Why are so many Goths queer?

Kitty Osman explores the dark, fluid, and defiantly queer subculture of Goth

It was the iconic Katya Zamolodchikova, one half of the amazing duo on hit The Trixie & Katya Show, who once said “Oh, Mama, almost every Goth is Gay”. Truer words have rarely been spoken. If you’ve ever been at a Goth night then you’ll know the thing connecting so many of our bleakly but fashionably dressed friends is not only their love of black nail polish but also their Queerness. It’s not just me and Katya who have noticed either, there is a huge Queer Goth scene which grows every day in the big cities across the UK.

This includes WhatsApp groups, Instagram pages, meet-ups, and club nights like Smells Like Queer Spirit, Spellbound, Sin City, Dance to the Underground and many others. Not to mention the number of cities who provided Dark Pride nights across the country this year, as an alternative post-parade event for the spookier LGBTQ+ persuasion. But what is it about the Goth scene that’s enticing so many Queers to join the ranks of these undead enthusiasts?

When asked what it was about Goth and Alt events as a whole that she found welcoming as a Queer person, Teagan from the Riot Grrrl band The Ethical Debating Society said “Being around people who get it. Who are on a similar wavelength”. And many people concur, Goths everywhere just get it. But why is it that Goths and Queers seem to share so much common ground?

Before we get ahead of ourselves, I suppose we first have to know exactly what I’m talking about when I say Goth. If you’ve never found yourself in a dank basement surrounded by sullen-faced tarot readers or on a UV-lit dancefloor throwing impossible shapes surrounded by hundreds of balloon-sleeved weirdos, you might not know have met a Goth before. In his 1979 book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige described subcultures like Goth as “a group of people who share common art, beliefs, morals, and behaviour”.

Goth art being poetry, literature, architecture, fashion and music inspired by the Gothic movements canon. Goth beliefs being an appreciation for the macabre and odd. Goth morals being quite socially liberal. And Goth behaviour being listening to some of the most amazing music in the world and loving over the top, garish or “off-putting” makeup. There are a thousand and one different Goth substyles and cultures currently that people can adhere to (Cyber Goths, Pirate Goths, Punk Goths, Pastel Goths, The Romantics) but these are the basics; looking, living and liking anything a bit weird and adjacent to the morbid.

The Trixie and Katya Show

There are multiple reasons that the marginalisation, exclusion, and violence which we as Queer people experience in life would endear the gender and sexuality diverse to subcultures. The Otherness we've all felt in our journey is proof that without trying, by not adhering to the cishet-normative principles that the world likes to hide behind, we are already counter-culture. Why the particular pull to the Goth scene though? Lucy in her interview for the study Androgyny and Gender Blurring Within the Gothic Subculture said “Many Goths are bisexual; it’s what attracts them to the culture in the first place. Goth is a very tolerant and open culture, it doesn’t discriminate on the grounds of people’s sexuality. In fact it doesn’t discriminate on any grounds.”

While Fred Botting says in his 2008 book Limits of Horror that for the Gothic“Otherness takes centre-stage; sexual transgression, dark desire and fantastic deviance wonderfully subvert the regimented and restrictive orders of reason, utility and morality. There is an energy of rebellion and liberation evoked in the challenges to aesthetic conventions and social norms, and energy associated with the political and sexual movements of the 1960s”. So Queer people seek out the Goth lifestyle because of it’s lack of discrimination, which in turn probably helps the Goth scene to be such an open and subversive community space and replicate the feel of other progressive social movements which have allowed people to explore their sexuality freely. These sexual freedoms within the Goth community make it a safer space for Queer people to feel accepted in our modern world.

Also, the Goth and Gay have always shared space socially. Even when just looking at the reclaimed moniker Queer, a word which describes something ‘strange or odd’ and can also be used as a verb meaning ‘to spoil or ruin’. In the term Queer, we can see the similarities between the feelings Goths try to inspire and the feelings the LGBTQ+ community are tarred with. This Otherness which we have such a traumatic relationship with is something that is celebrated and exoticised in the Goth’s pursuit of otherworldly-ness.

As Artemi, Founder of the Rockin Queers social group and club night Smells Like Queer Spirit, says about her Goth-friendly events “People are embracing themselves and celebrating that, and their differences, in a positive way.” So Goth communities not only reflect the anti-normative queerness that we all possess but also serve as a response to the systematised exclusion and violence. What’s a bigger F U to a society who says boys must be masculine than wearing makeup and flowy blouses with all your friends and having a big dance party? Girls have to be conventionally pretty to amount to anything? Why don’t I do my best to resemble a corpse and headbang the night away. Thank you for your service to the community, Whitby Goth Weekend!

Every year, the town of Whitby offers an immersion into the inclusive UK Goth scene as the entire seaside resort is taken over by thousand’s of daywalkers. Goths of all different styles and subsets have been congregating there since it was conceived in 1994 by the enigmatic Jo Hampshire who placed an ad in NME calling for like-minded individuals with a love for Goth Culture. The space is a hotbed for Gay Goths so make sure to add the event to your calendar next year!

It’s hard to talk about modern day Goths without bringing up the Gothic movement that they harken back to with the broody subculture. And it would be remiss to forget that this movement in the Middle Ages was actually a response to British anxieties and fears about, among other things, gender and sexuality in the face of the progressing cultural identity. They dealt with this apprehension through the use of supernatural and highly sexualized themes. This perversity which pervades the majority of Gothic narratives, exposing readers to the devilish desire for mores from our pristine and Christian society is undoubtedly Queer.

Though this puts the actually harmless Queer individuals into the role of the Villain, we see in Goths today that the creators of this movement really were right to fear the actions of society. This community is all about embracing what others would find villainous within you; from wearing taboo supernatural symbols to idolising the monsters in these tales and acting against societies wants. I mean, who doesn’t love being the bad guy? They’ve always got the sexier costumes anyway. Coming up, my villain era! Whether these works championed the Other or not though, they do mention it. And that is something that can be co-opted by history buffs and Goths alike for an updated queerer reading of the works in modern day.

But what would we be doing bringing up Queer subtext in Gothic Art if we didn’t bring up the Vampire! While Vamp Goths exist, usually noticeable by the Victorian dress and the propensity to answer everyday questions with Poe quotes, Goth as an entirety have a closeness to the Vampire. Written by Goth King Bram Stoker, Dracula is must-reading for all newly initiated darklings. The Vampire, despite being quite literally the reanimated dead, strikes a sensual figure in our collective imagination. It might be something to do with them searching the Earth for innocent victims to suck dry in the night.

Anyway, similarly to the Goth when looking at other subcultures, the Vampire when considered beside other folk monsters is even more Queer than usual. The issue of sexuality is a key theme in a large number of the stories surrounding this creature. Just look at Anne Rice’s Lestat series or the sexy comic vixen Vampirella who introduces herself in her first comic with the line “If you're my kinda bird or boyfriend, you'll lose your mind over me” proving that even on the coloured page all Vamps are sexually fluid.

Many fans see the Vampire as a bi-erotic or bisexual icon, a bi-con if you will, because of the majority of the creature’s depictions showing him or her to have an ambivalence to gender when feeding from the neck, a deeply eroticized act in most tellings. And the female vampire’s ability to penetrate with her fangs as effectively as her male counterpart. Really just girlbossing bloody murder there. The number of vampire stories where Queerness is more explicitly in the text or subtext grows every day; Cecilia Tan’s Blood Kiss, J. Sheriden Le Fanu’s Carmilla, Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories, Eric Stenbock’s A True Story of a Vampire, Jeffrey N. Mahan’s Vampires anonymous.

The last of these heralded in the close of an era of Vampire’s more broad dalliance with homosexualities “monstrosity” in fiction to call in the vampire-as-a-diseased-victim trope which the AIDS epidemic popularized. So if Vampires refused to be extracted from their homosexual roots even in the face of a worldwide pandemic, you can see the longevity of it’s love affair with Queer symbolism as reason for more Goth acceptance around divergence in sexualities.

Lucien, noted Goth, agrees that, that acceptance we see in Goths is their reason for loving the community as a Queer person “I feel gothic events tend to allow people to feel more expressive in their style and personality, you can feel comfortable going up and talking to others and you know you won't have people staring at you with distaste”. Hex agreed and they told me “The creativity on the scene and the opportunity to fully let go and embody things that aren't readily accepted in society like gender fuckery, 'extreme' makeup looks, being scantily clad. Also the fact that nothing you do or are seems weird when you're there because you're in a room of self proclaimed weirdos and misfits.”

The rejection of gender norms and conventional trends to instead embrace oddity makes the Goth scene the one place on Earth you aren’t likely to be stared at. With such extravagant fashion and styles of their own, you’re free to express yourself in a new and beautiful way and play with things you might not be fully comfortable with showing the whole world yet. That is much harder to do when you’re attending non-Goth events and may feel that you’ve attracted attention to yourself when you don’t want to. In a group of Goths, you’ll have to fight for the attention with everyone sporting neon dreads, cat eye lenses and historically-accurate Edwardian wear.

Another point we must remind ourselves of, is this: Goths are sexy. From the figure hugging leather trousers, silky satins and sumptuous crushed velvets to the flowing often undone ruffled shirts, the Goth can fall anywhere from Ethereal Creature to Romance Novel Protaganist. And depending on what exactly you're into there's probably a Goth out there for you. Another thing that makes Goths and the proximity to Goths sexy is that interest in the morbid and macabre. Have you ever noticed how in movies or novels when someone has a near death experience they often bookmark that scene with some hot and desperate making out or hooking up? It's actually a reaction to the adrenaline we feel when in those fearful certain-death moments.

So next time you’re listening to someone recite some Emily Dickinson and your brain is lighting up with her abstract stylings just have a check down there to see if it’s maybe having a reaction as well. Don’t believe me? It’s been academically proven that Goths are sexy. In her 2004 study Into the Darkness: Androgyny and Gender Blurring Within the Gothic Subculture Professor Christina Goulding says “Whilst the term "Gothic" has traditionally been associated with a particular style of medieval architecture, art and jewellery and the writings of such notaries as Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelly, it also has a strong symbolic sexual connection in the minds of many, largely reinforced by the popular cultural media of the 20th century.” And surrounded by a crowd that sexy, it would just be rude to limit your options with a silly thing like gender, wouldn’t it?

Speaking of sexy Goths, Mistress of the Darkness and Goth Royalty Cassandra Peterson a.k.a Elvira famously came out as a lesbian following her career as a buxom and comedically gifted, assumed-straight piece of screen candy in her 2022 autobiography Yours Cruely, Elvira. With arguably one of the most famous Goths in the world coming out, you can see why others might feel even more empowered to own their sexuality in present day Goth spaces. But Elvira also alludes to an androgyny in T, her partner, friend, roadie and Goth Girlie in her own right. In her book, she asks of her attraction to T: “Was it the male energy she exuded that attracted me?” and says “(A)fter a while it became clear I was falling in love with this beautiful, androgynous creature who'd appeared on my doorstep” before penning a beautiful ode to her paramour which again goes out of its way to blend T’s masculine and feminine traits with lines such as:

“Black knit cap pulled over black knit brows and angry eyes.

Tattoos caress and curl over velvet skin.

Soft skin covers hard muscle

Like a threadbare blanket laid on top of rock.

Knives cut and cigarettes burn to form scars

Deep and jagged as the Oregon coastline”.

I’m sure any of gender-nonconforming readers have chills right now, I know I do. These beautiful words for a lover Cassandra is obviously enamoured with are part of her proving her assurance in her “new” sexuality for her audience. It’s obviously not really new to her, as their relationship has continued for over two decades now, but the large straight audience for the beautiful Gothic Valley Girl were helped by the handholding. Judith Halberstan wrote in Female Masculinity about the androgynous or gender deviant “Androgyny is, in fact, figured as the perfect blend of the masculine and the feminine and the creation of gender harmony” and the Goths seem to agree it is.

So, there we have it, your answers to the question next time someone asks you: Seriously though, why are all the Goths Gay? It might be the fact that people open with their own sexuality are enticed by the forbidden nature of the dark culture, might be that the space was created as a celebration and space to fight against the villainizing of progressive groups, could be their sexual freedoms, or their pursuit of the forbidden, their Medieval roots and villainous attitudes, the sexy allure of the Vampyr, just how good everyone looks in Black or their gender-bending radicalness. Whatever it is, Goths are Gay. Confirmed!

With all this solid reasoning behind the Queer-Goth overlap you can ask them right back: Just why are there so many Straight Goths? I don't know if I could take the isolation of being the one lone cis, straight in my otherwise sexuality and gender diverse group of Goth cohorts. How blasé. This subculture is primed for an entirely rainbow takeover. It really is just too sad those Straight Pride weirdos took the black and white flag from under the Goths or I'm sure they'd all be flying them next Summer. Maybe they can come up with something with a little Blood Red incorporated instead.