#queering healing

[queeringhealing-blog]

a place at the political table that won't have to come, as it were, at the cost of our place in the bed, or the bar, or the baths. But there are no queers in that future as there can be no future for queers. The future itself is kid stuff, reborn each day to postpone the encounter with the gap, the void, the emptiness, that gapes like a grave from within the lifeless mechanism of the signifier that animates the subject by spinning the gossamer web of the social reality within which that subject lives

Lee Edelman (The Future is Kid Stuff: Queer Theory, Disidentification, and the Death Drive)

[queeringhealing-blog]

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Encinitas, CA 

Vigil for Victims of the Pulse Shooting in Orlando, FL - June 13, 2016

[queeringhealing-blog]

Sam/Sam (Grace Halvorson)

Sam

she held my hand

he pulled my hips towards him

Sam

he said “please stay”

all I could think of was her

Sam

she kissed her soft lips against the palm of my hand

he splashed me with stinging jacuzzi bubbles and warm beer

Sam

she twisted the rings that rested on the fingers of her left hand as I

Sam

he said “please stay”

all I could think of was her

Sam

she let me rest my hand on her knee and pretended not to notice how shaky I was

he firmly grabbed my knee so that I had to reach into the water and move it away

Sam

he said “please stay”

all I could think of was her

Sam

I don’t know his last name

hers, Frost, like how I feel when winter kisses my nose

all I can think of is her

https://www.therationalcreature.com/volume-2-fall-2017

[queeringhealing-blog]

Madison Kelts, New York, NY

"My twin sister who goes to school in Cleveland lives in gender neutral housing because their roommate is nonbinary and also polyamorous so my sister has gotten to talk to them a lot and honestly seeing them in the background of facetiming my sister and talking to them about shit has been amazing and it's not a physical space but it's totally a queer space"

[queeringhealing-blog]

Andre Batchelder-Schwab, New York, NY

"When I walk by Stonewall I think about my much older coworker at the library who is very gay and who had this man who he loved who died of AIDs back in 1982 and it makes me think of those kinds of stories, the suffering that had to happen for us to be at a place where today I can walk with my boyfriend in the street holding hands. And yeah we get stared at and sometimes we called out, depending on the neighborhood, but it's clearly not how it used to be, it's much more okay. And Stonewall is a testament to that, look at how far we've come. So it's like sadness in that my coworker had to lose all his friends and get fired from his job for being gay and all that while at the same time he has a partner today and he is gonna get married and he has a good job. You know, it's a story of progress. Stonewall is a place where I realize the privilege I have living in this decade. It could be so much worse. And it used to be."

[queeringhealing-blog]

Prior to moving to New York I didn't have any safe spaces. so for me the city itself is a safe space. I still experience that when my partner and I are here we hold hands in public. I'm not a big PDA person but we hold hands and I notice even still at home and in other cities I'm hesitant so for me, this city itself is safe. It's NY, everyone is accepted here no matter what. In particular I've found a safe space in our church, St. Francis. I'm very devoutly Catholic but it was always a point of contention for me because at home our churches were always a sacred space but not a safe space. And moving to NY finding a church with an LGBT Catholic lesbian group was so cool.

Ashley (interview on April 21, 2018)

[queeringhealing-blog]

Pulse (Grace Halvorson)

we only have so many spaces

and they are already killing us

pouring poison into our mouths

you say it was unexpected

but we showed up knowing

violent history runs through our veins

we curl our bodies into each other

lean in to shout over loud music

brief respite worth future hearing loss

she whispers “I love you baby”

he pulls the trigger

you say it was a terror attack

I am afraid

we only have so many spaces

[queeringhealing-blog]

Carley Moore, New York, NY

"When Pulse happened I actually did go to Stonewall. I didn't go inside but I went and hung out outside where everyone was meeting. I went by myself, like I didn't have anybody with me. I went to Stonewall by myself after Pulse just because I wanted to be around people."

http://www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/16-pills-carley-moore-dawn-lundy-martin-and-stephanie-k-hopkins-prince-street