Review: Lock Up Your Daughters #4

If you are a superhot, supercool Glaswegian dyke, you will already be familiar with Lock Up Your Daughters. I am, however, aware that queer Scottish twentysomethings make up a very tiny percentage of PANK readers, so I will be more specific.

LUYD is a sporadically but beautifully produced zine distributed throughout Glasgow. Its focus is international; Issue 4 is a USA special as editors Lucy and Sophie just spent their summer across the pond. It’s queer-centric, but as gay people do more than just be gay, there’s plenty of interest for those of you who prefer “opposite marriage” too.

The American issue includes interviews with artist Lindsey Wolkowicz, hip-hip musician Athens Boy Choir, and pro snowboarder Laurie Currier, as well as articles on cartoonist Alison Bechdel and arts festival Homo A Go Go. Despite all this queer joy, it was a small feature at the back of the zine that really made my heart skip. You may be aware that I am a fan of addictive yet formulaic crime dramas, so I was particularly excited to take the ‘Are You Suitable to Be In CSI?’ quiz (note: I am woefully unsuitable for work as an actual CSI, but ideal for a job as a fictional CSI. Jerry Bruckheimer, I await your call).

I was first made aware of LUYD a few years ago by a message from a cute stranger on gay dating website GaydarGirls (This was when I was single, and I was only there for the purposes of research. Honest). I hoped she was asking me for a date, but actually she just wanted to tell me about a club night/zine launch. Since then I have become a fan of LUYD and everything they do, and have even shyly introduced myself to one of the editors when I recognised her in the pub. Incidentally, she was very nice, and referred to herself as a “twat in a hat”, which really makes anyone endearing. LUYD has become a part of my life in a very tiny way, but then isn’t that what life is? We’re made up of a thousand tiny things that interest us. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to finding new minor but wonderful things to incorporate into my life.

In terms of what you actually hold in your hands, LUYD is just a nicely-produced zine of interviews, articles, cartoons and stories. But the reason I love it is that it’s not just a zine; it’s a view into a world I wish existed all the time. If only everyone I met was in a queerpunk band or producing a transgender arts magazine or collecting garishly sequinned sweaters or taping photos of Rachel Maddow above their bed. In the world of LUYD, everyone is the type of person I want to meet. On days when there are football hooligans chanting outside the window and my work colleagues spend an entire morning shift discussing fake tan, flipping through LUYD always makes me feel like there’s hope after all.

Lock Up Your Daughters is available to buy online (email Sophie or Lucy if you don’t have Paypal).