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- Opening Remarks – Queering Psychedelics II - April 24, 2023
Thank you for coming and welcome to Queering Psychedelics II. The first conference in 2019 was a chance for queer voices in the world of psychedelics to come together in person to learn and connect. It was a unique, pioneering event, and after that event we saw dozens of queer psychedelic circles emerge all around the country. Next, we say its excitement expanding into the production of the book Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine, featuring several speakers from the conference. After the fallow period of the pandemic, it is time for the second iteration of this conference to blossom.
We are presently witnessing turmoil and backlash from the patriarchy as queer voices demand to be heard and included.
We are presently witnessing turmoil and backlash from the patriarchy as queer voices demand to be heard and included. In the US, rulings against trans people’s participation in civil life and the theocratic invasion into women and trans people’s rights over their bodies, public funds being used to support schools where the existence of queer people is denied, or where children are taught about the sinful character of queer relationships, all signify a pushback on those who advocate for a more egalitarian, inclusive, and just society. Internationally, the rights of queer people are again under fire, with Uganda recently making homosexuality a crime punishable by death, joining three other African countries, including Nigeria, which sentenced three men to be stoned to death last year as punishment for homosexuality. Authorities in the United States have proven to be so humorless and thin-skinned that drag queen story hours are outlawed and invaded by armed Proud Boys out to reinforce the patriarchy by a show of violence and aggression.
Why are drag queens, non-binary people, dykes, and queers so threatening to these supposedly macho men at the peak of the food chain? Because that pyramid they sit atop is composed of lies, each tier bullied into place and forced to comply under the implicit threat of violence. At the base of the pyramid, but comprising the majority of the pyramid, we find the queers, descendants of slaves, the Indigenous people, the new immigrants and refugees, and the women who have worked for free for millennia, and those in solidarity with them. Together, we make up the vast majority, even as we are singled out as “minorities.” Categories are created that seek to make people “other” and thus worthy of ignoring or excluding. We take these categories of exclusion and see them as marks of pride. We won’t be excluded from opportunities to express ourselves, from participation in public life, from expectations that our needs and preferences are valid considerations. Just like everyone, we want a world that loves us back.
A culture only exists embodied in individuals, so each of us carries within them the power to shift in some small way at least, the flow of values and considerations that each culture manifests.
A culture only exists embodied in individuals, so each of us carries within them the power to shift in some small way at least, the flow of values and considerations that each culture manifests. Combined, these can become unstoppable. We are the heirs of patriarchy, born into capitalism, shamed for being queer, bullied for being different. We have the choice to fight this system or to try and participate in it, relying on our privileges to give us an advantage over others in a world of competition and greed.
Psychedelics are part of this system now, entering the world of commerce and investment capital. Hailed as miraculous medicines, the investors and scientists got to work creating products to market at a profit. Psychedelics seem no longer to be spiritual medicines for hippies and queers or Indigenous peoples and rural riverine folks. Now, they are medicine for trauma and depression or products for cognitive enhancement, quick emotional or creative fixes, or a panacea for all problems of modernity. Let’s not forget the hippies and queers, and let’s acknowledge our deep debt to the Indigenous people who carried these medicines up until today. We have the power to keep alive the sacred soul of psychedelics and continue to incorporate them into our own lives, not as tools to power greater profits but as teachers on the subjects, in general, of love and understanding.
Discover the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas
Psychedelics are not just a new product on the market that will blow away the competition, they are a consecrated tool, a pathway to self-knowledge and spiritual understanding; or, they are personal day trip off the road of normalcy for a new perspective Psychedelics as used may be particular to a specific group, consumed in an ancient ritual; they may be a gift from a laboratory, or appear as a medicine popping up in nature off a cow turd, or crushed and cooked out of sticks and leaves, or in the bitter flesh of a cactus. They are molecules, combined and consumed, up until now, almost exclusively by people outside of a clinic or hospital. Suddenly, the focus is on the clinic and the hospital, but let’s not forget the much bigger picture; centuries of overwhelmingly safe use of psychedelics by individuals to understand themselves or heal from illness and addiction, or sacred group rituals for cosmological ordering of the world, socializing, teaching, healing, and building community.
This conference and the previous one show how vibrant the intersection of psychedelics and queerness can be, how many fascinating voices freely discussing the benefits and culture of this combination, as well as ways to integrate queer people into the research and treatment protocols for psychedelics.
I am grateful for the work of Chacruna in supporting the approach to psychedelics that views them as precious gifts that should be shared carefully, equitably, and with understanding and appreciation of their origins and the people they come from. This conference and the previous one show how vibrant the intersection of psychedelics and queerness can be, how many fascinating voices freely discussing the benefits and culture of this combination, as well as ways to integrate queer people into the research and treatment protocols for psychedelics. By talking about these topics, we increase visibility and, bit by bit, push back against exclusionary patriarchal dominance and heteronormativity in the psychedelic space.
Queer people are known for who they love, that is one of their crimes. But shouldn’t it be a crime to outlaw love, to curse the expression of a soul as it flowers, and to force conformity until children commit suicide, men are stoned to death, and trans people murdered? Queer people are painted as villains by the patriarchy because we know the emperor has no clothes. And psychedelics are the fantastic glasses that can help everyone see this. Psychedelics show us where the real power is located, inside each of us. Use these medicines to awaken yourself to your own worth and value; in this way, it is not an exaggeration to say that psychedelics fight the patriarchy and work toward the liberation of all.
Talking about who queer love, I want to thank my wife, Dr. Bia Labate. She has been working tirelessly since 1990, when she first ate mushrooms in Huatla de Jimenez, Oaxaca, while backpacking in Mexico. Chacruna is part of her dream as an immigrant to the US. I am proud to have chased her down, since I first met her in Psychedelic Science 2010, and married her, and to have given her an American citizenship. I am proud that I have managed to get her out of the closet too, after a lot of years of dating in secrecy. I am proud of our 13 years together. This is to coming out. This is to resilience. This to love and to celebration. I hope everyone has a great time.
You can view the entire Queering Psychedelics II program HERE.
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