Growing up in rural Maine pre-internet meant finding "deviance" where I could. I was a flamboyant kid who was into art and books and music, but with no lens through which to understand my queerness. Some of the songs represented here are cringey at best, and offensive at worst. But they all helped me develop my desires, aesthetics, and politics in an otherwise oppressive and conservative place and time. I identified with and was fascinated by the glimpses of queerness they offered me, even if I recognize how compromised that vision was in hindsight.
