Thereâs a pattern I keep seeing, and it needs to be addressed.
Some people who leave radqueer spaces come back later and frame the entire community as something that fed their psychosis, their delusions, or their mental health struggles. And Iâm not going to dismiss that those experiences were real or painfulâbecause they were. But placing the full weight of that harm onto a community that didnât know what was happening isnât fair, and it doesnât actually get to the root of the issue.
Radqueer spaces are not built around identifying or managing psychosis. TransIDs, paraphilia acceptance, radical inclusionânone of these are inherently frameworks for handling severe mental health episodes. If someone is experiencing psychosis or delusions and does not communicate that, the people around them are operating without crucial context. They respond based on what theyâre told, what they see, and what the space is designed for. Acceptance and support.
You cannot expect people to navigate something you never made visible.
Boundaries matter. Communication matters. If certain affirmations, conversations, or dynamics are harmful to you during an episode, people need to know that. Otherwise, they will continue engaging in good faith within the norms of the spaceâcompletely unaware that harm is occurring. That harm is real, but the intent and awareness behind it also matter when assigning responsibility.
The second issue is how these experiences get generalized.
Thereâs a tendency to turn personal harm into a sweeping statement: that radqueer people are all delusional, that transIDs are inherently rooted in psychosis, that radical acceptance is just collective denial. Thatâs not accurate. Having dysphoria, incongruence, or identity exploration that falls outside mainstream norms is not the same thing as being delusional. Supporting people, advocating for reduced stigma, and refusing to demonize those with paraphilic disorders who havenât harmed anyone is not âlosing touch with reality.â
Itâs a stance. One you can disagree with, but not one you can reduce to pathology just because it didnât work for you.
Your experience is valid. It matters. But it is not universal.
There are people in this community who are stable, self-aware, and benefit from the support they receive. There are also people who struggle, just like in any community. Bad experiences exist everywhere. You wouldnât define every other group by its worst outcomesâso why is this one treated differently?
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