Gay shame

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Gay Shame is a movement whose adherents describe it as a radical alternative to the gay mainstream.

Gay shame was created and named in opposition and protest to the overcommercialization of the "gay pride" events, and its members attack "queer assimilation" in what they perceive as oppressive and conservative societal structures -- as such its members disagree with the legalization of same-sex marriage. Gay Shame began in 1998 as an annual event in Brooklyn, New York. Held the first year at DUMBA, an artists' run collective center, bands such as Three Dollar Bill and Kiki and Herb and speakers such as Eileen Myles and Penny Arcade appeared and the evening was documented on video by Scott Berry and released as Gay Shame 98. Swallow Your Pride was a zine published by the people involved in planning Gay Shame in New York. Three issues were released. The movement later spread to San Francisco and Toronto. The San Francisco Gay Shame became a non-hierarchical direct-action group that continues to this day.

An academic conference at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor occurred in March, 2003. During that weekend, there was friction between the activists and the academics, growing out of different strategies, and the activists' claim that the academics didn't do enough to acknowledge their power and class privilege, and to share more of that with the activists.

There have also been events titled "Gay Shame and Lesbian Weakness" in London, England associated with the club night Duckie run by Amy Lame. Although documentation about when the first event happened is hard to come by, the event was occurring annually by 1998, if not earlier[1]. The 2004 event was billed as "Now in its 9th great year."[2]. In 2006, Duckie presented EuroShame[3].

From 2001 to 2004, there were Shame events in Stockholm, Sweden [4].