Queer Was Always Here

"I remember when my brother told me that some animals were gay. Quite a lot in fact. Completely naturally, without any concept of what it would mean to love the same sex and why that might be different to any other kind of love. I found that incredibly empowering. Often being queer is sold as a choice or watered down to a trend. But it’s not, and exists across nature. We’re also robbed of a lot of gay history, and can easily forget how long we have been here for. In Madeline Miller’s ‘Song of Achilles’, she tells the story of the heroes Achilles and Patroclus the way classical Greeks understood it: as a romance. It’s said Alexander the Great, who is widely believed to have been gay, slept with a copy of the Illiad under his pillow and that he and his lover Hephaestion visited the grave of Achilles and Patroclus together. I wanted to remind people with this T-Shirt, that queer has not just always been here throughout human history, but almost definitely predates us. Homophobia is the newcomer…" - Sebastian Croft

Choose Love does whatever it takes to support refugees and displaced people all over the world. Their work has reached over 1.8 million people across Europe, the Middle East and along the US-Mexico border. A key focus for Choose Love is funding grassroots organisations supporting LGBTQIA+ refugees and asylum seekers, run by people with relevant lived experience. Services provided by these brilliant groups include: housing, legal assistance, vocational training, psychological support, vital community-building gatherings and activities, clothes, food and much more. Everything they do is powered by a vision of a world that chooses love and justice every day, for everyone.

Choose Love will be granting 25% of the proceeds of this t-shirt to the organization Rainbow Railroad. Rainbow Railroad helps LGTBQI+ escape persecution and violence around the world.

I’m Kieran, an LGBT illustrator living and working in Leeds. I have worked primarily in editorial and publishing, so the opportunity to collaborate on this project for Pride has been exciting - it’s been much more personal and allowed me to celebrate queerness! I hope my design conveys that love is universal and unconditional.