Ahead of her show at the Fringe, this writer tells DIVA about why we need to keep fighting
BY AMANDA VERLAQUE, IMAGE BY CARRIE DAVENPORT
Picture it: Belfast, the early 90s. A young student moves to the city, relieved to leave her small town homophobia behind and excited to be living in the big city. This was me when I found my tribe. There were a few straight bars with monthly gay nights, and one gay bar full of straights. Our safe spaces were thin on the ground but there was a lot of fun to be had if you were in the know.
We danced and loved in the shadows by night and by day navigated the harsh reality of a straight world that was light years from acceptance. Still, it was better than suffocating in my small town closet. I met a woman, we were having fun, albeit in secret, but that created a delicious, illicit buzz. What a time to be alive! It was a pity then that her jealous, misogynistic, coercive controlling ex-boyfriend didn’t dig our lovefest and decided that he’d put an end to it by killing me. He obviously didn’t carry through with his death threat (I called his bluff. Long story. Come see my play This Sh*t Happens All The Time at the Edinburgh Fringe to find out) but living through that time was terrifying. I had no one to turn to, no specialist services to access and nowhere to report this crime because it wasn’t classed as a crime back then. I had no choice but to go through the emotional ringer until I decided I wasn’t going to live in fear. Since then I’ve made it my mission as an artist and a human being to raise my head above the parapet and shout out a big FUCK YOU to anyone who thinks me and my LGBTQIA+ siblings don’t deserve our rightful place in society.
Fast forward to now. We’ve got visibility. We’ve got rights and laws to support and protect us. We’ve got fabulous, out and proud queer celebs and allies… there’s a BUT coming: every hard won milestone feels like a hollow victory when we all aren’t sharing it. The abuse levelled at us locally, nationally and globally is jaw-droppingly astonishing. We’ve a long way to go until equality in principle is equality in practice. I’m not scaremongering: there’s something rotten in society that makes us think that on the one hand we’ve got it all, the rights have been won, our place as equal citizens is secure, but on the other hand we’re still being given the second class treatment.
I love that we celebrate. I love that there are thousands of people out on the streets making beautiful queer noise because I recall a Belfast Pride march in the early 90s when there were only about 40 of us and it was bloody scary! Still, I miss that amazing sense of protest that used to symbolise Pride.
If our lives are so much better and brimming with equality, why then is there a growing sense of unease that all our hard fought for rights can be rolled back? Hate crime is still rife all over the world, and the shocking transphobic abuse levelled at our trans siblings is scarily reminiscent of the shit we endured just a few short decades ago.
Another but: protest is in our LGBTQIA+ DNA. It compelled me to write my play, to share my experience and to ask why, despite our laws and rights, this shit is still happening. The solution lies with us and our allies. See you above the parapet.
Amanda Verlaque is a critically acclaimed writer for stage, screen, audio and VR. Before starting her writing career approximately seven years ago, she had an award-winning career in TV drama and film as a script editor, storyliner and producer.
This Sh*t Happens All The Time comes to the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Culture Ireland Showcase from 30 July – 25 August (not 6, 13, 20), Assembly George Square Studios (Studio Four), 13:20 (60 mins). Tickets at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/this-sh-t-happens-all-the-time.
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