Carolin Emcke

Lesbians, gays, transgender, and queer people still have to explain why, while they may not want to be seen as homogenous, they still want to be recognised as equal. They are the ones who must justify their love and desire – instead of those who refuse to acknowledge them. But tolerance always means tolerating something you reject.

Tolerance always implies regulating a feeling of unease.

“Tolerant? That’s Us” aims to playfully undermine that attitude, the asymmetry that is inherent in discussions of the equality of LGBTIQ. In three short video clips, “Tolerant? That’s Us” presents everyday situations of intolerance, blithely irritating the viewer, like putting a pebble in the shoe of the public.

The project, by writer Dr Carolin Emcke and director Angelina Maccarone, plays ironically with social expectations and assumptions. Who exactly is tolerating whom? Who are “we” and who are “the others”? How private may love be, and how public does it have to be?

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