ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews notable incarnations of queer punk that preceded, and to a certain extent produced, queercore. Serving as a lead-in to the topics to come, the chapter reaches into the corners and crevices of the past to coax these compelling moments of queer punk history to the surface. The chapter examines four "switch points" around which foundational (queer) punk scenes in New York, London, Los Angeles, Baltimore poetically pivoted. Queercore did not mark the first meeting of queer and punk. The two have experienced an ongoing flirtation since punk first coalesced in the 1970s. Such examples render a queer impression on the New York punk scene, but one that should not be confused with a pervasive investment in queer lives and politics. With the dogmatic queer sensibility, Nervous Gender may sound like an anomaly within the notoriously hardcore terrain of LA punk, but this is not entirely true.
