Project Proposal: How Queercore Carved Out it’s Own Space Within Punk and Challenged Queer Assimilation

For my project, I will be looking at how the Queercore music scene formed and grew in opposition to a lack of space/voice within the punk scene and desire to resist the assimilation of queer people into straight culture. I will be looking specifically at the roots of the scene, reactions to it, and how it was a form of organizing for queer people.

For a little background:

In the 1980s, Queercore was born as an offshoot of the punk scene. The punk scene was dominated by straight white men without a place for openly queer musicians. At the same time, the AIDS crisis was growing and being ignored by the government and many aspects of society while the rise of Christain “family values” was at its peak. This combination left the Queer community with anger, hurt, a need to organize, and a way to express that anger. From this, the Queercore movement was born. Queercore actively opposed the dominant authorities of the punk scene (the straight, white, male power hold), and it also challenged the notion that Queer people should assimilate to the point they were indistinguishable from straight people.