Hello Queerdos everywhere! This is Starduster along with Toaster reminding you about a Queerburners event so relaxing, fun, and affordable you’d definitely regret not going – unless, of course, you really have your shit together and already made other plans! Eventbrite Now
Starduster at EPR in 2021 checking out the site at a peak moment in drought. Things are much greener now.
Are you still looking for an easy and chill Memorial Weekend getaway specifically for LGBTQIA+ people from all over Northern California? Then bring your camping gear and some friends to East Park Reservoir for a three-night Spring Campout, organized by Queerburners, a 501(c)(3) nonpofit organization.
Are you ready to take a break from all those outrageously priced, EMD-pulsing, highly-decorated, and body culture-obsessed gatherings and events trending within the intersection of Burning Man and Queer communities?
We love, love, love all our digital native, Burner, straight and gay brethen so much! Just look at everyone’s preferred pronowns declared on practically every Zoom call these days. But our entertainment budgets simply don’t include much in the areas of glamping gear, chauffeured commutes, catered cuisine, or diesel-driven disco whether or not we can actually afford them (exceptions for DJ equipment, renewable power, LED tech, and a little dab of Day-Glo).
All hyperbole aside, we absolutely love that type of event and the talented lovelies who produce and attend them. But Queerburners cares about your pronouns and yourpocketbooks!
At Queerburners events we resist social and financial stratification and LGBTQIA+ isolation through community building that centers the regularly-resourced (and still fabulous) rainbow of gay & lesbian, cis, transgender & non-binary queerdos (and all their pronouns).
At our Spring Campout there will be folks from some of the gayest theme camps at Burning Man and other similarly-oriented, queer civic and social groups from the Bay Area and beyond. Think swimming, boating, and hammock-swinging by day and picnic table dining and campfire singalongs by night.
Workshops, group activities, variety shows, etc are welcome! This event will take whatever form the community shapes it into! Blinky lights, radical couture, and bikes? Yes! Children and dogs? Bring ’em! Pulsing music and intense partying? Well hey, if that’s your happy place then bring it on and we all can go there, too (until 10pm when quiet hours kick in)!
This is a Ten Principles event! More information also at Queerburners.org or reach out to Starduster (Events Director for Queerburners) with questions at events@Queerburners.org.
I was recently reminded that I used to write out a whole trip report about what I saw at the burn and about this community that I am so passionate about. To that end, this was the strangest burn I ever had because I did things I never did before. This post is not about me, but as seen through my eyes for 2022 that is disconnected from my usual experience because this is my first year NOT camping in either of the Queerborhoods. I spent most of my time visiting friends at Comfort & Joy. And when I needed shelter and down time, I also went to C&J. But in the end I ended up leaving on Friday before burn night on my seventh day in Black Rock City.
As noted above, I left the event days earlier than planned because I was not really prepared for the 2022 burn. Consider that I started in 2008 and have been to Black Rock City quite a few times, but each time I was part of, or running, a theme camp. This time I was basically on my own. I should have done better, but it seems I was not the only one who forgot how to burn.
My take on the city was that it was as beautiful as ever. This year we had 2 Queerborhoods that were intentionally set and dubbed East Village and West Village. The road to making those villages happen was interesting to watch from the sidelines. And operating in the shadow of the Cultural Direction Setting project by burning man in 2020 and 2021, it made that evolution even more interesting to watch from a certain point of view. My POV was that there was a lot of bigger, better, and more.
Any of those things mentioned in the above confusing? If not, skip to the next paragraph. In 2019 I was recruited into a group called the Cultural Direction Setting Team started by Burning Man with a mission to better define expectations of camps and our community. A big part of that was dealing with the troublesome big money camps that had no connection to the Burning Man ethos. But, another part of that was asking current camp leaders to get current and new camp leadership to up their game.
East Village was a Queerborhood space at 4:30 and D +/- with BAAAHS as the anchor camp.
West Village was the Queerborhood at 7:30 and D +/- with Comfort & Joy as the anchor camp.
The City
2022 was my first year as a Ranger. It was my first year not being a camp lead. I got out to the city more than usual. And, in the course of rangering I got to directly engage tons of people and exploring on a level I never have before. The city was alive, thriving, and though I know a lot of people had a hard time it seems there were a lot of successes. But, a lot of people left about the same time I did. Sadly, I missed the burn on Saturday and Sunday that I wanted really bad to be a part of.
I made a map of the city before I left and shared it with a lot of people. I am about to start the new one for 2023. And it seemed a lot of people really liked it, so I am going to make it bigger and better for the future. Queerburners has some exciting plans for a new queer guide in 2023 and everyone will see it in living color.
The Community
This is a topic that is of the highest importance to me, personally. It is one of the 10 Principles that is the reason I am a part of this idea of Burning Man. The importance of coming together is a human need. Watching some of these amazing and successful things people have created with the support of the community fills my soul. Specifically, and most recently, The Afterlife art that was on the playa in 2022 and elements of it will be at the BAAAHS campout this coming weekend.
That speaks with a focus on out LGBTQIA participants, which is important to me because there is a marked lack of safety for queer people. We have the Queerborhood for a lot of reasons that have been hashed out in this blog over and over. Collaborations are the pinnacle of success in my opinion. One of my favorite was the party that Mudskippers did featuring Whitney Houston* that grew in popularity over the years.
Another space usually close to the Queerborhood is Golden Guy Alley. This concept is the future of Burning Man, crating small vignettes you can only get to on foot based on the Japanese Golden Gui Alley, but more fun. Last year Tom’s Bar made its debut featuring the art and style of Tom Of Finland. When I walked in I was gagged (not that way) to see the bartenders were all burners I knew from all the corners of the Burnerverse COLLABAPORATION and COMMUNTIY!!!!
Being a Ranger
So, 2022 saw a lot of new rangers on playa and I was one of them. It was obsoletely one of the best choices I made. I would encourage more queer people to submit on the Burning Man Volunteer page as a ranger and go through the training. It will improve you life. I am not kidding. I get your toaster pin … for obvious reasons! Ha ha ha ha ha.
On a more serious note…
One of my initial goals with joining this community was to better my relationships with women. Over time I found a lot of women in this community as strong, brilliant, bright lights that were supportive and made really good friends. My learning curve was a very wide arch and I am still learning. Yes I made mistakes but the only way to improve is by actively listening and doing better through my actions and my words.
This evolving I mentioned gave me stronger ties to people who are trans, non-binary, and many still figuring things out. I have fully embraced people in a more loving way, though again, I am still growing.
What is your intention? Go to the burn with an intention and a promise to honor the ten principles. Throw yourselves into a project, a camp, or some kind of service outside yourself. Yes, there is an amazing party going on, but making it better for someone else will raise your own social credit and happiness is catchy.
We are in the heat of the season for festivals and preparation for Burning Man. Next week is EDC is Vegas, the BAAAHS Campout is coming up. So much happening all at once and it is so exciting, especially after 3 years of being trapped in our caves. Our organization became a non-profit during that same down time in 2020 and we have been working behind the curtain to develop what we could with the welfare of our community one-hundred percent in the focus of that goal.
When we wrote the vision statement for our organization, it was Nexus who helped us create that where we said essentially: our mission is complete when the community no longer needs what we are working for. Some might say, well, what have you been working on? Our primary mission is creating safe and accountable spaces and providing access for people from all walks of life. We almost always us NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds) when we talk about pricing and always make every effort to make sure all of our community is represented.
Last year we were able to produce an amazing series called the Rainbow Leadership Series in 4 parts that was held on Zoom. We gave away Grants for the first time to some great projects. When we wanted to do a camping event, it seemed that people were not ready for that so we decided to wait a year.
This year (2023) we tried to repeat that progress. Either our voices (meaning me and the board) are not reaching people through our Facebook Channel, Twitter, Insta, and Mailchimp, or people have moved on and don’t need what we are doing anymore. At the end of May 2023 we had two events planned that no one responded to. I ran into one of the biggest voices of this community this week amd when we spoke they did not know anything about it, so where did we go wrong?
The only way Queerburners works it through it’s participants. Everyone has a voice here and those of us on the board are very good about keeping things balanced. Why? Because all of us see the world from different places and do not always agree, but we have a common goal and work together well. If a person is disruptive to that, they made their own exit. But, we work well together with a collective process of sharing and having the safety of expressing an opinion or feeling.
As the current chair and founder of Queerburners, I have not always been an ideal leader, but I hope people can always feel safe talking to me and carrying the banner that was initially raised in 2008 and accomplished so much! If you want to contribute and help us develop programming for the community that supports all across the rainbow, please send us an email to info [at] queerburners [dot] org
