Queer Utopias I-V

In bigger metropolitan cities like New York or D.C, we have the privilege of gathering at all sorts of bars, clubs, and shops. We have rainbow crosswalks, “gayborhoods”, and community centers. These are physical manifestations of resilience, passion, struggle, beauty, and the need to connect as a community. Before any of these things were made possible, there were those looking to connect that began creating physical spaces to hold all of these feelings and experiences. Governments may try to cleanse society at large of these important spaces, but they can never erase the glimpses of queer utopia that exist beyond the physical realm.

An excerpt from José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia has put to words the meaning of, and complexity within, queer space. This complexity is not about the who, where, or why, but simply the what- the concept of queer utopia and its physicality. As more queer and trans individuals are uplifted and given the space to be "out", spaces to gather become even more important.

I've seen and experienced bits and pieces of this imagined queer utopia in the most unlikely places. They're not always glamorous and loud or covered in glitter and corporate sponsorships. The glimpses of queer utopia I've seen aren't places to me- they're people and feelings. In a time where legislation seeks to destroy the many queer utopias we’ve created, I hold the idea close and it’s more important to me now more than ever before. I've learned that no matter what laws are put in place or what buildings are torn down, as long as we're here there is space.

We are queer utopia.