The queer community in Iceland often describes itself as “one big family”.That is presumably a reference to the idea that individuals within the queer community have each other’s backs, like families should. We can’t forget where this idea of a queer family comes from; not long ago the norm was for our families to disown us as soon as we came out as queer. As a result we looked for solidarity in other queer people, forming our own families and bonds, creating and maintaining our own traditions and fighting side by side for justice.

However, today a large section of the Icelandic queer community has assimilated into mainstream society’s heteronormative ideals.

The assimilated section of the queer community is primarily made up of white, gay Icelanders from the upper and middle classes, whose voices are heard the loudest and listened to the most in popular discussion. This has lead directly to that niché experience becoming the chief representative of the queer community to the Icelandic mainstream. However, for an ever increasing amount of queer people reality is wildly different, but those voices are rarely listened to.

This event is meant for the queer people who do not belong to the most privileged section of our community and are marginalised, both by other queer people and society as a whole. This event is for amplifying the voices of all queer people who fall outside the norm: poor queers, queers with disabilities, disabled queers, sex working queers, queer immigrants, homeless queers, drug using queers, queer refugees, queers of color, Black queers, trans queers, asexuals, intersex people, queers in prison, queer children and teens, and everybody who experiences oppression and silencing from the mainstream queer community.

We call for political expression in any way you can think of expressing your experiences, with the goal of reclaiming our own narrative and existence, whether it is a recording, text, in-person speech, video, poetry, painting or any medium which occurs to you.
We encourage those who send in work to describe their situation and to ponder what real queer solidarity would look like for them.

It is possible to perform under anonymity (your identity will be hidden) and we can assist people with sound recording, voice editing, or in reading submitted texts. The material will be exhibited/read/listened to on the 7th of August at Friðarhúsið, during an event on queer liberation and solidarity within the queer community in Iceland and how this relates to radical political changes, such as bodily autonomy for all, the abolition of police, prisons and borders, and an end to poverty and homelessness.

All materials or announcements of participation need to be sent to blackandpinkiceland@riseup.net before August 4th.