The world was shocked by the Orlando shooting last month—not only for the fact that it was the deadliest in US history , but also because it represented such a tragic hate crime directed toward the LGBTQ community, within the traditional “safe space” of a nightclub.
In the wake of the tragedy, veteran producer Ned Shepard from Sultan + Shepard has explored the critical, defining role that LGBTQ people of color have played in dance culture since the start.
“The horrible attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando was more than just an attack on the LGBTQ community. It was an attack on the spaces that provide sanctuary and shelter to those who do not have it in our society,” Shepard points out in the start of his Medium post .
“As a DJ, producer and longtime fan of dance music, I feel that those of us working in the genre have a special obligation to support the LGBTQ community.”
Shepard details the immeasurable debt that dance music owes to the gay clubs that supported it early on, and he also explores how dance music developed as a safe space in which marginalized communities and individuals were allowed the freedom to be themselves. He discusses how his own early dancefloor experiences in the late ‘90s represented his “first real interaction with the LGBTQ community—and more specifically, the LGBTQ community of color. The crowd at all of these places was mixed, and on some nights, mostly gay,” he says.
“The house music scene started as an alternative, underground scene mostly consisting of black and Latino gay men, that were not very accepted by mainstream society in the 1980s… While the ‘90s slowly began to change attitudes, there was still a feeling that those clubs and the music that filled its rooms —house or techno music —created a safe space.”
Check out “Dance Music Owes Everything to the LGBTQ Community of Color” over at Medium to read the post in full.
