We Have Been Here Before
Florida 2024-Berlin 1933
24″x48″, print, 2024
“All this is to say that the openness and comfort we enjoy in the 21st century is not historically unique. We have been here before and we know what comes next: The Fall of Babylon. When the Nazis rose to power, many queer people joined with the National Socialists and enjoyed the benefit of being part of the dominant power. Ernst Röhm, a homosexual and close friend of Adolf Hitler, was the chief of the Sturmabteilung until his murder during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. Leopards will eat your face. At some point in the 1920’s German queers were frogs in slow boiling water. The Nazis began raiding gay bars in 1932. By 1933, queer people were being sent off prison and, later, to extermination camps or to work as slave labor. Progress is not linear. After the war, both East and West Germany criminalized homosexuality for decades. If the overturning of Roe v. Wade has taught us anything, it is that the recriminalization of homosexuality is a real possibility. Already, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee have criminalized basic queer education and drag. The Gilead Queens are coming for us and we need to be ready.”
Brayden Shayne is a multi-faceted creative endeavor: a magazine; art products; events; film; and sounds.
We are interested in queer art and thought and general faggotry.