takemehomefromnarnia

[takemehomefromnarnia]

We are all in shock and deep sadness to hear of Liam's death yesterday. At this tragic time, we're thinking of his son and loved ones.

It's a difficult time for all of us in the fandom. Please take care of yourselves, and of each other; be kind to yourselves, and to others.

If you need help processing this incredible loss, here are some resources you can turn to:

[takemehomefromnarnia]

25 YEARS OF BI+ VISIBILITY & THE RISE OF THE BI+ EQUAL UMBRELLA

Dear friends. Today is Bi+ Visibility day. Our founder Kat is especially proud to share with you, on this day that is so important to her as a bi+ person, this little piece of important news. A new bi+ umbrella is starting up and they want to know, from the bi+ community, what form this umbrella should take. Please take the survey.

Kat provided one of the tiny sparks that eventually lit this fire. And that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been able to gather the experience and courage doing this Rainbow Direction thing with all of you. Just so you know that while things may be quiet here, that stone we threw in the water, continues to make ripples that grow wider and wider. We are still making things better for real LGBTIQ+ people in the real world. Thank you for all that you have done.

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Navigating Queer Identity and Closeted Expression through Boy Band Fandoms

Hey! I'm a Music Undergraduate at the University of Oxford and for my dissertation I'm researching the connection between the LGBTQ+ community and boyband fandom. A brief description of the research is shown in the link connected with this post. Already shared this around, so sorry if you are seeing this again!

If you're part of the LGBTQ+ community and also are part of/have been part of a boyband fandom, it would be brilliant if you could fill this survey out! The survey is super quick and the answers are completely anonymous, unless you would like to be considered for a further Teams interview in the future. Alternatively, if you don't fit into one or either of these categories, but you know someone who does, it would be really lovely if you could share the link around.

Please feel free to send an email to the address found at the beginning of the survey if you have any questions. Thank you so much and lots of love!!

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/oxford/navigating-queer-identity-and-closeted-expression-through-boy-b

[takemehomefromnarnia]

As a queer person, I’m appalled by the flags at Louis’ shows. No, I wouldn’t care if someone, for some reason, brought a flag just for them because it was, for some reason, one of the only places they felt safe to do so. But when there is a sea of tiny pride flags at every single show, that’s not the case. That’s not the case for all those fans. Those flags are being brought “for him,” to “show support for him.” “Support” he hasn’t asked for. “Support” he’s not showing any sign of appreciating or accepting on a personal level. And “support” that implies that whole sea of people reject his child and girlfriend’s existence. It makes me sad for him. And it makes me embarrassed for the queer “fans” that use him to project their fantasies, instead of actually appreciating him as an artist. And it enrages me to see these so-called fans bragging about it online. Bragging about denying Louis’ right to tell us his own identity. Bragging about thinking his entire existence is a lie. Bragging about blatantly disrespecting him every chance they get. The flags do not make me, a queer person, feel more comfortable and accepted at his shows. They make me feel like I’m in a room full of people that do NOT respect peoples’ rights to claim their own identities without judgment.

As a queer person, I have a very different opinion than you.

[takemehomefromnarnia]

not the same anon and i’ve already asked this to someone else without an answer. i’ve never been to a show in the usa but it feels to me like there’s a different atmosphere in general over there so this comes from genuine curiosity: why do you feel like you have to bring a rainbow flag to a concert? let’s forget about louis for a second, just think of a random concert. you said you’ve gotten bad looks for bringing one but also you (and others) claim that flags in concerts are meant to feel people safe. do you not feel safe if you don’t bring a flag? do you not enjoy a concert if you don’t bring one/see one? what’s the need to bring flags? i promise this comes from curiosity because in all the years i’ve attended music shows and festivals, i’ve never felt like bringing the flags i own, but again, i’m not from the usa and i’m not well versed into tumblr queer culture.

Hi anon. I will take this as a good faith question, although your phrase “I’ve asked this to someone else without an answer” is something I suggest you do not include when asking things in future, because it implies you’re upset or blaming that other person for not responding. People have many reasons to not respond, some of which are simply time or time of day or spoons! We are all simply trying our best out here.

Now onto your question— I think that what’s missing here is fandom history. You said “forget about Louis for a second”, but actually what we need to do is look back at One Direction’s history.

I’ve written this out and tried to shorten it a number of times now, but the long and the short of it is that while the band was active, especially 2013-2014, the way that One Direction the Brand and Management handled rumors about Louis and Harry was to create a rift between “respectful fans” and “everyone else”. And the “everyone else” was people who thought Louis and Harry were in a relationship, yes, but it was also simply queer fans. Because those circles often overlap, OR because other fans would see that they were queer and put them in the same category.

Rainbow Direction was a movement made by fans in order to feel safe at One Direction shows specifically, because it was one direction shows specifically that people did not feel comfortable at, but desperately WANTED to feel comfortable at, because this band and these boys brought them comfort, spoke words in their songs that connected to their queer experience, etc.

I would not say that it’s USA specific so much that it’s 1D specific. I don’t… believe (I could be wrong) that I’ve brought a flag to a non-1D (or 1D adjacent) show, although I HAVE seen flags at those shows, like Declan McKenna I feel like I saw a flag or two there, for instance.

But honestly anon, when I bring a flag, it is not to make myself feel safe. It’s so that someone else who is queer can see that flag and know that I am a safe person. Likewise, when I see someone else with a flag, I know that I feel safe with them. It’s a way of saying you’re not alone.

Now, it might be helpful to know that I have attended EVERY 1D/Harry/Louis/Niall concert (but one) with @lululawrence . It’s her flags that I wear. She is the best sort of person you could ever hope to attend a concert with, but that’s beside the point. My point is that the one show that I remember the most dirty looks and feeling the most uncomfortable was the one Harry show we attended in… 2021? The end of the 2021. Harry’s fan base grew EXPONENTIALLY over the pandemic. That night, we saw maybe two flags in the pit and none anywhere else. There were more people dressed as bananas than people with flags. Sus and I had the bi and ace flags, and honestly anon, I started to want to hide it. The people around us gave us looks, I heard them talking about us although I tried not to listen. I wasnt afraid for our safety, but I was viscerally aware that the people around us didn’t understand the flags and didn’t want us there.

And I had been there in Nashville at the Ryman, when every flag had been confiscated and the security had been terribly mean and Harry had had to pull out his own and set it on stage at one point when the lights went down. That had been upsetting but we had all been on the same page, the fans and Harry, that the flags were important. Post-2020, that show was different. I felt like a creature on display for people to gawk at.

So when you talk about tumblr queer culture, I don’t actually know how much this extends past 1D/Louis/Harry. But in the beginning of 2023, when Sus and I went to the first concert we had booked (we had… four or five that year), and noticed how few flags there were, the two of us were specifically worried about concerts feeling the way that one in 2021 did. That’s why we did spent the next few months sending flags to every North America Louis show (and don’t get me wrong, I’d have done his other legs if I had the money to get them flags too. But all those flags in the NorthAmerica shows? A few friends whom I ADORE helped but mostly that was almost entirely out of my own personal budget). Because we wanted to make sure that everyone felt the safety of being able to spot a flag in the crowd and know that whoever was holding it was not someone who would reject them for their gender/sexuality.

Sure, another option is that no one brings flags and we all just sit and enjoy the music. That’s really fine. But I think for our fandom in particular it’s a bit of history, of being loudly rejected during the 1D days and then surging our support for one another for the solo tours.

And tbh yeah. Okay. America is scary and people are mean and i know so so SO many people who are ONLY out online or at shows like these. I want them to know im there with them.

So, I don’t know if I answered your question well. @takemehomefromnarnia or @lululawrence or any number of other people could probably answer it better.

[takemehomefromnarnia]

10 years of Rainbow Direction!

Exactly 10 years ago a girl named Danny printed out this rainbow poster and took it to the first concert of One Direction's Where We Are tour:

Anniversaries are always a bit arbitrary, and Rainbow Direction's was always a hard one to pin down.

This blog is just a day or two short of celebrating 11 years and without it Rainbow Direction would have never existed, because the people who were at the start of it would never have met, but its purpose and setup were entirely different and RD was still far from being developed.

The suggestions that eventually took form in "Project Rainbow Direction" were first submitted to the blog in late 2013. The first brainstorm between Kat, Li and Ellis about it, and further strategy talks with Ed and Molly took place in the early months of 2014. The project was announced in February. Haven and Red submitted their winning poster designs in March. Amy developed a logo and opened a merch store for us in early April.

While we've often referred to that midnight brainstorm on a cold January day as the origin of rainbow direction, that was only its conception. We don't even have a record of which date it was. We could also have chosen any of the more pin-downable dates: announcing the project, announcing the poster contest winners, opening the store. But really, all that Rainbow Direction was at those moments, was an idea, a plan, the hope that we had that it was within our, the fandom's power, to change something for the better for the LGBTQIA+ fans in it.

For months all of us, and especially Li, had worked tirelessly to encourage people to sign up and commit to bringing a rainbow poster to a show.

And then the big moment was there. First day of tour. The moment of truth. Would the people we'd encouraged actually have the courage to take a rainbow to a show, and stick it up in the air? Would it matter to people? Would it actually change something?

10 years on, we know that it did. So much more than we could ever have imagined.

But that was was anything but self-evident at the time. We had no idea. We nervously monitored the wwa tag and the blogs of those who had signed up, and then, after a few days, finally this report appeared. Danny from Bogota shared the first Rainbow Direction fan report.

I think if you'd ask any of us who were here at the time, they'd remember fondly how knowing that someone had actually done it, something happened in the real world, and if one person had done it, more would, how that sparked a fire in our hearts. A ball of warm feelings, not quite the same feeling as before. Before, there had been buzz and excitement and drive, but this, this felt different. Hope. A sense of the personal strength, and collective power, that could come from this if we could make it grow. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people who committed themselves tirelessly to the campaign, but grow it did.

Thanks to Danny. Thanks to all of you who at some point or other, crafted something rainbow at home, took a rainbow to a show, put a rainbow on your blog, showed that you believed in your own power to change something, and showed the LGBTQI+ people in the fandom that they mattered, and that you cared.

It has been quite the roller coaster ride. As the coordinating group, we've had many ups and downs, and by now, for most of us, our attention has been drawn away from the fandom by our real lives and new pursuits. But regularly, when one of us checks in and sees the rainbows at one of the boys' shows, we share, revel, and sit amazed at how this thing, that once took so much effort on our part to get one, two, three people per show signed up, has grown into a regular staple, with people spontaneously taking it upon themselves to organize for entire venues to light up in a coordinated rainbow pattern, to design new posters and rainbow outfits, or to hand out hundreds of mini rainbow flags in the audience. This community has taken it up as its collective responsibility - let's get those rainbows out. How beautiful is that?! You are all so so amazing.

Thank you, you beautiful people, for becoming a part of this, for making it your own, for making it better, for carrying it forward, into the future.

So long!

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Surrounded by lights ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💜

Faith In The Future World Tour: Manchester. (11 November 2023)

x

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Hello! We'll be doing a rainbow lights project for Louis' show in Vancouver on June 26! It'll happen during All This time and into She Is Beauty, We Are World Class, aka the megamix. Reach out if you're willing to help out and we might have something for you. :) Follow this blog and reblog, please!

DONATE IF YOU CAN!

twitter || instagram || tiktok

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Can’t believe it’s our 10 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

[takemehomefromnarnia]

[takemehomefromnarnia]

TODAY’S ACTION : Make a rainbow wave for OTRA Boston!

Help make Boston the most colorful show yet, and show your pride and support of LGBTQ+ fans, at the show or at home!

IF YOU’RE GOING TO THE SHOW:

If you haven’t yet, sign up for bringing rainbow to the show.

Bring your rainbows and/or other pride gear and show them off with pride.

Meet other Rainbow Directioners and celebrate who you are together.

Participate in the Rainbow Light fan action, info here and here

Post pics and stories on social media, tagging #RainbowWaveBoston and #RainbowDirection

Here is where you can find rainbow flags for the show:

Closest to Gilette Stadium: Franklin Flags  480 Union Street Franklin, MA 02038 - 

When you’re coming to Gilette from east of Boston: Eagleflag in 166 KING ST COHASSET MA 02025

When you’re driving down from the North to Gilette: Arlington Flags & Banners  110A Massachusetts Avenue Arlington, MA 02474

If you come across Provincetown on your travel to Gilette:  Provincetown Human Rights Campaign Store 209-211 Commercial Street, Provincetown, Massachusetts 02657 

And you can download print versions of the Rainbow Heart and the YMMS flag 

There is a meet up planned for this show, Info and meeting point

Lots of people are giving out rainbows - printed YMMS signs, stickers etc - at the meet up, so make sure to stop by!

IF YOU’RE JOINING IN FROM HOME:

Have your own rainbow party (dress up in pride gear, make rainbow muffins, take pictures of everything rainbow in your home, or anything else you can come up with) and share on social media 

Post pics and stories on social media, tagging #RainbowWaveBoston and #RainbowDirection

Retweet, reblog, regram and otherwise spread the word. Let’s flood the tags with rainbows and watch the wave build!

Let’s make a #RainbowWaveBoston!

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Thank you for the shoutout! Thank you for chosing a song that matches our rainbow power. So glad to see the project was successful! 

I just made it home from the show, and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who boosted the rainbow lights project for Matilda, participated tonight or volunteered to help hand out papers. Im incredible grateful to the leaders of the project on twitter for having this idea and working so so hard on the papers for tonight and organizing so many volunteers. I’m so overwhelmed by how great it turned out, and what it felt like to be in the room, surrounded by a rainbow, to a song that is so special to me (and to so many of you).

I want to go and reblog everything, but I’ve got to gear up for night 2 and get things sorted for tomorrow! I’ll post a video here for everyone to enjoy if you haven’t seen some already (and maybe a few other videos in another post too!)

Thank you thank you thank you! 🌈🥰🏳️‍🌈

PS if you have twitter, feel free to drop some love to the lights up project team. They were so sweet to us and worked so hard, and since Harry didn’t perform it tonight, they didn’t get to see their project come to life 😞

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Hey:) hope you're having a good day, as a queer individual, I'm so grateful and appreciate what you do.

I recently came across a bunch of comments made by Liam (or his twitter acc) about family values and pride flags at concerts etc. I know the pride flags comment was made around 2014 when rainbow direction was getting bigger and more ppl were showing up to concerts with pride flags. it was days before harry picked up a pride flag for the first time.

I was wondering wether Liam's comments had any affect on the lgbtq+ community of the fandom, the confidence in bringing flags to concerts, how'd did it feel and what are your thoughts on it

Hi and thanks for sharing your appreciation, it means a lot.

Just thought I'd answer this so as not to leave any open tasks in the inbox while on hiatus ;-)

You can find Takemehomefromnarnia's responses of to the "family values" tweet of January 2014, and to Liam's reaction to the massive fall out from that incident here and here. And some reactions by LGBTQ+ fans here and here. In short we spoke up about our anger at those tweets - and then it died down. This was before Rainbow Direction, so you can safely say it didn't mess with our confidence in bringing flags to concerts. If anything, it made clear the necessity of an action like the one Kat was concocting in her head at the time (because the brainstorming between her, Li and Ellis that eventually crystallized the project hadn't even happened by then)

Liam's comments in Attitude, had a completely different impact, for a number of reasons. Not talking about his sort-of apology for the Duck Dynasty incident of a year and a half earlier here, but about the "pride flags are about Louis and Harry and it's nuts" comment.

First of all, it wasn't an off hand comment on Twitter, but a cover interview for Attitude magazine, one of the biggest publications of our own community, which we had been very excited about. We had high hopes, not in the least because Harry had picked up a pride flag in Buffalo and in Montreal.

Secondly, while the name was never mentioned, the comments about the flags were directly targeted directly at Rainbow Direction, which by then had brought hundreds of pride flags and rainbows to dozens of concerts and which was starting to get quite a bit of press attention for it (Attitude itself had covered us in March of that year and Kat had just been interviewed by MTV).

Thirdly, it didn't recognize Rainbow Direction for what it was, a project meant to support LGBTQ+ fans which deliberately stayed out of the shipping wars, and it explicitly framed RD as a shipping thing, painting it as nuts.

It was a very harmful comment to the LGBTQ+ fan community, as it completely delegitimized what we were doing and made it seem disingenuous. It questioned not only our motives behind Rainbow Direction, but every LGBTQ+ fans' motive in bringing a rainbow flag, a flag expressing their personal identity, to a show - putting it aside as "not really about your identity but about something else". I still fume when I think about how harmful that was. In essence, the comment called into question whether the people in Rainbow Direction were "really LGBTQ+" (for the record: all of the founders are, almost of all of us involved as volunteerswere/are). In short: in terms of impact, it was a really harmful thing to do, and it hurt a lot of LGBTQ+ people.

The fact that the comment was made in one of "our" magazines, that was asking about whether the change of laws in the US had liberated fans made it so much more hurtful.

But it didn't stop us, and it definitely didn't stop us from bringing flags. To the contrary.

We responded to the rumors immediately and when the interview came out officially, we published a press release to correct the image Liam had spun in Attitude. We also wrote several letters to Attitude to correct what had been said, referring them also to their own article about us from March 2015.

We immediately rallied to make the next show on tour the most rainbow filled one to date and launched the #bostonrainbowwave action. Two goals, our first #rainbowlights project trying to turn the Gilette stadium into a full rainbow of lights, and to make Boston the show with the most participants bringing rainbow flags (at least on the US side). People could also participate from home and turn their icon into a literal rainbow wave for Boston.

If you go to the TMHFN archive for September 2015 you will find the many supportive reactions by fans LGBTQ+ and other in response to the Attitude comments and our actions for Boston. It really created a very positive vibe and strong commitment to make the shows even more rainbow filled

At least six Youtubers made videos in our support after this happened (unfortunately some didn't understand our no shipping policy so there are some references to Harry/Louis/Larry on one or two posters featured in these videos, but not matter, it didn't stop people from bringing and featuring rainbows is the message - and unfortunately 3 of them are no longer up but you can see the rest here)

The moderate success of the #rainbowlights action in Boston led to an attempt to organize rainbow lights project for the entire UK tour, some with more success than others, but it's the Boston action that eventually inspired the rainbow lights projects during SOTT at Harry's first solo tour in 2018, and the #turnforestrainbow project for Nial's gig in Brussels that year. And these in turn inspired the rainbow lights for OTB during Louis' tour this year and #rainbowforlightsup for Harry's tour this year.

In short: neither incident felt too good and the second one particularly did a lot of harm to LGBTQ+ fans, and to our reputation. Bringing rainbows to shows does feel very good though, and we are going to keep doing it, no matter what.

[takemehomefromnarnia]

Hi everyone, we’re taking a hiatus until further notice. If you are looking for rainbow projects for the upcoming tours you can find what’s already planned dd 9 July 2022 on www. rainbowdirection.com 

@rainbowsforlightsup is keeping tabs on Harry shows and we know there’s a lot happening for Louis’ shows in Australia and New Zealand so keep an eye out and

KEEP BRINGING YOUR RAINBOWS.

[takemehomefromnarnia]

HSLOT Toronto Rainbow Lights Project - Volunteers Needed 💖

Hi everyone! I’m super excited to say that we have a wonderful rainbow lights project happening for the song Matilda on both nights of Harry’s Toronto shows. This was kicked off my twitter fan kiminich and we’ve joined forces to make it the best it can be!

Here’s the deal - we are going to provide all the coloured papers for the whole arena. What we need is some amazing volunteers to help distribute the papers in the arena.

What would you need to do?

The good news is - not much! We would plan to meet outside of the arena to give you the papers for your section. Our idea is that these papers would be divided into 3 or 4 small baggies so a volunteer would just need to do 3 or 4 drop offs at the end of rows asking people to take a paper and pass the bag on. Volunteers could do this after the opener plays so most people are in their seats.

To show you what I mean - here’s some pics!

A bag with enough papers to cover a large section is only about 14 by 5 cm (5 by 1.5 inches) and fits into my tiny arena regulation sized purse with my phone and keys inside. That bag has 3 other bags inside it - so there’s enough papers to go from row 1 to 28!

If you are heading to the shows and willing to volunteer please let me know or contact Kim on twitter (@ Kiminich)

Let’s welcome back Harry to Canada after 4 long years with pride 🏳️‍🌈 and make the space as safe and welcoming for fans as it was last time!

[takemehomefromnarnia]

HSLOT ANTWERP RAINBOW PROJECTS - 7/7 - PLS REBLOG!

Hello friends - please help out by reblogging this post! 

There are not ONE but TWO rainbow projects happening at Harry Styles’ concert in Antwerp. 

The FIRST and MAIN one is sectored rainbow lights across the arena, and mini pride flags on the floor for “Treat People with Kindness” - this is organized by harryantwerpfanproject on Instagram and here’s the layout

If you are on the balcony, do get in touch with the organizers to coordinate - you can help by bringing lots of sticky notes, stickers or other colored paper matching your section and handing them out to your neighbors.

I myself am teaming up with them and handing out ca 900 mini pride flags for the floor section. 

I NEED YOUR HELP TO DO THIS as I cannot be in Antwerp very early to hand out the flags to people lining up and I doubt I’ll be let in with a big bag full of flags so I need  people from different sections of the floor who are willing to take in 100 flags in their tote or backpack (this shouldn’t be a problem security wise, at least it wasn’t at Wembley) and then hand them out to people in their vicinity.

The picture above just shows 4 sections on the floor but in fact, the layout for Harry’s show looks more like this:

I will be the VIP section of the arena seats behind zone B close to the B stage (zone 003 in the pic above), so I need people in:

- Standing Zone A

- Standing Zone B

- Arena Seats Zone 001 and 002

- Arena Seats Zone 003 and 004

I will bring the flags - I just need you to take them over from me outside the venue around 7pm when I expect to arrive at the venue, take them in and hand them out to your neighbors with instructions on when to wave them (that’s during Treat People with Kindness) 

IF YOU CAN HELP - SEND ME A DM ON @thisiskatsblog​ or to @lewiskatryn on Twitter 

———–

Then, there is a SECOND rainbow/multicoloured project, and that’s scattered multicolored glow sticks for Lights Up (which will actually come earlier in the setlist this risks getting confusing if Harry asks people to put their lights and flags up for this but no matter, we’re just going to do both! )

It is organized by doyouknowwhoyouare_ap on Instagram and TikTok

[takemehomefromnarnia]

The fans going to HSLOT Amsterdam on July 9 are organising a rainbow lights project for Lights Up! See all the info here and don't forget to share and RT so that as many people as possible know about it! As always, we also encourage you to bring your flags to make the venue extra colourful!