Admin http://desicrossdressers.com 2000 crossdressers can’t be wrong

PRESENT
Belly Bolly 4
Total Masti & Hips Shaking

The South Asian & Arabic LGBT dance event coming back for the fourth time at La Zeez  and hosted by SATRANG after three successful events playing the best  and hottest remixes of Indian / South Asian , Arabic ,and International world hits .
Enjoy La Zeez exotic dance shows with belly dance and bollywood flavors and meet  the coolest LGBT South Asian and Middle Eastern crowd in Southern California and Los Angeles

Saturday , July 12th

10pm - 2am  
$10

@

The STONE DANCE BAR - 5221 Hollywood blvd , between Western and Normandie
Hollywood , Ca 90027
visit us also at 
http://www.myspace.com/la_zeez_dance

Heh…it’s always interesting to talk to other queers about what “queer” means. I’ve gotten to the point where I use it two different ways–one is the first definition you’re offering, which is basically an identity category label. The other is political in nature and about your attitude towards relationships and the ideology behind insistence on heterosexuality. I try not to blur the two, to the extent that I can avoid it, because same-sex attraction seems a slightly different thing to me than a way of thinking/living that politically challenges ideas like “marriage,” “family” etc., though the two often overlap. Perhaps this means we’ve made progress.

The sociopolitics of the hip hop industry are a lot more complicated than that. Ask any underground/semi-underground hip hop artist (or give yourself some aural pleasure and just listen to Black Star- it discusses all the elements of racial identity that we’ve discussed here).

I was being sarcastic with my comment.

why do queer desis feel like they are in some unusually difficult position?

I wonder why straight desis ask questions like these. I wonder, isn’t this rather obvious, and if not, what is unclear or mystifying? Unusually difficult compared to whom?

On the subject of Pride (briefly and unphilosophically): Every day is pretty much Straight Pride Day, so if folks want to get together and rally, I am all for it. I think it’s easy, as someone who identifies as hetero/straight, to brush aside issues of queer equality. People point to the popularity of gay marriage and go “oh look, equality.” While gay marriage is super important, it also ignores the fact that people are murdered every day in this country, from liberal SF to (presumably) conservative Colorado for either being, or being perceived as, queer. And murder is just the most extreme example of violence. Pride is about community, safety, empowerment, love, and celebration. I think the world could use more of all of those things.

Black Power I think there’s been a huge misreading of the (US) Black Power movement on the part of the anti-pride apologists. I would recommend delving a little further than popular media imaging of the “scary” Black Panthers and instead trying some critical reading in Black thought, especially in internationalist thought. It becomes even more interesting if you throw in the UK Black Power movement, which had a super strong desi twist to it in the early 70s through 90s.

And Shruti, I’m so glad you introduced the topic of the all-encompassing’ness of “Queer” identity. I also have friends who hate locking themselves into the rhetoric of hetero gender binaries. When we throw in being gender queer I think we have to really challenge ourselves to reorient not only our views of ourselves and masculinities/femininities, but also how we view equality, justice, and acceptance.

I have cisgendered and transgendered (pre and post-op) friends who are firm in their gender as male or female, but queer their sexuality. Yes, it is possible to be a straight male or female, and still be flexible in your sexuality. And then I have friends who have an exclusive preference in their partner, but will not allow themselves to be called gay, straight, lesbian, etc. because they queer their whole gender (“gender-queers”, “gender-fucks”), invalidating those terms altogether.

wow. you’ve taken the whole discourse to a higher level — like argentina’s play in the world cup. damn! i thought i was more or less up to speed on the distinctions and identifiers. far from it! thanks for educating a brother.

peace