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In the pre-internet 1980s, Bruce LaBruce and G.B. Jones invented the Toronto queercore scene with their scrappy homemade zines and films. No one knew their subversive fusion of punk and queer aesthetics was a lark, an inside joke, a fantasy that counted just two adherents—its creators! Or that their creation was going to spread beyond their basement bedrooms to the radical underground and spawn a real-life subculture. Speaking to a growing gang of outsiders rejected by the gay and punk scenes, the queercore ethos inspired an anarchist identity, humour and sense of spectacle that didn't involve membership as much as belonging—something less like church and more like a circus. Challenging both mainstream gay and homophobic punk scenes, queercore became a self-fulfilling prophecy that circled the globe and changed the world in true DIY DGAF fashion, influencing everything from music to the riot grrrl movement to the Queer Nation zine. Angie Driscoll
Co-presented with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.