Thread by @ArtXPropaganda

Yesterday AxP visited @Tate Britain's #QueerAndNow2023 festival, billed as a celebration of "the powerful role of LGBTQIA+ art and culture in the UK", to find out what contributions from these multiple communities Tate thinks are most worthy of celebration...

We were particularly keen to find out what the conspicuous absence of the words lesbian, gay and bisexual from the programme would mean for the art, artists, histories, ideas and politics being presented on such a prestigious, publicly-funded platform 🤔
tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-…

Despite a glaring lack of political/intellectual diversity in the program, Tate is obviously not oblivious that such diversity exists across the "LGBTQIA+" - they hired Vibe Checkers!

To...ensure all our "vibes" align?

Well, they have been out of work since the fall of the GDR

This obviously makes for a somewhat paranoid atmosphere on entering...and call us paranoid, but on an initial wander, it was clear that picking up the children's literature scattered around the gallery was definitely not welcome 📖🧒👧🌈

Well, sighs of derision certainly aren't (but are diligently noted down by a clipboard wielding VC).

It seems Tate supports the "Gnosticism for kids" literary movement. It's where you tell pre-schoolers+ they can choose their sex based on feelings, fun! 👨‍🔬🧑‍🔬

What else was on offer for children and families I hear you ask?

Well, how about a meditation class to unlock your child's alter ego in pursuit of Queer liberation?

We can't be sure, but perhaps, after awakening from revelatory meditative sleeps, a bunch of pre-schoolers decided to take over the galleries to show us their new alter egos - or perhaps they were just paraded by adults shouting: "We're so Queer!"

Yaaaas queens 👏 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Isn't Queer, like the other letters, about sexuality... You know, the identities you might choose (or not) based on your attraction to others when you're an adult?

Are these pre-schoolers Queer?

Or maybe, like the book 'My Own Way', it's about what sex you choose to be...

We thought the people from oestrogeneration, an indie mag "highlighting the voices of trans women and trans femmes in the UK" might have some thoughts, so we headed over to their pop-up...

None of us were expecting to see a scrotum, without pre-warning, but hey ho, thankfully there weren't kids about 😳

Our friend @MrMennoTweets summed it up:

https://twitter.com/MrMennoTweets/status/1667896941349335040?t=lIcH5ejggbXWFtBUt4OmOw&s=19

On to the real meaty intellectual event of the day: a panel chaired by E-J Scott (EJ - curator of the Museum of Transology), Winn Austin (WA - trans actress and model), Janine Francois (JF -RCA), Scottee (S - artist and broadcaster), Valentino Vecchietti (VV - intersex activist).

Here's our summary of their conversation, with a few of our thoughts...

EJ: "Why would you come to a museum unless you can see your self on the walls in a generous frame?"

[AxP: why are there no lesbians or gay men with different perspectives in this programme?]

EJ: "Trans people not allowed to say people were trans in the past"

[AxP: Who says that? The problem is that many trans activists promote bogus anachronistic versions of history, transing lesbian figures like Stormé DeLaverie and Marsha P Johnson, and...

...projecting contemporary cultural-historical understandings of society onto the past. Surely we should seek to understand the past on its own terms... Isn't this about innovating best museum practice?]

JF: "The binary isn't a bad thing, it's saying the binary is the only way to be"

[AxP: you work at a University, and this talk is vaguely about museological practice, so define your terms: are gou talking about sex or gender? What do those words mean?]

EJ: "Do you think the backlash against DQST in spaces such as this is Queer history repeating itself (re: 1980s)?"

S: "I worry that in 10 years we'll have another traumatised generation... I'm longing for a community that isn't traumatized."

[AxP: Lesbians and gay men were not holding court on stage at the Tate, nor was Tate holding celebrations of lesbian and gay culture, in the 1980s. The comparison is ridiculous and insulting.

The backlash against DQST is about safeguarding: of children primarily, but also of...

...the performers and the "community" they represent. We, like many, don't think it makes the "LGBTQIA+" community look very responsible to push adult entertainment or political agendas onto children. Let's engage in a good faith discussion about why...

...and stop telling young people they will be traumatised or kill themselves when people disagree with them politically. It's counterproductive and dangerous.]

S: "I see all these anti-trans working class white men."

[AxP: So why all the hostility towards women? The clash of rights between TW and W is magnified by economic class, as well as other socio-cultural dynamics. Less privileged women rely even more on sex-based protections.]

S: "You have to ask yourself why aren't Queer people already coming through the door? It's a class thing, class barriers exist."

[AxP: There are real socio-economic barriers that need to be dealt with by the arts sector, but this isn't specific to...

..."Queer" communities, and isn't being dealt with because we're having this decadent, never-ending conversation about identity politics rather than looking at socio-economic issues around access to the arts/careers, and the issue of diversity of thought. "Queer" people are as...

...socio-economically, culturally and politically diverse as any other group.]

WA: "Every person is an artform, you need to show it off."

[AxP: me, me, me... What's this talk about?]

Q&A -
- what would be your "fantasy interpretation" of Queer history be in a museum like this?

WA: [to their credit, questions the "we/our/us" saying that there are divisions in "the community" - the only such acknowledgement of the day...]

VV: "We have human rights frameworks that recognise natural diversity, but we're not seeing respect and recognition of this diversity in these spaces and in current discourse."

[AxP: Confuses concepts of cultural vs natural (sexual) diversity and misleads audience on UK law.]

VV: "When people say that there are only two sexes, you force doctors to keep interfering with our (intersex) bodies...if this was true, then all intersex people would be non-binary"

[AxP: Lack of clarity on the distinction between sex and gender. In deciding to feature the...

...subject of intersex experience / people with DSDs so prominently, they should have platformed a broader range of qualified opinions. Many intersex people find VVs views unhelpful or insulting.]

EJ: "A bit like museums, this is about disrupting systems of categorisations."

[AxP: By imposing your own system on everybody else and refusing all debate.]

EJ: [summing up, with ref to The Museum of Transology workshop]:

"It's full of trans kids who just want to meet each other... This shows us how museums can engage in the culture war, and how we can WIN THE WAR!"

"I thank Tate and all the staff for enabling us here today"

Perhaps most astonishing - aside from the safeguarding issues and unquestioned political ideology - is that, out of the whole 🌈, @Tate couldn't find a single person with anything remotely interesting to say about LGBT history, art and culture in museums... It was inane.

#Pride