“I never know when I get on stage what it’s going to be like. So we’re down in New Orleans, in the middle of nowhere, and the audience is completely white. And· I’m thinking, ‘Okay, if the shit is going to hit the fan, it’s gonna hit tonight.’ So I go on stage, do a song, come out as a lesbian, and they totally cheer, and I think, ‘Okay, over that hurdle.’
“Every place we went I kept thinking, ‘Well, I don’t know about tonight.’ But everything was great, all through the South, up to Chicago, Ohio, and it was great.”
[Phranc] pauses, lowers her voice and begins pacing her words.
“Then we crossed over into Toronto. And I get on stage, and that audience … I have never run into such a hostile, homophobic audience, just full of complete hatred, in a long, long time. They called me ‘You fucking faggot. Dyke. Queer. Cunt. Fuck you. You suck. Faggot. Cunt.’ 30 minutes straight, nonstop abuse. And it wasn’t just two or three of them, either. It was entire chunks of the audience.”
Did she continue playing?
“Yeah, because if you walk off the stage, they win. What I did was, I took out a few of the more quiet, vulnerable songs, because this was not a listening audience. And instead of playing 45 minutes, I played for 30 minutes. I ended with the song about the polar bears [that ate the Brooklyn kid], and then I stopped And I looked at the audience, and I talked to them. And I said [her voice is calm, but firm], 'Now, I’ve been called every name in the book tonight. So let’s talk a little about tolerance and acceptance in the world. Don’t you think people should be able to grow up and be whoever they are? Do you want somebody to tell you who you can and cannot be? I’m gonna dedicate this next song to you, ’cuz you’re the audience who needs to hear this.’ And I did “Take off Your Swastika,” the most passionate, burning version I think I’ve ever done in my life.
“The thing that really hurt me was that there were women yelling those things to me also. But in the end, I felt like I won, and it was good, because that’s what consciousness raising is, ya know. You don’t do a lot playing the real easy gigs. It’s great to play for people who love you, like on the women’s music circuit. But I feel that my job is to go out into the big world. Ya never know who you might reach out there.”
— Victoria Starr, “Folksingers, Amazons, and Other Tall Tales: An Interview with Phranc,” OutWeek Magazine No. 19, October 29, 1989, p. 38. Photo by Maria Perez.
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