This week marks roughly a year since President Donald Trump was reelected into office, which turned sparks of bigotry into a full-on forest fire targeting our country\u2019s most vulnerable. The past few months have seen many marginalized groups reduced to feelings of hopelessness and isolation.<\/p>\n
However, if you had the pleasure of attending Full Queer: Wrestling for Rights\u2019 end-of-year showdown, \u201cTHERE IS STILL TIME,\u201d like I did, you would have been struck by an entirely different tone. From the second the first bell rang to the final tap out, Standard Deviant Brewing at San Francisco\u2019s Pier 70 was filled with unbridled queer joy \u2014 showcased through the unconventional form of a wrestling show.<\/p>\n
The first step onto the back patio of Standard Deviant immediately immersed patrons into a buzzing environment of pride. Pride flags decorated tables as vendors sold pins, stickers, and patches advocating against borders and police officers in favor of liberation, wrestling arenas and punk rock. Every shade of what has been deemed \u201cfreakish\u201d by the mainstream world was well represented on this pier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear that representation was a priority for the organizers, as it shined through not only in their decor but also in their lineup of wrestlers. The first match of the afternoon, Brian Bomb vs. Andrew Cass, was informally dubbed \u201cbear vs. twink.\u201d Whatever your preference, there was a type of gay to root for, though as the delightfully animated commentators pointed out, \u201cOne can only hear the word twink so many times and not root for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Cass was crowned the king and tag teams took to the mat, one thing became very clear: Roughly half of the audience, myself included, had zero clue about the rules of wrestling. But honestly, it didn\u2019t really matter \u2014 Full Queer was, above all else, a platform for queer canon: showmanship, creativity and theatricality. Really, \u201cTHERE IS STILL TIME\u201d was designed for anyone who has ever stopped to think about the pure homoeroticism that emanates throughout wrestling, typically a sport where men fight to dominate one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the fighters didn\u2019t care how much you knew about the rules either \u2014 they were ready to deliver a show for an audience that spanned various spectrums, whether it be wrestling knowledge, queerness or age. Sure, sometimes it was obvious that a punch did not actually land, but it was hard to be put off by the sloppier moments when the 5-year-old next to you was cheering on his favorite fighter.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, Full Queer asks the unheard question: Is there a difference between wrestling and drag culture? Wrestling matches see players prance onto the stage as energizing music surrounds them, much like how a drag show sees a queen dramatically take to the stage as her first song of the night plays. Wrestlers create characteristic and stylistic motifs for their in-ring selves just like how queens come up with creative names and costumes for their on-stage personas. And really, how different is a WWE match from the \u201cLip Sync for Your Life\u201d segment on RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTHERE IS STILL TIME\u201d was a show with a heart beating with love \u2014 not only for their fans, but also for the beautiful city in which they were performing. Not only was the view of the Bay from Pier 70 undeniably breathtaking, but various moments throughout the afternoon showered San Francisco as a whole with warming love. Grateful \u201cthank yous\u201d were shouted at the San Francisco Fire Department while they gleefully watched the first match, mentions of the previous Full Queer event at the Folsom Street Fair were met with applause and the commentators were eager to shout out bars in the Castro District. San Francisco has long been a pillar for queer resistance and liberation, and Full Queer happily acknowledged that during their smackdowns.<\/p>\n
Whether you attend with a love for wrestling\u2019s intense fights or for a campy queer environment, Full Queer shows provide a silver lining. After all, as commentator and Full Queer co-founder Rosie Fingers said, \u201cWe persevere, and we persevere together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week marks roughly a year since President Donald Trump was reelected into office, which turned sparks of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[27829,27828,27831,27830,27826,25374,27832,27825,101,4773,103,102,104,106,105,27827,13368],"class_list":["post-40992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-andrew-cass","tag-brian-bomb","tag-castro-district","tag-folsom-street-fair","tag-full-queer-wrestling-for-rights","tag-pier-70","tag-rosie-fingers","tag-rupauls-drag-race","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-fire-department","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-standard-deviant","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}