Do you love Queer Campout and want it to continue? Join us for an outdoor dinner, where we will plan and reimagine the future of this project.
Friday, August 2nd, 2024 5pm – 8pm Albuquerque foothills
Queer Campout is evolving away from the current organizing structure where a small group of folks plan large events twice yearly—this has been fun, but is also unsustainable.
While we’re still figuring out what a new Queer Campout looks like, our vision for the future includes:
Centering marginalized people within the queer community
Gathering in more intentional ways that allow us opportunities to practice our values
Fostering a more connected community by having smaller and more accessible gatherings and events between campouts
Campouts that are collectively organized and executed by all who attend
Come plan with us and be part of realizing QCO’s next chapter!
We will have $25 gift cards for attendees, thanks to a one-time partnership with The Mountain Center.
Exact location shared with those who RSVP.
Please leave your doggos at home unless they are trained service animals.
No smoking.
Dinner will have vegan and gluten-free options. Feel free to bring extra snacks and non-alcoholic drinks.
Accessibility info: We reserved a mobility-device accessible outdoor facility near Sandia Heights with paved paths, picnic tables, restrooms, and 40 reserved parking spaces (including accessible spaces). If you have other accommodation needs, feel free to reach out to us to plan together.
We’d love to see you there! Your fellow queer campers
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!
We’re continuing our tiered registration process. Emails are sent out at the start of each registration section and the link is below.
May 2024 BIPOC* Queer Campout Registration Timeline:
April 9: Registration opens for Black & Indigenous queer folks, trans fems/women of color, and disabled** queer folks of color
April 23: General registration opens—all BIPOC queers can register!
May 10: Registration closes (will close earlier if we reach capacity before this date)
May 17- 20: Campout weekend
*We define BIPOC as people who have been racialized as ‘ethnic minorities’, including but not limited to Native/Indigenous, Black, Brown, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indian, Middle-Eastern, and/or multi-ethnicity/mixed-race folks. Rather than gatekeeping, we are relying on community members to self-assess which spaces are for them.
**Disabled: those excluded from aspects society due to lack of accessibility (read: social model of disability) and/or those with physical, cognitive, psychiatric, sensorial, and undiagnosed conditions necessitating accommodation, including those who do and do not self-identify as disabled; identity-first language intentional
Families
Kiddos are an important part of the community and including them is in line with QCO’s Values. Ideally, someone coordinates all things family-related for QCO (activities, youth supervision, and meeting family’s needs). If this is a role you’re interested in taking on, please email us at hello@qcampout.com or let us know in your registration.
QCO is a body-positive space, which means that attendees can expect some nudity. Families should ensure their young people are prepared for and comfortable with this. (Kink and play activities will take place in designated 18+ areas.)
Furry Friends
Trained service animals who will be working while at camp are welcome, but please leave ESAs and pets at home.
We’ve heard from campers that finding reliable and affordable pet care is a big barrier to joining camps located far from home. We hope to connect campers who need pet care with people who are able to offer it to meet this need where possible. If you can provide this support, please email us at hello@qcampout.com. If you would lik to receive this support, let us know in your registration.
Volunteering
In the spirit of co-creation, everyone who attends Campout should plan to volunteer for at least one shift. Campers can sign up for role(s) before camp or at camp:
Before camp → We’re recruiting for roles that require varying levels of commitment. From Helpers to Team Leaders, we are looking for campers to join the following teams and prepare together before camp starts: Camp Greeters, Care Bears, Disability and Access Resource Team (DART), Camp Setup & Teardown Crew, & the Medic Team.
If you’re interested in taking on one or more of these roles, please contact us or let us know when you register. Our Volunteer Coordinator will reach out to you directly.
At camp → At check-in, campers can sign up for shifts on crews that don’t require commitment before camp such as Camp Upkeep Crew, Campfire Crew and Answer Keepers. Folks are also encouraged to help out with empty shifts throughout camp if they can.
Campers have hosted all sorts of fun games and activities at QCO, from kink workshops and play parties to dance parties, talking circles, and topless watermelon eating. If you are interested in hosting an activity, please let us know on the registration form and the Activities & Engagement team will reach out directly to help coordinate.
COVID-19
COVID-19 continues to present a very real and serious risk to many people, including members of our community. Queer Campout is an anti-oppressive space committed to inclusivity and accessibility, which means practicing community care through continuing to take COVID-19 precautions although they were lifted across the country and much of the world. Please plan to take a COVID test before traveling up to Jemez and make sure to have a mask with you at all times.
QCO was–and is continually–created to offer an opportunity for those with less access to nature/camping to enjoy the outdoors in safe, inclusive community. This means prioritizing accessibility for disabled** campers. In addition to using campsites with ADA-compliant features, the QCO Disability and Accessibility Resource Team (DART) is prepared to collaboratively develop accommodations for those with a range of disabilities and accessibility needs.
**Disabled: those excluded from aspects society due to lack of accessibility (read: social model of disability) and/or those with physical, cognitive, psychiatric, sensorial, and undiagnosed conditions necessitating accommodation, including those who do and do not self-identify as disabled; identity-first language intentional
RVs & Campers
Space for RVs and campers is limited at the campgrounds. We ask that only those who need to use RVs and campers do so and that all others plan to car camp or use a tent. The QCO Disability and Accessibility Resource Team (DART) will reach out to those who note in their registration that they hope to use an RV/camper to make appropriate arrangements.
Donations
This year, we will collect donations at camp. We ask that all campers who are able to make a contribution to help cover the costs of the campground rental and supplies needed for the weekend and suggest a sliding scale of $10-25 per camper.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the weekend regardless of their ability to contribute financially.
We’re so excited to be in the woods with you so soon!
P.S. If you have IG, follow us! And, if you have any questions or feedback, please email the Organizing Team at hello@qcampout.org ♥️
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
A huge, huge thanks to everyone who came together last weekend and created queer joy in the woods! It was our largest campout yet, and we look forward to telling you about our numbers in a future post!
If you’re one of over 100 folks who came out last weekend, you should’ve received an email and a calendar invite. If you didn’t receive it and for everyone else, check out the information below!
Donations: We are still collecting funds for the September Camp!
If you haven’t yet and you can, please contribute to help keep QCO going! We suggest a donation of $10 – $15 per camper. Thank you to those who have already donated!
Please send donations to:
Venmo: LeonOsito (last four of phone: 3830)
PayPal:
If you donated cash at Campout, let us know in the feedback survey below.
Feedback Survey:
As many of you know, a new group of us depended on the years of work, resources, and knowledge of past planners to make this Campout happen.
Use the link in your email to let us know how it went and what you’d like to see going forward!
Planning Meeting: Sunday, October 1st @ 1pm – 3pm via Zoom
You should’ve received a Google Calendar invite from us. Please RSVP. If you didn’t receive the invite and you want to join, let us know!
As promised, we will hold a follow-up planning session for all who wish to attend. We plan to discuss past processes, suggestions & plans from brainstorming sessions, and a plan for moving forward.
In our next follow-up email & Post:
Attendance totals
Financial totals
Camp photos
Thanks so much, campers! We’ll be in touch again soon.
We’re under a week away from creating Queer & Trans magic in the woods together!!
Registration
A huge thanks to everyone who registered! Registration is now closed. This campout is gearing up to the biggest yet with over 170 campers of all ages signed up to join at some point throughout the weekend.
This is our last planned public update post before the September campout.
If you’re a camper joining us in Tijeras next week, you should have received an email from us yesterday evening. For the sake of safety, some of the info provided in this email is intended only for registrants, so please:
make sure you got it,
read it through, and
don’t share it with anyone else.
Two final emails will go out to registrants a couple of days before camp: one with final details about what you need to do before leaving for camp and when you arrive, and the second with driving directions to the campground.
Questions
If you have any questions for us, please submit them by Tuesday September 5th. On Wednesday night, we’ll log off to pack and prepare ourselves!
General registration is open until 8/28 (or capacity is reached)
Registration is open for all campers. Click here to register.
Save the date for the volunteer planning party ✨
We’re having a planning potluck in Albuquerque on Sunday, August 27th at 11am. This will be an opportunity to get to know your team and role, as well as collaborate with other teams. Location and other details will go out about a week prior to those signed up as volunteers.
If you already signed up for a volunteer role, stay tuned for more details about the planning party via email.
If you indicate on the registration form that you’d like to sign up for a role before camp, the Volunteer Coordinator will email you directly.
If you registered already and want to sign up for a role before camp, there is still time! Email hello@qcampout.org and let us know.
If you cannot commit to a role before camp, you will sign up for shifts at camp check-in.
Whether you’re a new camper or a seasoned camper, there’s a team for you:
Do you love logistics?
September campout needs two Team Leaders and multiple coordinators for the Onsite Resources team.
Do you have medical or first aid training and wanna help keep us all healthy?
September campout needs two Health and Safety Team Leaders + more medics.
If leading a team isn’t a fit for you…
DART, Care Bears and Onsite Resources need Helpers! Helper roles have the support of Team Leaders and Coordinators.
We can’t wait to camp together in just 25 days! Registration is open for all campers. We are at 34% capacity.
