HOW QUEER IS THAT?
by Dylan Frances
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’ -Anais Nin
‘Use your faults, use your defects; then you're going to be a star.’ -Edith Piaf
‘Our stories are not who we are. They are what pass through us. As light passes through stars.’ -Dolphin Starfucker
It feels as if my attendance at the 2023 Queer Spirit festival, as a steward, was the final piece in a very large jigsaw puzzle that I have been working on for many, many years now. From my early teens, I knew that there was something a little queer about me, but a combination of fear and shame made me look the other way, imagining that if I did so, for long enough, these strange and sometimes distressing feelings would all go away.