Tensions between authorities and the LGBTQ+ community had been brewing since at least Prohibition, but when one confrontation between cops and an unnamed lesbian exploded into widescale riots on Christopher Street in 1969, it kickstarted the modern gay rights movement in America. According to the research of scholar and activist Moira Kenney, the idea of "safe spaces" actually originated at gay bars on and around Christopher street, because anti-sodomy laws and harassment at the time made it dangerous to be "out" publicly. The first is to fight back-just like in the 50s and 60s, when police began raiding gay-friendly bars in New York's Greenwich Village. Perhaps safe spaces are neither a myth nor an impenetrable sanctuary, but as Boiler Room put it, a "moving target." How the rave community has responded during previous times of crisis is what really matters-and previous experience suggests that there are a number of approaches we could take to move forward.ĭo safe spaces in nightlife even exist? If so, how do we keep our safe spaces "safe"?
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In considering what role (if any) safe spaces will play in the electronic music community over the next four years, we are faced with a number of tough but critical questions: Do safe spaces in nightlife even exist? If so, how do we keep our safe spaces "safe"?Įlectronic music history suggests that safe spaces have never been free from conflict in fact, they have always been permeable to hostile intruders. The festival took place more than three weeks ago, but since the election results rolled in, it feels like our collective hangover has only gotten more painful. It was also, as my colleague Ezra Marcus noted, a wake-up call about the danger of uprooting these safe spaces from the social and geographical context in which they arose (in this case, the ultra liberal New York underground), and transplanting them into a conservative Trump town that does not necessarily share their values.Ī festivalgoer at Afropunk (Photo via Aaron Paschal/AP2 Photography)
The Boiler Room Weekender fiasco was a jarring reminder of both the importance and fragility of safe spaces in nightlife-as were, on a much more horrific level, the shootings at Pulse in Orlando and the Bataclan in Paris. In electronic music, events are usually called "safe spaces" when they promote a set of values best summarized by a banner that hangs at Brooklyn's Afropunk festival every year: no sexism, no racism, no ableism, no ageism, no homophobia, no fatphobia, no transphobia, no hatefulness. Gay defines a safe space as "a haven from the harsh realities people face in their everyday lives" because of their race, sexual orientation, or other identities.
"We want to breathe," wrote feminist scholar Roxane Gay in a 2015 New York Times op-ed about safe spaces.