#i’m nervous ab posting this i hope it’s taken in good faith

[stpansy]

i could write thousands of words about how the concept of coming out has become some sort of rigid litmus test of authenticity in the queer community itself over the years, something that both demonizes being closeted and implies that you must vocalize every facet of your identity in order to be taken seriously by your community. i could also write about how “don’t assume someone’s sexuality/gender” has eaten itself and once again become “everyone is straight/cis until proven otherwise” which has led right into (mostly gen z, but not only) queer people themselves ignoring and trampling and smothering the signs we have used amongst ourselves for generations to signal queerness without explicit labels, accusing these signs of being appropriation or queerbaiting with no exception. i could write about how we are living through a war on trans people, the most actively hostile and threatening period trans people have had to exist through for decades, and how coming out is not an option for some people, is actively dangerous, and to act like if a trans person doesn’t have their pronouns in their bio or loudly proclaim their transness to everyone they meet they are cis is playing a small but devastating part in that war. and this is a my chemical romance blog, so i could write about these topics in conjunction with this band. how celebrity can mean that your audience feels they are owed you coming out. how personal identity and specific labels are not owed to you no matter the public status of a person.

instead i will say this: mcr is a queer band and they want you to know it. we don't know the labels they use for themselves in private--if they use any at all, which gerard at least has stated before he doesn’t--but that doesn't matter. when gerard gets onstage in skirts and dresses, they are queer. when frank said "i'm the faggot from mcr" after years of kissing men* onstage he was right. mcr is queer, genderweird, trans, faggots, our kinda girls and our kinda boys. especially gerard, who has made it so clear that they’re not cis. and it's doing them a disservice to pretend they're not just because they haven't come out on instagram.

#partly inspired by current conversation on the dash #partly inspired by general thoughts i’ve been having lately #anyway #mcr and queerness. the two most important things in the world #gerard way #frank iero #mikey way #ray toro #my chemical romance #mcr #mcr queer studies #queer #trans #me.txt #long post #i’m nervous ab posting this i hope it’s taken in good faith