I was going to wait until all of my “punk uke” stuff was over, but I feel like I want to post about last week’s performance with Punk Pride at Mosswood Meltdown along with video. (Scroll all the way down if you want to skip my hyperlink-y rant and just watch the video)
TL;DR: Between the police brutality and the deadly attacks on Pride parades, it’s been a very queer few months and I’m really feeling how sacred my community is.
After a gloriously queer experience serenading the filmmakers of San Francisco with “Midnight Radio” at BUILT THIS CITY, I received this feedback from the writer of the song, himself: Mr. Stephen Trask.
I was already on a mission to find my shine after the lonely year and a half of hell trying to navigate my new head. I got to spend some time with old friends and filmmakers at the Frameline Film Festival and I was even moved enough to share an Instagram video about it (and yes, it includes a bit about me and Mark renewing our wedding vows at the Giants game).
Immediately, Peaches Christ had to prep to get the band back together for Mosswood Meltdown. BUILT THIS CITY was already a huge affair with a packed house at the Castro Theater during San Francisco Pride, but playing a punk rock music festival alongside Pavement, Iggy Pop and Bikini Kill was something else all together.
Bass guitarist, San Francisco Symphony conductor and Punk Pride co-founder Edwin Outwater mentioned that he was thinking of changing his song for Mosswood to something more fitting than his choice of song at The Chan Center (“World Up My Ass” by Circle Jerks) and I tossed the idea of choosing a new song for myself to Peaches - who was more than happy to support the change and even threw some ideas into the ring.
But after thinking it through, I realized that a punk festival that was hosting Iggy Pop, who would be performing his 1977 hit “Lust for Life”, would be the perfect place to reprise my last Punk Pride performance - the very British Tom Robinson Band’s 1978 protest song “Glad to be Gay”. Not only does it speak to the police brutality that occured last month at The Trans March during San Francisco Pride, but also to the danger we constantly feel when we congregate as demonstrated in Berlin today as a vehicle plows through a Pride parade. As queer friendly and inclusive as Mosswood Meltdown is - our crowd was still predominantly straight and I often take for granted how easy it is for people to forget what we as queer folk go through on a regular basis.
I thought about an old bandmate who challenged the notion that AIDS was ever “a thing”. I thought about a bandmate from a different band who would censor himself with phrases like “the N-word” but feel totally comfortable saying the word “fag” around me. And I thought about the Christian bandmate from yet another band who eventually told me that I was going to hell and cited numerous passages in his trusty pocket bible.
I realized that a lot of the things that we as queer folk have to preach…actually bear repeating. Because errybody wanna be queer until they get queer bashed. This was the PERFECT crowd for the Tom Robinson song.
So…
Unless you’re a “fag” - don’t use the word “fag” around me.
Unless you understand gender expression and/or dysphoria, don’t call me “girl”.
If you think I “pass” for anything, FOH.
And unless you know the decades of hardship and torture and psychological damage it took for me and my folks to get to this “happy place” you all see, you’re not invited to the protest.
And with that said, here’s “Glad to be Gay”, the 1978 protest anthem by Tom Robinson Band as performed by me on electric ukulele with Peaches Christ’s Punk Pride at Mosswood Meltdown.
And here’s the entire Peaches Christ’s PUNK PRIDE performance at Mosswood Meltdown 2026:
I’ll be posting some more “Puke” news very soon (including the new film by Lauretta Molitor that I just scored!) and then I’ll be putting down the electric ukulele for a moment. But until then…
Ingat.
気を付けて
Take care.
H.P.
◂◂Click here to see previous posts.