MARTIN K

Alas, Pride season is here once more. As I gaze out my office window, I see grey clouds, check if the radiator is on, and zip up my jacket. Ah yes, it’s that perfect Pride season weather, NOT!. Looks more like ‘stay in and binge-watch Netflix’ season. But hey, we’re still a couple of weeks away from Belfast Pride. May our gay Goddess, Sarah Jessica Parker, bless us with a warm, sunny day with the occasional sun shower. That way, we can all pretend we’re extras in a Step-Up movie, hair flicks aplenty. After the drizzle, we get a perfect excuse for a costume change into our nighttime outfits or just strip down to reveal an even sluttier version of what we had on before.

This summer rain shower also gives us the chance to re-style our new thick luscious hair from Turkey, change wigs, clip back in our extensions, or turn our trucker caps backwards. All realistic sights on a typical Saturday in Belfast, let alone Pride. The whole week of Pride is fantastic and great for the community, with a wide range of events, workshops, seminars, plays, and more. But if you’re like me and think leaving the house on a school night is blasphemy unless it’s a Tuesday trip to the pictures, then you’re in luck! I’ve compiled a list of some great movies that you’ve probably watched to death. But we gays just can’t get enough of these gay cult classics, can we?

Monday night’s movie: The Devil Wears Prada. You know it by heart—the bitchy one-liners we’ll be recycling all Pride season. I don’t need to say more. Tuesday, watch whatever you want; I’m at the cinema. Wednesday night’s mid-week pick is Miss Congeniality starring Sandra Bullock. It screams metaphor for anyone who has never been to Pride—a fish-out-ofwater story, all mousy and shy, transforming into a swan by parade day.

we unite, we dance, we party, we keep her lit. By Sunday, all you’ll want is a duvet day watching Sex and the City and Calamity Jane. The fear and horror of Monday will come slowly, but it’ll pass because I’m sure the fun and joy we had was worth it.

Please note, this column is the opinion of the columinst and not that of GNI or Romeo & Julian

Thursday night’s film: the cult classic Showgirls with Elizabeth Berkley. You know, that girl from Saved by the Bell? Well, she’s a dirty kitty in this one. This film represents the ambitious overachiever Pride attendee who plans to make it all about them. Friday, maybe get your battle cries and armour ready for Saturday’s parade. So perhaps a documentary like Paris is Burning, or one on conversion camps, Harvey Milk, or the Stonewall riots.

Saturday, we celebrate, we march, we demand better,

Or you could always head to Maverick and finish Pride off with a fantastic drag show on Sunday afternoons. Onya Becks and Coral Hole Mandi host a great afternoon, then you can watch those films afterward.

Have a happy and safe Pride, everyone.

Martin Kearney

With pride angels looking down on us during this glorious month, we need to give them a bit of a show! Sure, they are going to love the parade and the many, many festivities and events going on around our lovely little island – but what about the pre and post festivities.

Whatever you are doing, and how ever you are celebrating, we have the ultimate songs for you to sing loud (and proud) this month.

It would be wrong to not start off to a head nod to last year’s pride anthem. The lovely, stunning icon that is Miss Kylie Minogue with Padam Padam. With it’s catchy beat, gender ambiguity and made-up words, we all ate it up and danced our socks off. I would expect to hear it at least twice in every bar, club or street party, but it does still make us want to boogie, so we will allow it.

Miss Kylie is not the only gay icon I would expect to be hearing through. We are spoiled for choices with pretty much the entire discography of Lady Gaga, Hayley Kiyoko or Girl in Red. But we also have our artists who may not be as obvious but are still very much loved in the LGBTQIA+ community such as Harry Styles, Billy Joel or Queen.

We can’t speak about music that gives us pride vibes without bringing up the most recent Eurovision song contest – after all, according to ITV, it is the ‘Gay Olympics’. The Swiss artist Nemo came out on top with their song ‘The Code’. Nemo became famous practically overnight in Switzerland following an appearance on SRF Virus. They quickly released 2 EP’s which shot them right into the Swiss Single’s charts. Through their music, they explore themes that we can all relate to – struggling with your mental health, figuring out your identity and trying to figure out what life is all about, and where we fit in it. Their winning song let us know how they ‘went to hell and back’ trying to figure out who they were, but they have now ‘broken the code’ and ‘found paradise’. And there is nothing more you could wish for.

Although, speaking of Eurovision we can’t forget our home-grown Olly Alexander – who announced at Radio One’s Big Weekend he is leaving Years and Years behind, and will now be performing and giving us all the vibes under his own name. We were lucky enough to catch-up with him during his first solo venture ‘Night Call’ – while he was still under Years and Years – and who knows, maybe next time we will get to meet just Olly. After his performance at the Big Weekend – we would be honoured to. His cover of ‘It’s A Sin’ by The Pet Shop Boys was sensational and a must mention. During pride month it is important to celebrate how far we have come, and that is exactly what Olly’s performance showed. In 1987 The Pet Shop Boy’s wrote it as a ‘camp joke’ based on their experiences with religion growing up, and feeling like they couldn’t do anything right. Tennant has said that maybe there was subconsciously more to it than that. Olly took Tennant’s subconscious and poured it all over the stage for us – and bravo to him. He may have nil points in Eurovision, but he has millions of them in our hearts.

With all of the wonderful, amazing and talented icons we have within the community, we have to remember that we have further to go. There is still a massive stigma, maybe not within society, but in the music industry surrounding explicitly LGBTQIA+ artists. Record companies and music producers are often still wary, or backwards, when it comes to allowing artists to sing about the same gender openly and brazenly. It is all hidden in gender neutral pronouns and innuendos. A great example of this is Sam Smith’s first album – with classic songs such as ‘I know I’m not the only one’ and ‘Stay with me’ having a lack of male or female pronouns – it’s all ‘baby’ and ‘darling’ and ‘you’. Now, I am not arguing against gender neutral pronouns – but it does beg the question, especially after the artists very open journey of discovery afterwards – who was it being sung to, and was there some censorship going on?

Record companies are constantly changing lyrics to be sexually ambiguous rather than just letting a gay man sing about a man – why? Money and Power. The more ambiguous, the more people relate, and the less hateful people boycott. Now, there are lots and lots of songs that are not gender or sexually ambiguous, but is there enough? And are they on the radio – are they given the same platform? Not necessarily.

The music we listen to, the music we love, is a reflection of ourselves. Music is the main thing that people turn to when they are feeling anything. Happy songs, sad songs, getting ready to party songs – the list goes on and on. When we aren’t sure how we are feeling, when we can’t put what we are feeling into words, or even thoughts, where do we turn? We turn to music. Music helps us not only feel our emotions, but understand them, and feel less alone because someone else has felt that way too. The censorship of LGBTQIA+ music stops that, limits that, makes it harder to feel, makes it harder to understand, to relate to. Heterosexuals have millions and millions of love songs, on the radio, in Tesco – they are bombarded with artists singing about their feelings. Where are our millions of songs? Why aren’t they overplayed in Tesco or on the radio?

What happens when you don’t get enough representation of who you are?

When you have nobody to relate to – you project. There are a lot of artist’s sexuality being called into question, whether that may or may not be true.

Taylor Swift fans have said that her song ‘The Very First Night’ was written about a woman because of the lyrics ‘didn’t read the note on the polaroid picture/they don’t know how much I miss you’ – as is sounds like it was originally meant to say ‘I miss her’ as it rhymes better. There are arguments and conspiracies over who she is singing about, and if her label censored her. But what if she is just straight? What if she’s on the spectrum? What if she is just figuring it out and isn’t sure herself? Another example of this is Mr Harry Styles – there are constant conversations, rumours, ‘ships’ about him and who he is or isn’t dating, and whether he is or isn’t straight. Maybe the only persons sexuality that matters is your own (and your partners of course). Maybe, instead of questioning who or who isn’t on the spectrum, we keep pushing for the day when it doesn’t matter to anyone or any industry.

Where is the playlist? I hear you ask.

Hold on, let me cook,

Here is a variation of banging songs to sing loud and proud, from very obvious to read-between-the-lines classics.

Knock or dance your socks off – and have a very Happy Pride.

“YMCA” – The Village People

“Girls/girls/boys” – Panic! At the Disco.

“I Kissed a Girl” - Katy Perry, she also dedicated her song Firework’ to LGBTQIA+ youth, so it’s worth a listen as well.

“Wrabel” – TheVvillage

“Him” - Sam Smith

“Lola” – The Kinks

“Forrest Gump” – Frank Ocean

“Fever” – Adam Lambert

“Born this way” – Lady Gaga

“That’s what I want” – Lil Nas X

“Real” – Years and Years

“Something about him” – Brockhampton

“And I love him” – Ben Gibbard

“Handsome Man” – Matt Alber

“Tongue” – MNEK

“Want 2” – Bronze Avery

“Hot Water” – Baum

“Cherry” – Rina Sawayama

“Jenny (I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship)” – Studio Killers

“Come To My Window” – Melissa Etheridge

“Constant Craving” – K.D Lang

“I’d Be Your Wife” – Mary Lambert

“Her” – Dizzy Fae

“Make Me Feel” – Janelle Monáe

“True Colours” – Cyndi Lauper

“Somebody to love” – Freddie Mercury