I came of age and came out in NYC during the 80’s. The Christopher Street Pier was where I spent a great deal of my time and where I briefly met some of the sweetest finest souls I would ever meet. Their names ended with Ninja, LaBeija, Magnifique, Infinity, Extravaganza and countless others. They were men, boys, women, girls and everything that could possibly exist in between. But most importantly, they were caring and sweet, and they accepted me as one of their own. You see, the Pier was where so many of the unloved and discarded went to remember what it was to be in a family and to learn how to survive in the angry and dangerous streets of NYC. But I was one of the lucky ones who was there by choice and not so much necessity. I was able to be an observer into this world watching from the best possible spot.
I soon found out about the ball scene and voguing, and I attended several balls to cheer on the people who had slowly become close friends of mine. I watched as members of the Houses walked their categories, vogued and won trophies and congratulated each other…and read each other to filth. But it was always fun. And the voguing! I was witness to some of the most amazing voguing you could ever witness, and it was so much more than just a dance. I came to understand that it wasn’t something that could be taught, but something that you felt. It was an art, and like a lot of art, it was something that was natural and freeing and personal.
Just the other day I found out that Ryan Murphy is in the process of creating a new anthology series called Pose that will be “examining the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in Manhattan: the emergence of the luxury Trump-era universe, the ball culture world, and downtown social and literary scene.”
You probably know of Ryan Murphy from all of his successful television shows such as Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story and Scream Queens, among others. Because of the great success of some of those shows, one might think that this would be a very good idea. But on closer examination, you can find some problems with the way that these shows have characterized many of the people of color.
Now there is no doubt about Mr. Murphy’s skills. Clearly, he is talented, thoughtful and dedicated. However, from watching some of his shows, I also get the feeling that he’s lazy and doesn’t hesitate to raise up stereotypical tropes about people of color for the sake of entertainment just to move his stories along. Just look at characters like Queenie in AHS: Coven who was the sassy fat black girl so self-loathing that she felt no one could be attracted to her except a beast, or how there were so many diverse cast members on Glee, but it was mostly about the white characters. Or how Lee Harris in AHS: Roanake is portrayed as an angry, alcoholic single mother?
But even outside of those issues I still have the burn left from 2015’s disaster of a film, Stonewall. A film by a gay white man about the Stonewall riots that re-wrote history by making the leaders of the modern gay right’s movement white, cis-gendered men instead of the brown, trans and lesbian persons that actually birthed it.
So my concern, and the concern of many of the people who lived during the period the show reportedly covers is that there will either be a whitewashing of the ballroom scene, which was predominantly black and latino, or that we’ll be seeing every stereotype of LGBT+ people of color represented without the fair balance they deserve. I hope and pray that I am wrong and that the beauty and camaraderie and the sense of family that I KNOW to be the reality of the ballroom scene in the late 80’s really shines through on this show. I hope and pray that I am proven wrong. Too much of our history is being rewritten for the benefit of making it palatable to the general public, and that needs to stop. Please do right by the community, Mr. Murphy and tell our history with accuracy and respect.
