An oil painting of objects associated with the marriages and divorces of members of The Gay Divorcees: a Uhaul truck, a Gucci loafer, two red tulips, an unlocked BDSM collar, a baseball glove, a sailboat, a US passport, and a spilled bottle of nail polish. The objects are assembled alongside each other as a still life on a table covered with a blue cloth.
INFO
The Gay Divorcees is a band of real-life queers who got gay married and gay divorced, led by composer Ethan Philbrick, who came together during a pandemic to write songs about getting into and out of state-sanctioned intimacy in the 21st century.
Throughout February 2021, The Gay Divorcees streamed their album of songs over the toll-free number 1-855-GAY-DIVO. On Sunday, February 14th, they teamed up with the One Archives at USC to present a remote Valentine’s Day listening party filled with performances, readings, and other surprises. On Thursday, February 25th, a group of queer theorists offered responses to the project in an online event hosted by the Department of Performance Studies at NYU.
In a moment when many people are trying to figure out how to get out of situations that are no longer working or keep going after the end of something, The Gay Divorcees approach their experience with marriage and divorce as potentially instructive. Divorce your old patterns! Divorce your broken political systems! Divorce your inherited ideologies!
Sandwiched between law ads, the billboard for 1-855-DIVO sits above three parked cars in a grey industrial scene, a flock of pigeons fly through.
THE BAND
An animated grid portrait of the eight members of The Gay Divorcees by Joshua Thomas Lieberman. The middle of the grid says, “The Gay Divorcees!” in block letters. Around this are eight images: Ethan Philbrick lounging on the floor, Ita Segev against a white background, Ashton Young with a painting behind them that says “and I begin again,” Paul Legault outside, Julia Steinmetz against a green background, Robbie Acklen posing in a robe with a hammer, Lauren Denitzio with a dog, and Lauren Bakst against a brick background. In otherwise still images, the mouths of the members of the band are oscillating between smiling and frowning on an infinite loop.
THE ALBUM
Track List
2. No Proper Thing by Lauren Bakst and Kris Lee (1:05)
3. Us Both by Paul Legault (5:03)
4. Future Ex-Husband by Ita Segev (8:48)
5. Better Than Maybe by Paul Legault (11:30)
6. Red Flags by Julia Steinmetz (14:28)
7. Get Away by Ethan Philbrick (18:20)
8. I Did My Job by Ita Segev (20:13)
9. My Ex’s Recipes by Robbie Acklen (22:45)
10. Backyard Garden by Lauren Denitzio (26:09)
11. Sick With You by Ashton Young (28:57)
12. You Can Leave What Isn’t Working (Reprise) by Ethan Philbrick (31:27)
DIVORCE RESOURCES
READING LIST
- Lauren Bakst, "a note on the use of flowers (a little trick!)" (2021)
- Lauren Bakst, more problems with form or, desire notes or, still woman (2018)
- Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism (2011)
- Stanley Cavell, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (1981)
- Ryan Conrad, editor, Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion (2010)
- Dark Matter, "The Other Side of Pride: In the Fight for LGBT Rights, Visibility For Some Doesn’t Mean Justice For All" (2015)
- Hope Dector and Dean Spade, "Marriage Will Never Set Us Free" (2016)
- Elizabeth Freeman, The Wedding Complex: Forms of Belonging in Modern American Culture (2002)
- Malik Gaines, A Defense of Marriage Act: Notes on the Social Performance of Queer Ambivalence (2013)
- E. J. Graffe, What is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (2004)
- The Gay Divorcee, directed by Mark Sandrich, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (1934)
- Emma Goldman, “Marriage and Love” (1914)
- Paul Legault, “Animal Husbandry” from The Other Poems (2011)
- Carmen Machado, In the Dream House (2019)
- Steven Mitchell, Can Love Last? The Fate of Romance Over Time (2003)
- Tavia Nyong’o, "Oh, the Divorces" from GLQ (2011/2021)
- Torrey Peters, Top Ten from Artforum (2021)
- Ethan Philbrick, “The Gay Divorcees” (2021)
- Ita Segev, “A roadmap 4 a tgirl lost in gay hell” (2021)
- Julia Steinmetz, “Promises, Promises” (2021)
- Cheryl Strayed, “Dear Sugar, The Rumpus Adivce Column #77: The Truth That Lives There” (2011)
- José Muñoz and Lisa Duggan “Freedom to Marry Our Pets” (2009)
- Lee Wallace, Reattachment Theory: Queer Cinema of Remarriage (2020)
- Ashton Young, “How to Survive Queer Divorce in the Age of Marriage Equality” from Go Mag (2018)
- Ashton Young, Two Poems