Author Archives: Queer Campout

Tier 1 Registration is Open for the May 2024 BIPOC Queer Campout!

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If you identify as a black or indigenous queer, a trans fem/woman of color, or disabled queer person of color, you can begin registration from today.

Things to note:

  • Please ensure that everyone in your group who is 18 years of age or older registers individually.
  • Please make sure you specify if you require any accommodations and fill out the registration form as accurately as you are able.

Early registration is an opportunity for people who are historically underrepresented in the community to join and participate in camp activities before all spaces fill up. Don’t let this opportunity eclipse you by!

– The BIPOC Queer Campout team

REGISTER NOW!

2024 Campout Dates & Other Important Announcements

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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.)

September 2024 Campout

The fall 2024 campout will also be in Jemez, Friday, September 6th – Monday, September 9th, and open to all queer campers.

Why having a BIPOC Queer Campout aligns with and enacts our Values & Guiding Principles

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Queer Campout’s values are aligned with and aimed at equity: equitable inclusion and access. This is not the same as equality and does not assume that everyone is welcome in the same way. Equality acknowledges that every member of the queer community is entitled to care, dignity, and safety. Equity, on the other hand, acknowledges the diverse identities, circumstances, and challenges within the queer community, and aims to give everyone what they need so that they can participate and access in the ways that are meaningful and essential for them.

Inclusivity, therefore, does not mean including everyone in the same way; it means including people in an equitable way. Sometimes that means certain folks aren’t included to allow others to participate more fully. Protected spaces–such as the campout itself, where only queer people are welcome, or community activities/circles at campout like the transfemme support circle, where only trans feminine campers are welcome–provide a different kind of safety and community that cannot exist without that protection and exclusivity.

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."

Camp after camp, we’ve seen that Queer Campout remains a predominantly white space (as well as predominantly nondisabled, cis/transmasc/nonbinary, and other dominant groups). This has shown us that despite our intention of inclusivity, some aspects of QCO are not accessible and welcoming to all members of our community.

Since white dominance is widespread, having a distinct space for non-white folks isn’t meant to segregate but to focus on a unique experience for QTBIPOC* individuals, different from the one shared with white QT people.

Creating a campout exclusive to BIPOC campers doesn’t dismiss the needs of others in our community. It’s a both/and situation, aligning with our values by focusing on BIPOC campers while inviting all queer campers to the general campout in September. This approach may feel uncomfortable for non-BIPOC campers, but it presents an opportunity to support and celebrate the centering of historically marginalized individuals within our queer community.

We anticipate a range of feelings and reactions to arise for some folks. We encourage you to approach this with an open mind, engage in critical thinking and inquiry, and consider the following reflection questions:

  • What are my initial thoughts and reactions to this post? How did the content make me feel, and where did those feelings show up in my body?
  • Do I feel provoked? What specific aspects of the post provoked me? Are there any underlying factors or personal experiences that may have contributed to this emotional response?
  • Do I feel any anger or resentment when I see that there are spaces exclusively dedicated to the BIPOC community? Why? Am I feeling excluded or invisibilized?
  • What biases or feelings surface when I meditate on this?
  • What sources of information or perspectives could provide a more comprehensive understanding of my experience and QCO’s stance on these issues?
  • What resources do I have to help me sit with and then move through what I’m experiencing right now?

*QTBIPOC stands for “Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color.”

Recommended resources to learn more:

We Stand with Palestine

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A white square containing a banner representing the Palestinian flag, a white peace dove positioned in the middle of the banner, and the word "PEACE" written above the entire composition.

We are proud to openly align QCO with the Albuquerque Queers for Palestine and the call from Queers in Palestine for community members and groups across the world to voice their support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people amidst this most violent and vicious bombardment of Palestine. Our support for the Palestinian people, their lives, and their freedom is not, in any way, a statement against the Jewish people or support for the denial of their lives or their freedom.

“Queer Campout intends to be an inclusive, consensual, and anti-oppressive space, meaning we actively work against racism, ableism, transphobia, fatphobia, classism, sexism, white saviorism, xenophobia, and other forms of systemic oppression.”

As organizers and campers, we return to our values and use them to guide our path forward as Queer Campout grows and evolves. We invite you to reflect on them as well. We recognize Zionism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, capitalism, and US imperialism as additional forms of oppression that we must actively resist and dismantle in order to realize the kind of community that we envision.

As such, we resolutely believe that voicing our support of Palestine is an opportunity to not only reaffirm our core values but also practice steadfast commitment to them and to the liberation of all oppressed peoples. By supporting our Palestinian siblings in Gaza, the West Bank, and across the world—be it through the signing of a letter, calling our representatives, participating in public demonstrations, or myriad other acts of solidarity and resistance—we are enacting the values and principles that underpin Queer Campout and the community we strive to create together.

We believe, also, that failing to state our support of Palestine speaks just as loudly, if not louder, than this statement.

We stand–both metaphorically and often literally–in solidarity with folks of conscience who are rising up to say no to ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and settler colonialism; in Palestine, here on Turtle Island, and across the world.

Recommended reading: Why Queer Solidarity With Palestine Is Not “Chickens for KFC” – A conversation with Dr. Sa’ed Atshan about the rise in LGBTQ+ solidarity with Palestine and the reductionism of its backlash (please note that the death toll has risen since this article was published—as of today, a total of 21,320 Palestinians have been killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October).

We have reached capacity for the May 19–22 campout!

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Registration has ended. If you are on the waitlist, we will let you know by Sunday, May 14, if a spot has opened up.

If you registered but won’t be able to join us, please cancel your registration so that we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.

Visit the Information for Campers page to prepare for the campout.

Fill out this form to volunteer and/or host an activity. Once you’ve received your role assignment(s), visit the Resources for Volunteers page to select your shift(s)

May Registration Is Open & Other Announcements

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Queer Campout is in the Jemez mountains from May 19th–22nd. Want to join us? We’re trying out a few new things! Find the link to register below. 

The May Campout Will Be 18+

One of our values at QCO is creating an inclusive space. That means providing necessary support and resources within our capacity to those that attend. We’ve realized that making QCO a genuinely family-friendly event requires us to have a Family Coordinator and a team of folks who are willing and able to create a space for children to be entertained and cared for during the campout. We don’t have enough capacity to coordinate this for the May campout. Please let us know if you want to make this happen for the September campout in Tijeras! 

Registration Is Open! 

  • April 3: Registration opens for QTBIPOC, trans fem/women, and disabled folks
  • April 17: General registration opens—all queers can register!
  • May 5th: Registration closes
  • May 19–22: Campout weekend

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Already registered? Visit the Information for Campers page to prepare for the campout.

Fill out this form to volunteer and/or host an activity. Once you’ve received your role assignment(s), visit the Resources for Volunteers page to select your shift(s)

Celebrating our first grant!

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We’re so excited to receive our first grant ever! QCO co-founder León was one of the Summer 2022 recipients of the Reclaiming the Outdoors grant. These funds will allow us to compensate a small team of queer folks with marginalized identities to help us lead the growth and direction of Queer Campout NM, purchase camping equipment to loan folks who otherwise cannot afford it, and pay for website hosting and other ongoing expenses.

Reclamation Ventures is a venture studio and fund that invents and invests in companies building a better future for all of us. Each quarter, they grant $50,000 in non-equity, direct support funds to under-represented leaders making wellness more accessible. A million thanks to Reclamation Ventures and their fantastic founder, Nicole Cardoza!

2023 Campout Dates Announced!

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May 19-22 in Jemez
September 8-11 in Tijeras

Registration opens a few weeks before each campout.

Read our About page to learn more about Queer Campout and our Frequently Asked Questions to get an idea of what to expect. Sign up to stay in the loop via email updates. You can also follow us on Instagram.

To prevent our emails from going to your spam folder, please add the following email address to your contacts, and ideally, create a rule or filter for this address:

Campground for August 2022

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We will be camping near Los Alamos, about 1 hour from Santa Fe, and 2 hours from Albuquerque. The campground is not wheelchair accessible, but it is fairly accessible otherwise: the parking lot is right next to the campsites, the community pavilion, and the restrooms.

Need to Know

  • Sites are tent-only, but car camping is possible in the parking area
  • We need all the parking spaces available, so there will be no RV camping (pop-up trailers count as recreational vehicles)
  • Parking is limited, so carpooling is highly encouraged! use the forum to coordinate ride shares
  • We will be able to have a campfire!

Campground Amenities

  • Drinking water
  • Picnic shelter (which will serve as the Community Pavilion)
  • Picnic tables
  • Campfire rings
  • Three vault toilets (with no running water)
  • Firewood is available for sale ($1 per stick)
  • Bearproof food & scented items storage lockers
  • Bearproof trash bins (recycling must be taken back to the city)

Important updates regarding the campground for the August campout

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We want to make QCO accessible to everybody so we look for campgrounds that offer wheelchair accessibility, and we were excited to find an accessible campground near Taos for the August campout. Unfortunately, we recently learned that the Forest Service is still doing logging and fire prevention work in many campgrounds, including the one we had rented. 

The good news is that we have a backup reservation for a different group campground near Los Alamos. However, while the campground is on flat land, it is not listed as wheelchair accessible. We have a visit to that site planned for Saturday, July 30, so we can provide more detailed information, including wheelchair access and car camping availability.

The current plan is as follows: 

  • We are moving forward with QCO for August 26-29
  • We are keeping both campground reservations
  • If by August 16 the accessible site near Taos is not open yet, we will officially move QCO to the “backup” site near Los Alamos

We sincerely appreciate your continued patience as we adapt to these unforeseen circumstances. If you need to cancel your registration at any point, please use this form.

* If you need help loading/unloading your gear or setting up your campsite, there will be folks ready to help.