Gay communal living
Dreaming About Queer Communes
Growing up as queer kids, we envision the city as the only possibility for our emancipation, the only territory we can more or less safely live. Once we’ve reached it and got around to it, it’s to the countryside that we turn our attention as a form of escapism, especially in this climate crisis context. Beyond this blurry fantasy, there is a abundant history of theorization and experimentation we can all learn from. But first, let’s start by clarifying what’s a queer commune.
Although when talking about queer communes, we get a rather specific idea of what they may look like, it is more of an umbrella term that doesn’t tell us much about their actual forms and organizations. There are many different types of queer alternative rural communities, and this article is not an attempt to list them all, nor is it to make a typology, as it would deserve way more than this small online article to do so. But if each community has its own basis, some shared essential characteristics still exist: they are built in rural spaces, function by sharing resources and re
I live in a queer community where we garden naked and have cute Sunday traditions
Before Beau Gordon moved to Northern California, he dreamed of a different life. His friendship group was very male-oriented, and he wanted to surround him with some more diverse energy.
After he got divorced from his ex-husband, his moment arrived: he reconnected with a few old colleagues of his who had bought their own land and started a ‘queer intentional community’ just north of San Francisco. He jumped at the chance, and he’s now been living there, harmoniously, for two years.
‘We desire to be in nature, we want to live in a community. It’s about supporting each other and living with your friends in the woods,’ Beau, who is 34 and originally from the UK, tells
The group, which operates like an LGBTQ+ commune but describes itself more as a ‘queer intentional community,’ owns five acres and has 10 land mates, all of whom have developed a close relationship with one another.
Beau isn’t alone: LGBTQ+ communes own been flourishing for decades as alternative spaces where queer pe
by M.E. Savard
No, I&#;m not joking.
Sitting on the front porch on a summer afternoon, in a straight back chair on two legs leaned against the tea or Aperol spritz in hand, Dolly on the record player. We’ve just gotten back from work or visiting elder neighbors or distributing hygiene kits and we’re looking out over the garden, where we grow tomatoes and kale on land returned to and rented from its local Native communities. Some of us will turn our harvest into a vegan vegetable lasagna, while others will do the dishes so no one doubles up on chores. After dinner, we’ll sit around a heat and wax optimistic about the rise of leftist governments in Latin America or the latest rom com, and dance with the kids and pets to Beyoncé until we all verb sleepy and retire to our own quiet, comfortable quarters.
… I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here—but it sounds pretty idyllic to me.
For the past rare years, I’ve been pitching friends, my girlfriend, and pretty much every person I meet on the idea of starting a queer commune. To me, it’s an easy and perfectly coherent sell. Built-in r
Culture
Activism: Twin Oakers have done a variety of activist verb over time. Some members include become more locally politically active around issues relating to national politics, such as voter registration. We do some amount of self-education around oppression within the community. Past outward-facing activities that members have participated in incorporate Books Behind Bars (books to incarcerated persons), indigenous rights, women's marches, LGBTQ activism, Black Lives Matter actions, and more. While many individuals at Twin Oaks engage in activist activities, as a community we do not officially endorse any particular course of political activism (i.e. members do this work as individuals, not in the name of community).
Conflict: In any group of people living or functional together, some amount of struggle is inevitable. At Twin Oaks, there are different types of conflict. Conflict can spring from values differences, from communication difficulties, from different assumptions of what's "normal" or "acceptable", and from having different perspectives on the same set of ev