2024 Campout Dates & Other Important Announcements

May 2024 Campout Dates & Intentional Community

We are excited to announce that the May 2024 Campout will be the first QTBIPOC Campout and will take place Friday, May 17th through Monday, May 20th in Jemez.

A cartoon image that includes a bear and a cat standing in a forest next to a camping tent, and the tent is decorated with rainbow flags. Text at the top reads, Save the dates! Queer Campout 2024. Text underneath reads, May 17-24, Jemez, QTBIPOC. September 6-9, Jemez, All.”

We’ve all felt how powerful it is to have time and space in nature specifically for us. Guided by our values, we aim to be intentional and conscientious in centering and prioritizing those who are intersectionally marginalized within our community and outdoor spaces at large. Gestures like tiered registration have started to help us do this. Still, we’ve seen camp after camp that QCO remains a predominantly white space (as well as predominantly nondisabled, cis/transmasc/nonbinary, and other dominant groups).

Having a QTBIPOC-only campout is not about furthering segregation or disconnection, but a response to their occurrence within queer-only spaces like the campout. Just as Q* people need spaces without straight people, and trans people need spaces without cisgender people, Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, and other people racialized as People of Color or ethnic minorities need spaces without white people.

We envision additional specialized campouts, such as one for disabled folks, another for trans women and fems, and one for families with children. Everyone in the QCO community is invited to participate in making these spaces happen, even if the space itself is not designed for you. This is an opportunity to actualize and practice the values of equity, allyship, and community care, all in service of our collective well-being.

Click here to learn more about how the QTBIPOC camp aligns with QCO values.

The background is a feded cartoon image that includes a bear and a cat standing in a forest next to a camping tent, and the tent is decorated with rainbow flags. Text at the top reads, First-ever QTBIPOC Campout: Queer & Trans Black, Indigenous, & People of Color. Text underneath reads, May 17-24, Jemez Mountains, NM."

Call for QTBIPOC Organizers

Part of our goal is for QCO to not only support and center BIPOC, disabled, transfemme/TMA, and other intersectionally marginalized members of our community but to be organized by BIPOC, disabled, transfemme/TMA, and other intersectionally marginalized folks. Ideally, QTBIPOC folks will be the ones making decisions about what this (and future) campout looks like.

Regardless of the level of involvement you can commit to, please let us know if you would like to be part of the planning and decision-making for the May 2024 QTBIPOC Campout! A small core group of white organizers is committed to providing labor and support for the QTBIPOC campout and assisting in displacing the amount of labor. (If other white folks would like to offer labor, we invite you to join us in doing so as well.)