He was certainly queer in all of the senses of what that term means.

Jason King, “Little Richard: I Am Everything”

Jimmy Alvarado: Punk rock has been represented by the media as a straight, white, male thing, and that was never the case.

From the very beginning, there were people of different ethnicities, of different ideologies.

Punk rock was always an inclusive kind of thing.

Louis Jacinto: The punk scene reflected the city of Los Angeles, which is extremely diverse, so everybody was there.

Penelope Spheeris: It also changed what women were allowed and expected to do. All of a sudden, women could shave their head, put on some combat boots, drink a lot of beer, and swear with the dudes.

Alice Bag: In the early punk scene, there was diversity of gender, also sexuality. So many people bringing in different flavors from different communities really kept it fresh and quirky.

Jacinto: Back then, to see Nervous Gender was really putting to the fans that, “We’re queer, and we’re punk, and we’re singing about being queer and being punk.”

Jessica Schwartz: Punk music is alive because there’s a need to belong and to not be marginalized.

Chinatown Punk Wars | Artbound | Season 14, Episode 1 | KCET – YouTube

Punk’s for everybody. No matter what age you are.

Punk’s, you know, it’s part and parcel of… no racism, no sexism, no homophobia at the club. It’s all ages. It’s because… it belongs to everybody.

Paul Curran, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk – YouTube

DIY or DIE: Punk Rock Is a Living Thing

Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s described the early Masque scene: “Everyone was kind of into the whole homemade thing, ‘cause … you couldn’t buy real punk clothes like they could in London.”

“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985

Next in a punk sensibility was its love affair with pastiche. As the true postmoderns they were, punks drew freely from highbrow culture, lowbrow culture, and places in between, picking and choosing as they went, bound by no formal ideology.

In practice, however, punks consciously or unconsciously drew on previous youth cultures, with methodologies and ideologies marked by pastiche and bricolage. In other words, punks borrowed freely from previous youth cultures and dominant society, melding these elements into a new form of expression.

“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985

…punks viewed the pedestrian actions of everyday life as potential expressions of art and ideology.

The vast majority of the time, however, female punks took a pastiche approach, drawing inspiration from many areas of popular culture. According to journalist Kristine McKenna, “punks rejected the Academy and drew instead from ‘low’ sources: graffiti, underground comics, advertising, car culture, the tarot, blaxpoitation, bondage and pornography, surf culture, fifties industrial films, Mad magazine, and the universe of American detritus that winds up in thrift stores. It all got tossed in the blender.” As this quote suggests, there was no single, agreed-upon guise in early punk. Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s described the early Masque scene: “Everyone was kind of into the whole homemade thing, ‘cause … you couldn’t buy real punk clothes like they could in London.”

“We Accept You, One of Us?”: Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974-1985

I mean, we’re 13 to 16 years old, with this music that we made, in our basements or garages, without any parents, without any teachers. That was a profound thing that happened to us, at a young age, cause it made us realize that anything was possible, if you just do it yourself.

Tim Armstrong, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk – YouTube

Kids stopped waiting for the show they wanted to see, and did it themselves.

Music and art was something they could do, right now.

And it gave the freaks in each town a reason to stick together.

Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk – YouTube

I mean, being in a band isn’t just about playing punk or playing what you want. It’s actually about getting together with a group of people and learning how to do something together.

And it didn’t have to turn out good. A lot of times it turns out ugly, but, you know, it still has a good feeling.

Sure, it’s a better feeling when you make something ugly with a bunch of people, than it is when you make something ugly by yourself.

Dave Mello, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk – YouTube

Oh bondage, up yours
Oh bondage, no more
Oh bondage, up yours
Oh bondage, no more

That Could Be Me: Inspiring Constructionism

Pretty much immediately Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex’s influence was felt. Just like seeing the Sex Pistols had convinced Styrene that getting onstage without much musical grounding was possible, a generation of punk and new wave women saw X-Ray Spex and thought “That could be me.” Her left of centre look also helped in that, not being the traditional male fantasy of many other women that had appeared on Top of the Pops. “The idea that just anyone could (start a band) was really big to me. That people in your neighbourhood could start a cassette label or a record label, that you could see people who were making records walking down the street. And they didn’t necessarily have to be in a glossy magazine, and they didn’t have to weigh 90 pounds and have blonde hair down to their ankles or whatever was the fashion of the day.”

Before Riot Grrrl: X-Ray Spex & “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” | New British Canon – YouTube

I can fix my bike up (Do it yourself)
I can grow a salad (Do it yourself)
I can start a punk band (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself
I can make peanut butter (Do it yourself)
I can walk myself home (Do it yourself)
I can make the rain come (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself

Do it do it yeah x3

I can make the first move (Do it yourself)
I can fight my own corner (Do it yourself)
I can put it back together (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself
I can put shelves up (Do it yourself)
I can give a hair cut (Do it yourself)
I can heal a broken heart (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself

Do it do it yeah x6

You are good enough (Do it yourself)
You are strong enough (Do it yourself)
You are smart enough (Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself)  x3

You are good enough (Do it, do it, do it)
You are strong enough (Do it, do it, do it)
You are smart enough (Do it, do it, do it)  x2

Do it yourself

Appropriate Space

There is, however, a major difference between these other uses of the home for collective music experiences and punk house shows. The people who live in the house and book the shows are enacting a DIY philosophy and politics, as are the bands that play and many of the people in attendance. The home space has in effect been appropriated to shift from a container for standard domestic practices to a pseudo-public place that offers an alternative venue option for many DIY punk bands that are often excluded from more official (or legitimate) live music venues.

Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows | Microcosm Publishing

Do you ever feel unsafe?
Do you wanna take up space?

Do you (Take up space)
Wanna? (Take up space)
Do you
Oh, do you wanna?
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Sha-la-la-la-la

--Take Up Space by Dream Nails