38 Queer Anthems of Resistance For When You Need to Scream Into the Void

For reasons that should be glaringly obvious, the theme of this month’s playlist, broadly speaking, is resistance. Perhaps more accurately, with the help of the Them dot us brain trust, I wanted to curate a collection of songs that show the varied ways in which queer and trans musicians throughout the ages have responded to oppressive forces. Sometimes that takes the form of nihilistic acceptance, as in “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. Sometimes it’s a gentle call to enhance our connection to the land, as in “Teach Me” by Jamila Woods. And sometimes it’s just a minute and a half of screaming about fascists, as is the case with the many queer punk and hardcore songs on here from bands like The Hirs Collective, Limp Wrist, and Dog Park Dissidents. (And hey, who among us hasn’t felt the need to scream their head off about fascists these past few weeks/years?)

To wax poetic for a little bit, I’ve always taken these little playlists seriously because it’s really important to me to expand the notion of what “queer music” is, especially when so many queer playlists seem to imply that LGBTQ+ people didn’t make music until the 2010s — and queer people of color until years later. But especially with a theme like this, it felt particularly urgent to showcase that queer people have been making music about resistance for decades; from “Diss Order” by the 2000s LGBTQ+ hip hop group Deep Dickollective to “Glad to be Gay” by the Tom Robinson Band, a Dylan-esque folk anthem written for a London gay pride parade in 1976. I’ve taken solace in music since I was an out queer adolescent fighting to survive until adulthood, and it’s still what brings me the most comfort (or at least catharsis) in times of crisis. That’s true of music in and of itself, but to me, it’s especially galvanizing to be reminded that, as terrifying as these times are, our communities have fought these same fights over and over again, through organizing, through marching, through mutual aid, through art.

Below, find our Queer Resistance playlist on both Spotify and Apple Music. — James Factora