Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.08.2014, Blaðsíða 28

A household name in Iceland and
cult star abroad, the artist and per-
former’s career spans some 22 years. In
that time he has released seven studio
albums and two best-of collections, a
memorable Eurovision song contest en-
try (and, for years, hosted several now-
legendary Eurovision parties), appeared
on Icelandic versions of the reality
shows Pop Idol and The X Factor, writ-
ten regular sex and love advice columns
as “Dr. Love” (along with running an ac-
companying radio show) and performed
live shows in Iceland almost every
weekend of the year. He even regularly
sings at funerals, if the call comes. Páll
Óskar is also one of the most prominent
gay public figures in Iceland, for de-
cades an outspoken champion for equal-
ity, and by now the traditional closer of
the Pride festivities. He’s now mentally
and physically preparing for the upcom-
ing Reykjavík Pride (formerly Gay Pride,
under a new all-inclusive title), which
this year focuses on hate speech on the
internet and the discrimination LG-
BTQIA people still face on a daily basis.
Backlash
What’s the motivation behind
the theme of this year’s pride
event?
After last year’s parade, there were some
really nasty comments about the parade
being made on Facebook by prominent
people claiming that the parade was
pornographic. They got a lot of follow-
ers and people liking this comment. So
there was backlash. Let me be perfectly
clear: the Reykjavík Gay Pride parade is
not pornographic at all. Not even a bit.
I was a member of the committee from
the beginning, from 1999 until 2006,
while we were forming this parade, and
there was one thing we were always ab-
solutely clear on—no tits and asses.
That’s what I noticed at my first
pride parade here, was how
clean it is.
I do understand and you google ‘gay
pride’ and check out the images that
come up, you probably see photos from
the ones in Berlin, New York, London,
San Francisco. And what do you see?
Fifty-something men wearing jock
straps, if even that. We were absolutely
clear from the beginning with our fes-
tival that we wanted it to be a family-
oriented event. Ultimately, the moment
you pull down
your pants in the middle of the
street, it’s kind of difficult to demand
respect.
Sure. It’s setting a boundary, in
a sense?
Exactly. The people who take an active
part in the parade have always respect-
ed that boundary. We have noticed that
the people who break that rule are usu-
ally not part of the parade. Those people
are usually members of a bachelor or
hen party and the irony is that they’re
usually straight. They use the parade
as a platform to embarrass the bachelor
or hen by pushing them into the parade,
film it, and the gimmick is to show it at
the wedding party and the guests split
with laughter.
Wait, what? That actually hap-
pens?
Almost every year! And these rituals
are, by nature, humiliating. And the pa-
rade is definitely not about humiliation.
It’s written in the festival programme
this year: “unfeathered geese and gan-
ders aren’t welcome in the parade.” I
hope they listen.
Talking Back
You’ve never seemed to be shy
about making public statements.
A couple of years ago coming
up to Pride, I remember you
said something about the event
now being about more than just
sexuality because of all kinds of
discrimination people face. You
called out the fact that nowa-
days the only ones who have it
easy are rich right-wing white
men wearing suits, maybe hold-
ing a gun and a bible.
I took the feedback from that statement
as a reality check. It was really inter-
esting to experience the feedback from
that statement. There were middle-
aged men who thought I was just talk-
ing about them, which was far from the
truth. Even middle-aged men who knew
my father commented on my Facebook,
‘Now you’ve done it, Páll Óskar. You’ve
gone too far. You’ve made me lose all tol-
erance for you.’ That made me think. Let
me be clear, we are not asking for toler-
ance, we’re asking for acceptance. If this
man responds to me in this manner, what
has he been showing me all along? Sur-
face tolerance? Maybe what happened is
that straight people are simply not used
to being addressed as a group, while
it’s very
common for anyone else
to be addressed and generalised as a
group, like women, homosexuals, black
people, Jews, Muslims, immigrants.
The content of your music isn’t
exactly political in itself. Is the
fact of your performance a po-
litical act?
Yeah, definitely. I miss artists who use
pop music as a tool to make the world a
better place. I don’t know if it’s their own
fear that is holding them back from tak-
ing a stand and making statements, or if
it’s the producers or the record compa-
nies holding them back or creating pup-
pets out of them. You can make peoples’
lives so much easier and inspire people
in so many ways through your art.
But to tell you the truth, I hate poli-
tics. I do not belong to any political
group, I hate the game, I don’t want to
play the game, I don’t understand the
rules, and I don’t want to learn the rules.
I want no part of
it. My politics have
always been pretty
simple: I am against
everything that
hurts or kills people
and against every-
thing that hurts our
planet. As I say in my
song “Megi það byrja með mér,” “May
this world be a better place to live in, and
may it begin with me.”
Marching On
Is the Pride event more about
politics or partying for you?
The Pride parade stands for many
things, to me. It started off as a celebra-
tion—and it is a celebration!—of the har-
vest of all our hard work, it’s a show of
gratitude to the straight people who
actually got the picture. We can’t forget
that where we’ve come to now is due
to heterosexual politicians who got the
picture. Like, feminism will take root
and you will get the harvest of that la-
bour when men finally get the picture!
What this world needs are more femi-
nists of all sexes.
It really has so many layers and the
most beautiful thing is that the parade
becomes what you put into it. If you are
proud of yourself, you experience the
parade as a beautiful celebration of life.
It’s fine and it should be political. I think
it’s fantastic when we manage to have a
fifty-fifty mix where it’s political and a
great party. Mission accomplished. You
should not forget that this parade has po-
litical roots. You should not forget that is
t h e
primary purpose
of the parade. Another of our policies
is that we do not allow any commercial
advertisement in the parade. I was in
New York City for their last pride event
and I was deeply saddened. The whole
parade felt like one big huge beer com-
mercial. All the political undertones had
vanished. Like, are these the queer staff
members at Diet Coke throwing Coke
cans at us? Very few floats made a point
or made me feel good.
What is the most important mes-
sage of the parade for you?
Every single year when it’s getting close
to Pride I usually get asked the same two
questions: “why do you have to flaunt
your sexuality?” and “why shouldn’t
we celebrate “straight pride?” I usually
give the same answers: I flaunt mine in
the same way that straight people flaunt
theirs. It is necessary to “flaunt” my
sexuality because I remember the time
when it was a total taboo. People always
ask me “Why do you have to bring this
on the streets? Isn’t it
your private business
what you do in your
bedroom?” Yes, what
I do in my bedroom is
my private matter, but
if I’m walking down
the street and I see a
straight couple taking
a walk, holding hands, with their wed-
ding rings and a baby stroller and I’m
somehow not free to do the same thing
on that same sidewalk, that my hard-
earned taxes paid for, without that being
considered “flaunting”? It’s not a private
matter. It matters to you and it matters
to me.
The Pride parade comes from the
necessity to be able to walk down the
street with full dignity during a time
when being gay was illegal, when soci-
ety violated you, you could be put in jail,
you were a second class citizen and you
were even physically abused. So when
people ask me why they shouldn’t have
a straight pride parade, I say be grateful
you don’t need one. Be thankful.
Come Out,
Pitcher-And-Catchers
What are the issues you’d like to
see change in the queer commu-
nity here?
There are so many great, interesting,
brave, intellectual people who have
given their faces and names openly to
our cause, but if there’s one group of gay
people that I would like to see more of,
or who need to have their voices heard,
it’s people in sports! Each and every
member of the sports
world who comes out is lifting a huge
load off so many peoples’ backs. I en-
courage queer people in sports to have
their voices heard. They don’t need to
say more than those three little words.
It’s going to be a huge inspiration for so
many people.
Bisexual people still have a long way
to go, as well. Transgender people have
done a lot of good work, not only com-
ing out, but they have pushed the enve-
lope. They demanded their own legal
rights. They give their own cause faces
and names, they’re public and visual and
they’ve done a great job. Bisexual people
still are between worlds. It’s like they’re
looking in the mirror and checking their
own self-respect and wondering where
it can be found. It’s probably taking such
a long time for them because it is a mat-
ter which is entirely their own. It seems
to me like this is their own private tug of
war. Most of the bisexual men that I’ve
met are still in the closet. This is their
own private tug of war. In my whole life
I’ve only met two—I repeat, two—bi-
sexual men who are out and proud, who
embrace the talent of being able to fall in
love with both sexes, both genders. To
this day it amazes me that I have not met
more.
Has there been any outreach to
those specific communities to
bring them into the parade in a
significant way?
Well, I don’t believe in outing people or
dragging people into the parade who
don’t want to be there. If you’re not
proud of yourself enough to walk that
parade, why should you enter something
that is all about pride? It has to be done
wholeheartedly. But I’m a firm believer
that this will happen in the near future.
The reason why I always choose to
make a float that is as fabulous as can
be is for the closet cases. It’s for those
people who are still living a double life.
I’m not trying to force anyone out of
the closet—you should always have a
choice—but I want to be there to remind
them that I came out of the closet and
no harm done! Nothing bad happened. I
have the same chances of having a mar-
vellous life and a fantastic career and to
be respected despite my sexual orienta-
tion.
Despite it, or maybe because of
it?
I thank God that I was born gay! I love
being a faggot. I love being queer. This is
the best thing that could have happened
to my life. I wouldn’t be the artist that I
am if God wouldn’t have given me this
gift of homosexuality.
28
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2014
“When people ask me
why they shouldn’t
have a straight pride
parade, I say be grateful
you don’t need one. Be
thankful.”