Nick Monaco, a member of the Soul Clap family, has created a lipstick to raise funds for LGBT awareness.
Inspired by recent experiences of incorporating lipstick into his on-stage persona, San Francisco DJ Nick Monaco has launched the Freak Flag initiative. According to Monaco, the purpose of Freak Flag is to “move beyond gender binaries” and challenge the rigid gender constructs prevalent in society.
He told the San Francisco Bay Guardian, “I started wearing lipstick onstage and to afterparties as a kind of shtick, but I began to notice all the hypermasculinity that’s present on certain house scenes, the quasi-homophobia. Which is so weird, since house music was nurtured by the LGBT community. So this is my way of being a better ally.”
The following is an extract from the initiative’s web page:
By wearing Freak Flag we show our alliance to the LGBT community and offer our support to the community that nurtured modern dance music into existence. As dance music continues to proliferate and be adopted by dominant pop culture I think it’s an important moment to remind ourselves of the origins of this sound. To the generations that precede me this may sound like old news, but I sense in my generation a historical amnesia and lack of consciousness when it comes to the origins of contemporary dance music.
It was in the sweaty loft parties in New York like Sanctuary, The Loft, and Paradise Garage that freaks, outliers, gays, transexuals, blacks, latinos, and those on the fringes of society could unite and express themselves through dance. These events were not just dance parties but effectually pressure valves that allowed those marginalized by the dominant hetero-normative culture to release their anxieties and engage in rhythmic therapy. The club was a space for those in that community to exist freely and openly.
All of the profits from Freak Flag will go to the Jim Collins Foundation (JCF) – jimcollinsfoundation.org – which directly funds gender-confirmation surgeries for those who need the financial assistance. This year JCF was able to pay for three gender-confirmation surgeries, which brings these people the peace that they’re entitled to.
Raise your freak flag full mast and show the world that we can make noise, even outside of the club.
