Bonus: You Can Leave What Isn't Working by The Gay Divorcees

Welcome to a bonus track from The Gay Divorcees! In our last episode, Ethan Philbrick graced us with a discussion of his gay divorce and how he brought together The Gay Divorcees in part to build community around queer divorce. This beautiful song, "You Can Leave What Isn't Working," holds a special place in his heart and he is sharing it with our community! For the full album from The Gay Divorcees, head over to divorcee.gay. 

The Gay Divorcees

The Gay Divorcees is a band of real-life queers who got gay married and gay divorced, led by composer Ethan Philbrick, who came together during a pandemic to write songs about getting into and out of state-sanctioned intimacy in the 21st century.

Throughout February 2021, The Gay Divorcees streamed their album of songs over the toll-free number 1-855-GAY-DIVO. On Sunday, February 14th, they teamed up with the One Archives at USC to present a remote Valentine’s Day listening party filled with performances, readings, and other surprises. On Thursday, February 25th, a group of queer theorists offered responses to the project in an online event hosted by the Department of Performance Studies at NYU.

In a moment when many people are trying to figure out how to get out of situations that are no longer working or keep going after the end of something, The Gay Divorcees approach their experience with marriage and divorce as potentially instructive. Divorce your old patterns! Divorce your broken political systems! Divorce your inherited ideologies!