4mo ago

Are Juggalos Allies?

Good evening, Lemmy,

I recently got into Insane Clown Posse and, as a result, into Juggalo culture. Since acceptance, respect, and support are such important ideals among Juggalos, I was wondering:

Are Juggalos, therefore, allies of the LGBTQ+ community?

Since I live in Germany and have yet to meet someone who even likes ICP in my country, I have basically zero contact with Juggalos. So, everything I know comes from what I've read online, and I was wondering how this translates into real life.

36 comments

Group of juggalos living out in the woods in Washington saved my life by helping me ditch a r×pist who was traveling with our caravan.
They did stuff like help out at the food pantries, told us the best places to go for free/low-cost supplies, and sabotaged the construction area for the Walmart often enough for it to be delayed for a loooong time.
I always think you gotta check with the people before you assume anything, but, from what I have experienced, they are scarily enthusiastic yet genuinely cool folks. Majority seem to be supportive of LGBTQ+ kinda stuff. 👍

I don't believe I'm an arbitrator of who is or isn't an ally, but I did grow up with folks who identify as juggalos, I've joined them at the gathering previously, and live in an area of the midwest that is somewhat prolific with ICP fans.
My perspective is they are some of the kindest, easy going, unconventionally individualistic people I've ever met. Nearly unwaivering in their acceptance of others into the community. Almost like modern day hippies, very pro drugs, human unity and family. Many are lgbtq themselves.
I would GENERALLY consider them lgbtq allies. There's always assholes in every crowd though.
- This is very much true of metalheads as well. They listen to the MOST rage sounding terrifying music, but are the nicest damned folks I've ever shared a mosh pit with.
  
  All the metalheads I've ever met remind me of Eddie from season four of Stranger Things.

Some of their older lyrics had some homophobic bullshit in them, for which they have since apologized. I read one such apology from one of them and it felt pretty genuine to me, FWIW.
So Juggalos I would expect to be inclusive of LGBT+ people, but no group that big is going to be perfectly in lock step on something like that.

Every Juggalo I've interacted with (sample size of 3) has been the kind of person I'd definitely consider an ally.
Potentially not representative of the greater community, but I've yet to experience anything to the contrary.

In case someone else needed to learn this: "Juggalo" is a term for fans of Insane Clown Posse, a hip hop group.
I had to look up so much stuff to even understand the question, so I'll let others provide actual answers.
- Hop hop group hehe
  
  Confusing jackrabbits with juggalos. A common misconception.

Juggalos are a subculture of people who feel ostracized and such, are generally VERY welcoming to people deemed "lesser" by the world. It's a community that celebrates being yourself. If you're not hurting anyone, you do you!
I think it's kind of beautiful even though the music is not for me.
- Same, Juggalos are cool as long as they don't get control of the radio
- Same here.
  I can’t say I like the music, but them clowns is good people.
- The right-wing man-o-sphere is also full of young men who've been ostracized so it could go either way on this point alone.
  
  Yeah but the shared interest for juggalos is he music and for the manosphere it's arrogance and misogyny
- It's a community that celebrates being yourself.
  As long as you wear clown paint on your face and use the wrong their/there/they’re

iirc one of the main juggalos got a furry suit made to match his kid and goes to furry conventions with them. So id assume theyre allies
- I honestly thought that was fake the first time I saw it. Pretty cool if you ask me.
  Though this reminds me, gotta check up on some other famous person to see if they are a furry or whether that's fake.
  Edit:
  Still unclear about whether Andrew W.K. is actually a furry. Mostly just finding vague "He has a fursona" type stuff, from around 2014-16 and nothing new.

Of course you'll still meet individuals with a wide range of beliefs and I don't think you can boil a complex group down to a simple answer; but yes.
A few years back now it came out that Violent J's daughter was a furry, and like a good dad he supported her and at least tangentially got into the furry community which is very LGBTQ+. This opened up a really weird friendship between the groups, but from what I understand the Juggalos also have a history of being very anti-fascist which also jived with the progressive furries.
While I haven't met many myself, I fully accept the alliance. They're both alternative cultures which can look odd from the outside, but as you pointed out I think they both heavily focus on acceptance, respect, and support. It's a good unifying thread! Juggalos and furries will show you who they are without shame, I trust and respect that.

The Daily Show had a segment Who Will Juggalos Vote for?.
- The whole thing is great, but for me 3:50 is where you can really pick up the whole vibe in just about a minute. Particularly the perfectly respectful way of handling not knowing how to pronounce someone's name. And then lapsing into a hallucinogenic zone out time.
- I fucking hated that segment.
  That shitty host is like "WOW GET A LOAD OF THESE FREAKS" the whole time while the freaks are being welcoming and nice.
  I know it's the dudes schtick to be the sassy, judgemental gay guy but those juggalos but he was desperately trying to make them the butt of the joke and it didn't work. He looked like a total asshole, it was like listening to a Mean Girl bully the nicest kids in class.
  The only part he wasn't an obnoxious douchebag was during the sit-down interview.
  
  That shitty host is like “WOW GET A LOAD OF THESE FREAKS” the whole time while the freaks are being welcoming and nice.
  That's literally the joke. They start with the wrong opinion then slowly educate you with the correct one.

I know a smattering of Juggalos and as a whole they are kind and accepting folk. ICP actually has a number of songs that call out racist and bigoted behavior. Obviously there are bound to be a few jerky exceptions, but they would be at odds with what the majority expresses as core values.

MMFCL. Great question. I looked up some stuff.
"Trans Joy and Acceptance at the Gathering of the Juggalos" https://www.papermag.com/juggalos-trans-joy
twitter JuggaLGBT https://xcancel.com/JuggaLGBT seems like mostly a personal site
r$ddit: https://redlib.northboot.xyz/r/juggalo/comments/10jqxeb/yo_wait_is_icp_lgbtq_friendly_because_i_think/
r$ddit: https://redlib.northboot.xyz/r/juggalo/comments/16ctare/lgbt_juggalos/
there a couple other posts on r$ddit but they're basically saying the same...
- Mmfcl?
  
  it's a juggalo thing whoop whoop.

They accept what society rejects besides pedos.

The few that I have met have been accepting of us queer people. But my sample size is incredibly small.
I think most of them a decent people based off of the anecdotal evidence I have.

I'm not LGBT myself, but while in my angsty and edge lordy early 20s, my LGBT friends didn't really like the ICP music, but they strongly preferred the messaging over the early Eminem of the same era.
There is (was?) a lot of violent imagery that not nice people could fixate on, but the targets of that violence are all racists or authoritarians of one kind or another. Beyond that, a lot of the music was about just doing what makes you happy and chilling with your friends with some slightly veiled Charlie Brown level Christian values mixed in.
Every Juggalo I've met has definitely been a little out there, but not in a bad way, just a marches to the beat of their own drummer type.

a good friend of mine is a hard core Juggalo. Most of them are very accepting. I've been to a gathering and it's wild. Good people, lots of drugs and titties. I have a soft spot for clown girls. The music isn't my thing and the anti-science stuff is cringe. But all in all they seem like good folks.
- What kinda anti-science stuff we talkin bout?
  
  https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/miracles-fucking-magnets-how-do-they-work
  
  magnets man how do they work

I'm from the Midwest, had friends go to check out the gathering, never had problems. They're self proclaimed outsiders and anti-establishment and are generally sympathetic to minority groups. The worst I've seen from them is anti science and anti education getting wrapped up in their anti establishmentism, but they usually just want to get high and listen to music about horror movies and wrestling.

Yessir alive and kicking.

- Nobody likes grammar pedants.

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