Look out Straight Bars: GQB is coming for you!
More : Erika Jahn, GQB, Guerrilla Queer Bar, Queer bar, Straight bars, The Gaily, Tyrone Smith
After similar events in Boston, Washington, and other cities, it will be Montréal’s turn to experience the mayhem of QGB on Sept. 22nd. No, we’re not talking about a tropical disease, but rather the DIY homo phenomenon of Queer Guerilla Bar, a US-based movement for LGBT people who are frustrated with the divisions between gay and straight night spots in their cities, and want to break out!
Related Posts
- ARTSIDA4: ACCM revels in art auction success
- Homovember: ‘staches for a different cause
- A NEW ASSOCIATION WITH THE SAINT AT LARGE
Compared to the American experience, the story of the movement is slightly different for the Montréal faction, led by two anglo Canadians, Erika Jahn and Tyrone Smith, founders of the queer news blog The Gaily. The local reality here required a somewhat different approach. For them, the activist side of the equation is somewhat secondary to the party component, and above all, the notion of getting outside the Village.
GQB is not to be confused with the anonymous American feminist collective Guerilla Girls, famous for their gorilla-masked interventions in museums and art galleries. Rather, GQB is a group of “non-heterosexuals” as Montreal Gazette writer Mike Boone calls them, who band together to invade a straight bar without warning, and take it over by storm.
The New Queer Order
First of all, you can see how this kind of approach overturns the established order of segregating the world into “gays here, straights there.” As they write in their Guerilla Manifesto, it is tiring to be restricted to the same few places for going out. As for the GQB formula, the idea is to actively make a change of scene, mix things up, and make the LGBT more visible by come out together and having a good time.
For those who are interested, the first thing to do is to “Like” their Facebook page in order to get, just in time, the orders from your “guerilla sergeants” for Mission 001. That’s the only way to know the location for their intervention, which is released 24 hrs in advance and not before. One thing is certain, comrades, you’ll want to fall in line at 6pm on Thursday, Sept 22.
For more info: www.gqbmontreal.org
1 comment
I’m all for these types of events, but unfortunately feel like the Montreal initiative is going about this in the wrong way and are looking for a reason to mount a protest in a city that is incredibly open to homosexuality. I’d like to know who exactly is limiting these people from going to other bars and experiencing new beers and bar stools? In my own experience my straight friends feel way less accepted in gay bars than my gay friends feel in “straight bars” I’m out and i go to all types of venues ranging from gay and straight clubs to the diviest of locations, and because I’m there with my friends i have fun. Going to bars to push the “gay agenda” and have a night of “…gropping, grinding, flirting, tight pants and amazing hair.” sounds like they are going to perform a “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” routine which a bit out of date in a city that is home to 2 separate pride events each summer.