WHO IS A RADICAL FAERIE? Ask three faeries, get five answers!
Faeries are, well,
faeries. No two are alike, and you may have to wait until you meet or
become one in order to get a sense of what we're made of…But that's
half the fun!
The radical faeries are a queer tribal nation sharing affinity in the
spiritual underpinnings of non-mainstream sexuality and heart-centered
relationship. We welcome all queer spirits, straight, gay, bi, trans,
two-spirited or searching. We welcome people from all walks of life
who want to share and nurture their essential fabulosity.
We're decentralized, and no one person is "in charge". Generally,
we tend to be gay men who look for a spiritual dimension to our sexuality;
many of us are healers of one kind or another. Our shared values include
feminism, respect for the Earth, and individual responsibility rather
than hierarchy. Many of us are Pagan (nature-based religion).
We are bards, wizards, shamen, and healers. We have always been, and will always be. Humanity requires our existence, no matter how dysfunctionally it may treat us.
We are self-defining. We each choose to be who we are, and there is no authority but our hearts. We gather together, get naked and beautiful ... in oh-so-many different ways ... drop the world, and open to each other; unless we don't feel like it. In which case, we do something else.
Radical
Faeries are a "flamboyant anti-assimilationist fringe of gay liberation."
Radical Faeries are non-consumerist earth-centered folk.
HISTORY
The radical faerie movement traces its name to a Labor Day 1979 Weekend
"Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries" held at the site
of Sri Ram Ashram in Arizona, called by Harry Hay, John Burnside, Don
Kilhefner and Mitch Walker with over two hundred men attending. This gathering
concentrated and named a movement rising since the late 1960's. Since
then, the movement has spread internationally, evolving many flavors,
spaces, clans, ways, and communities along the way.
Also involved in the early Faerie consciousness movement was Mitch Walker, Will Roscoe, Mark Thompson, Don Kilhefner and Hay's partner/lover John Burnside and countless others.
Hay called on the crowd to "throw off the ugly green frogskin of hetero-imitation to find the shining Faerie prince beneath." Many of the men saw themselves as free spirits rites, certain ritual practices, inspired by Wiccan and communing with each other and with Nature; like Faeries, they were dancing, feasting, and creating spectacle in a natural setting.
WHY
THE NAME 'RADICAL FAERIE'?
We take RADICAL from its original meaning- 'from the root'.
radical politics, primarily of an anarchistic, communitarian nature, as
well as a casting off of inauthentic identities and a psychic return to
the root of one's being
FAERIE shows our being 'between the worlds'. Additional, it is an attempt to transform or reclaim a term used to denigrate gay and transgender men into a term by which to celebrate.
So, RADICAL
FAERIES strive toward non-hierarchical relationships, because
we view others in this world as co-equals. Because we believe in a non-hierarchical
way of living Faeries break cultural and institutional taboos left, right,
and all around. This gives us Faeries a different view of the world than
other people.