Queer style is systemically rooted in dismantling heteronormative gender binaries created by the patriarchy and systematically employed as a means of social control, both symbolically and literally, to limit freedom of expression. Queer style is a fashion revolution; a tool of our liberation and a means of self-affirmation and self-love.

Through the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, police weaponized “masquerade laws,” old codes that prohibited “costumed dress,” to punish queer and trans people wearing articles of clothing that didn’t correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, Ryan, the author of “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” wrote in History.com.

Among LGBTQ+ people, these laws were called the “three-article rule”: an individual had to be wearing three articles of clothing of the gender they were assigned at birth or else they’d be arrested. If you were assigned female at birth but caught wearing pants and a shirt, you could be arrested for failing to wear three articles of women’s clothing.

While this rule became part of the queer lexicon, a law citing a specific number of articles didn’t actually exist on the books. According to historians, calling it the “three-article rule” may have originated as a way for queer and trans people to warn each other about the police or served as an “informal rule of thumb,” Ryan wrote.

The so-called three article-rule meant that anyone with gender variance could be punished for wearing clothing that made them feel good; a night out with friends turned political with fashion.

Given that queer and trans identities (use of restrooms, drag performances, gender affirming care) are being used by the far right to mobilize their voters and are both politicians and those who want to see us completely erased are leveraging their political power to dismantle our democracy and rollback rights for all U.S. citizens, I think this angle needs to be taken front and center for all pitches when it is pitched to an outlet that is more hard news or even for potential spots on political shows (I know that Jacob Tobia was on the Daily Show speaking about this very topic). Queer style has emancipatory potential for all members of society right now and is critical to cover and understand as it pertains to policies that matter to many people right now.

Join dapperQ: Ungendering Fashion author Anita Dolce Vita in conversation with book photographer The Street Sensei and one of the 30 book models, Cory Wade, as they explore queer style as visual activism and self-love.

Anita Dolce Vita is the owner of dapperQ – one of the world’s most widely read digital queer style magazines and preeminent voices in queer fashion – and the author of dapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion. She is the executive producer behind some of the world’s largest celebrations of queer style, including the annual New York Fashion Week queer runway show at Brooklyn Museum, the annual Target Youth Pride fashion show for NYC Pride, and queer fashion shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston. Anita also produced the first queer fashion panel to be featured at South by Southwest and has been a keynote speaker for DEI events for global retails brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Teen Vogue, and Out Magazine, to name a few.

Kim, aka The Street Sensei, is a photographer and videographer known for their streetstyle work with celebrities and their advertorial work with several high fashion brands and is the official photographer of dapperQ’s debut print book dapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion published by HarperCollins.

Cory Wade is a multi-medium entertainer and activist, most well known for competing and placing third on cycle 20 of America’s Next Top Model. Cory has used the social platform garnered through their reality TV stint to help facilitate conversations around queer inclusion and LGBTQPIA+ equality across America. He has toured the US to speak at multiple colleges & universities on effective allyship, inclusion, equality and human understanding. Cory is also a fiercely talented musician. Their debut album, “UNIFY” (independently released in 2017) was produced by Alan Glass who has produced iconic records from the likes of Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Jennifer Holiday and more!