The message that Burning Man started off with, the 10 Principles, are the same thing the LGBTQ community has sought from the world at-large as long as many of us have been alive. When a group of San Francisco based hippies are screaming it we believe it because the bay area has been the voice of independence and personal liberties for many years. But since June 28, 1969 we started fighting back for it. The messages attracting queers is:
Everyone is welcome- No money needed, give from the heart expect nothing back
- Let’s get rid of the corporate bullshit
- Stand strong on your own
- Express yourself freely and honestly
- Stand strong on your own but a community is stronger
- Your community is stronger when it is responsible to itself and the environment
- Keep our world clean
- Get involved and no sitting on the sidelines
- …and act. Act now. Act up.
While these are interpretations of the official 10 Principles from the Burning Man web site the words are the dream of many LGBTQ++.
Demographics
See the data for 2013 and 2014 where we can clearly see a surge in fluid sexuality out numbering the self identifying heterosexual attendees.
“The largest percentages for the overall, male, and female samplings represented heterosexual Burners, however, for the group identifying as fluid/neither gender, only 17% of them chose heterosexual as their orientation. The overall data depicts the Playa as a largely hetero, but bicurious environment. The same was true for females Burners. However, the male population was largely hetero with the second-most reported orientation as gay, while the fluid/neither Burners were mostly bisexual and refused labels”. [quote]
The 2014 data was presented in much more detail than in previous years and put the details in a well written presentation. #demographics
The Gayborhood
This space along the 7:30 corridor since 2013 is an attraction at Burning Man and an impact on the event itself. There has been a lot of information posted over the years under the category #gayborhood. It is huge! It’s a huge leap from the beginnings back in the late 90’s detailed here and on the Mudskippers web site.
What people are saying…
While the culture of Burning Man is that all their kids should be able to play nicely in the same sandbox many of us know homophobia on the playa in spite of the glitter in our eyes. But we have a huge gulf between ourselves and how we approach the culture we are a part of. While snarky queers look down their nose at the Gayborhood there are still others exploring it for the first time even with a lot of playa time behind them.
Burning Man is not a gay event. No, it is not. There is an undeniable effect on identity and orientation as people selectively explore the boundaries of their sexuality at the burn. There are more and more stories of gay men having self-identified straight boyfriends while out there.
While the diversity in our approach to our sexual orientation, lives and sexual identity are as diverse as our heterosexual community, snark and
all, tearing ourselves down or putting others down for who they are – is self destruction.
Conclusion
The demographics from Burning Man are amazing. We are a strong presence and more than what the census says. One simply cannot turn around without running into people who would be under the LGBTQ banner whether they accept the label or not.