The queer community built large parts of the music scene’s infrastructure — clubs, safe spaces, bookings, entire genres of dance music. That history is real, it is documented, and it is not contested here.
What is contested is the hypocrisy that followed.
The gatekeeping problem
Certain queer-coded venues and collectives in NYC have turned inclusivity into its opposite. They built spaces that claim to welcome everyone, then operate a social enforcement mechanism that excludes anyone who does not perform the correct politics. The Basement door rejected people based on vibe checks that functioned as ideological screening. Specific collectives banned promoters not for misconduct but for refusing to adopt their language and frameworks.
When they realized I was not queer, not Colombian like most of the hard techno scene, and not a liberal, they basically treated me like I was a trojan horse. The problem was never safety — it was control.
Creeps and gentle parenting
The deeper hypocrisy is what happens inside these spaces. Queer party organizers who “gentle parent” instead of removing problems. Creeps fetishizing communities under the protection of progressive framing. People who use the right language as a shield for behavior that would get them ejected from any well-run event.
Our approach is different. We do not care about your identity. We care about your behavior. Three thousand guests, two removals. That record does not come from safe-space signaling. It comes from standards that apply equally regardless of who you are or who you sleep with.
The actual position
I am straight and I operate in a scene with deep queer roots. I do not deny the history, and I do not care about paying homage as a performance. The work speaks. The dancefloor speaks. We book based on sound, not identity. We curate based on energy, not demographics.
The hypocrisy problem is not about queer people. It is about the specific organizers who weaponized inclusivity language to build exclusive power structures. The irony of a “safe space” that is only safe for people who think exactly alike is not lost on anyone paying attention.
Real inclusivity does not require a manifesto. It requires a room where the music is good and nobody cares about anything except whether you can handle the bass.