Halloween outLoud
Halloween outLoud
Halloween is a favorite queer holiday. In this episode of the podcast, elders and youth from the LGBT Intergenerational Storytelling Project share their own stories about queerness and Halloween.
Transcript
[MUSIC]
Sophia: Hi, I’m Sophia…
Mykel: …This is Mykel…
Both: …from outLoud Radio.
Sophia: It’s the Halloween season, and you know what that means. Ghouls, ghosts, and… Gay?
Mykel: Here at outLoud, we were listening to some recordings from our Intergenerational Storytelling Project, which is a program that links LGBTQ youth with LGBT elders to share stories. The ISP is a collaboration between three queer community organizations…
Sophia: …outLoud, LYRIC, and New Leaf. We discovered some interesting stories about Halloween being a queer holiday and decided to check it out.
[MUSIC]
Judy: My name is Judy Grahn and I… oh, what can I say? I’ve been interested in gay and lesbian culture for most of my life. I just started doing research, whatever kind of research I could, poking around in history and mythology of all different kinds and came up with a couple of pretty interesting ideas, and some of them are about Halloween. Always, in my experience, there were always lots of gay people who turned up for Halloween just because the fact that you can disguise yourself and be all different kinds of beings and creatures and so on. Halloween is actually New Year's; it's not the New Year's that is celebrated by the most of the US but it's New Year's that's celebrated by the Celts. So it was the time that the year ended and began again. So it's like, their idea was that the ends of the year didn't fit really smoothly together, that there would be a break in the middle and in that break in the middle anything could happen. I love that; it's like being able to look in two directions in one time. There’s just some way that being transgendered, or being gay and lesbian, in some ceremonial kind of way, or queer in some ceremonial kind of way fits with that, that it helps people understand that things change and that there's a way for them to change. So, it's an office that we do and I wish we did it more consciously in order to help our society go through its changes.
[MUSIC]
Philipe: Yeah I loved the part about Halloween being kind of this in-between space where people, you know, blend genders and blend the two different years and maybe look back on the year before and think about the new year. And I see it as a time where everyone kind of explores the queerness in themselves a little bit more, so I really love that, and I like thinking of it more as the new year ‘cause it’s definitely a holiday that appeals to me a lot more than New Year’s.
Marcia: The whole concept of “New Year” being one time and one way is dispelled when I think about it that way. I never related Halloween with being gay, and so that is quite a revelation for me.
MJ: In Chicago, for years, Halloween was all about the Halloween Ball. Straight folks would come and stand outside and line up and wait to see the gay folks come in. It was the only time of year that the Chicago Police Department would not arrest you for cross-dressing. It was a big deal. And we had a good time. Straight folks weren’t allowed to come in; it was strictly a gay affair.
Lexi: I started noticing guys dressing as girls and girls dressing as guys, but I was in middle school. I always asked my dad, I’m like, “Okay, I wanna be that next year, too!” And he’s like, “No! You can’t!” And I’m like, “Why? It’s Halloween.” And he’s like, “No, you’re a guy…
Patricia: As we grew up, I LIVED for Halloween because I knew then I could dress up as a pirate, or anything male.
Marc: If it hadn’t been for gay San Francisco’s Halloweens, I don’t think it would have spread across the nation the way it has. This used to be just a child’s holiday. In ’72 I came here and my first Halloween event was on Polk Street. And that was the place you went. The most impressive sight I saw was two Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence roller-skating... [laughter]... roller-skating up the street. And one flipped up her habit. And the LARGEST dildo that anyone has ever carried was—flop! [more laughter]
[MUSIC]
MJ: We could be whatever we wanted to be. We could be Tinkerbell, we could be Clara Bell, we could be Alexander Graham Bell! Y’know, because it was Halloween!
[MUSIC]
Mykel: With all that awesomeness in one holiday, it’s no wonder it’s so popular. So get it the spirit, put on your costume, and get your gay on! Thanks to Sophia for her help on this podcast, as well as the youth, elders, and staff that made the ISP happen. This is Mykel, and you’re listening to outLoud Radio.
Ava: Our podcast is supported by Youth Funding, Youth Ideas. OutLoud Radio exists thanks to the generousity of the San Francisco Foundation, Horizons Foundation, San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, and most of all, thanks to lots and lots of people like you who chip in to make it happen! Find out how to donate at outradio.org. And, you should follow us on Facebook or Twitter. To do that, or hear more of our stuff, just go to outloudradio.org.
