![]() ![]() Queer and trans people, BIPOC, disabled folks, and anyone else who’s ever been labeled as “other” can’t fucking live in peace and autonomy. Rent is too damn high and the 9-5 work system kills our spirits. His depression is a mirror of what many of us go through. Their house filled up with comfort and routine and gladness until Heavenly Blue could no longer resist and became response-able again.” They paid the bills and looked after the roof and watched the street for strange men and talked to the neighbors and Hollyhock kept himself happy. They held Heavenly Blue in their arms for days, they let him cry and stare and slobber and scream and be silent. “Lilac and Pinetree and Moonbeam and Loose Tomato and Hollyhock gathered. What moved him toward a better mental state was accepting help from his friends: One of the characters, Heavenly Blue, falls into a deep depression due to his living conditions. While fantastical scenes of ecstasy and psychedelic drawings from illustrator Ned Asta are distinct in The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, the book shines the most in its quiet moments. The term allows them to establish their comradery. Claiming the term comes from a place of agency and self-determination – the faggots are deliberately separating themselves from their oppressors. They have parties under the moon with fairies, relish in orgies and “delicious orgasm juice,” and have feasts with the “women who love women.” They don’t call themselves faggots because of self-deprecation. However, despite it all, the faggots still thrive by sticking together. Poverty, chaos, and militarism are omnipresent in the fictional society, and revolution is long overdue. “The men” are heteropatriarchal, fascist rulers of Ramrod that make it hard for “the faggots” and their friends. Largely influenced by the author’s life in a queer commune called Lavender Hill and gay culture pre-HIV/AIDS, the book takes place in the dystopian empire Ramrod. A book focused on marginalized groups empowering one another needs to be a resource in community organizing and mutual aid. However, I think it’s finally time The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions gets the recognition it deserves. Its status as a lowkey book allowed it to remain untainted, to exist as a relic for the people instead of a cog in capitalism’s machine. ![]() Mitchell’s book is pretty underground - a free and accessible PDF of it circulates among niche groups on the internet. Discarded after reading the first 20 pages, that mentality was replaced by the desire to build bridges. I borrowed it thinking it’d be hilarious to read in public spaces and have people give me questionable stares. I’ll admit I didn’t know this book at all until a few months ago when someone introduced it to me. Larry Mitchell’s The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, a manifesto/fable from 1977, teaches us this. Community is the vehicle for healing, a tool for survival, and a key to liberation. Individualism (I like to say “self-obsessed selfishness”) is killing us. In such a climate, how do we keep going? How can we carry this much collective trauma and fear? We can cope by daring to be un-American: turning to one another for support. Gun violence is rampant and nothing is being done about it because our lives are disposable in the eyes of the state. The United States is a culture of individualism and self-reliance - we are taught to prioritize ourselves over community. While a lot of that was rooted in personal issues, I strongly believe that a part of it was influenced by where I’m situated. Past me held the belief of walking alone. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All Time.LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.
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