This is Queer: Dante

For Dante, his queer journey has been both about breaking down and building up.

“To me, ‘queer’ is about trying to break out of the confines of typical labels — gay, straight, bi, trans, and so on — and simply embrace being oneself. I identify as a gay, cisgender man, and see that as falling under the umbrella of ‘queer.’”

Dante employs a number of other adjectives to describe himself, from neurotic to musical, unusual to empathetic. Originally from a Blacksburg, Virginia, coming to Richmond to pursue musical aspirations and start a band changed his queer experience and allowed him to embrace it.

“Living in Richmond has helped me embrace myself as a queer man. I had grown up in a relatively small town, where people were mostly accepting, but you just didn’t see as many queer folk around. Living in more of a city type of area with various different walks of life, I have opened my mind to sexuality and gender expression having more fluidity and less being quite so rigid.”

And for Dante, that meant choosing to embrace more fully the identity that began to develop in early childhood.

“I was very feminine as a child. I tended to play with Barbies, listen to Britney Spears, and steal my sister’s clothes. One of my childhood memories that I laugh about the most is putting on my sister’s stockings and boots and performing Britney Spears karaoke when I was about four years old.”

Since coming to Richmond, however, Dantes’s musical stylings center on heavy metal and performing as the lead singer of Tel. While his band mates and most of his friends identify as cis-gender and heterosexual, he feels very at home here and supported, as well as free to express himself openly.

“I feel my queer identity plays a role in my creativity as a musician in the topics that I write songs about. The lyrics of my band are all very personal, and sometimes include failed relationships with men. It’s a topic that I have had to teach myself to grow more comfortable with writing about, but it definitely plays a part in the material.”

“Living in Richmond has helped me embrace myself as a queer man. I had grown up in a relatively small town, where people were mostly accepting, but you just didn’t see as many queer folk around. Living in more of a city type of area with various different walks of life, I have opened my mind to sexuality and gender expression having more fluidity and less being quite so rigid.”

And for Dante, that meant choosing to embrace more fully the identity that began to develop in early childhood.

“I was very feminine as a child. I tended to play with Barbies, listen to Britney Spears, and steal my sister’s clothes. One of my childhood memories that I laugh about the most is putting on my sister’s stockings and boots and performing Britney Spears karaoke when I was about four years old.”

Since coming to Richmond, however, Dantes’s musical stylings center on heavy metal and performing as the lead singer of Tel. While his band mates and most of his friends identify as cis-gender and heterosexual, he feels very at home here and supported, as well as free to express himself openly.

“I feel my queer identity plays a role in my creativity as a musician in the topics that I write songs about. The lyrics of my band are all very personal, and sometimes include failed relationships with men. It’s a topic that I have had to teach myself to grow more comfortable with writing about, but it definitely plays a part in the material.”