that the Queens of Pop are a very popular act at various venues. But I just don’t see how their negativity fits with being proud ourselves. It seems very simply that the Queens of Pop are picking on people less privileged than themselves (whether that be because of sex, race, HIV status), to give their audiences pleasure. I think it’s wrong to celebrate our own strengths and triumphs with the oppression of others.
If after your own YouTube research you feel similarly, do something about it! I would urge you to get in touch with the Pride Glasgow organisers either by messaging them: http://www.prideglasgow.co.uk/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=142 or tweeting at them: @prideglasgow or via facebook: http://www.facebook.com/prideglasgow. And, they are also playing at Manchester Pride who can be emailed here: http://www.manchesterpride.com/contact/
And if by the end of this you feel like you need cheering up, here is Heather to keep us on track for a fabulous Pride!
The Gay Agenda 
I agree with you, there is a petition for them to be removed from manchester pride listing
Thank you for highlighting this outrageous duo so that other people can see how dreadful they are. If it’s ok, I’d like to leave this link for people to sign a petition to have them removed fromt he bill at Glasgow Pride also. Many thanks.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/glasgow-pride-stop-queens-of-pop-performing-at-glasgow-pride-2
Any idea where to find the Will.I.Am video online? Queens of Pop seem to have pulled it…
We are struggling to find it too… It’s definitely been removed from YouTube, but a variety of the other ones haven’t!
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Thanks for posting this. definitely agree with what you say here. There’s nothing risqué or satirical about what Queens of Pop perform – it’s racist, homophobic, sexist and incites violence. It’s degrading and is just another example of white men using women and black men’s bodies in reductive ways. Being gay doesn’t automatically disqualify you from being a bigot, and our pride festivals need to invite a better culture than this! There’s also a petition to stop them performing at Manchester Pride.
they arent doing manchester pride lets hope glasgow kicks them off 2 brian