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Who are the DC Radical Faeries? The DC Radical Faeries is a community-based organization of men and women who explore queer spirituality. We promote an understanding of Earth-based religions and interfaith cooperation. 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 come from a variety of faith traditions including, but not limited to: Asatru, Atheism, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, New Age Mysticism, Protestantism, Regla de Ocha, Roman Catholicism, Shamanism, Wicca, And other Eclectic Paths. Part of our mission is to minister to the needs of people outside of mainstream LGBT and religious organizations. For the past seven years we have hosted weekly and annual events open to the community. We are incorporated as a non-profit organization in the District of Columbia, and in 2005 we received our federal 501(c)3 tax exempt status. What's the purpose of DC Radical Faeries? Though the DC Radical Faeries have no official mission statements, doctrine, precepts or anything like that, we can look back upon what we've done, and what we continue to do and make an attempt to explain some of it. Our venerable Snowbaal produced a list of ideas about what he personally believes we as DC Radical Faeries do and promote. These include, but are by no means limited to, the following: (1) To articulate new and healthier ways of living as a queer person and uniting as queer communities, rooted in an affirmation of queerness as a source of sacredness and a recognition of the special mission of LGBTIQ people in the spiritual healing and social liberation of the world. (2) To build a culture of Earth-based (Universe-centered) spirituality appropriate to an urban milieu, and not limited in appeal to people of European descent. (3) To create new ways of relating not only among queer people (although very much among queer people), but also between LGBTIQ and straight people. To find a space for straight sisters and brothers to exist in a queer context without watering down or bowdlerizing the queerness of that scene. (4) To celebrate human value as such, and provide a place for people to relate to each other in humanizing, rather than estranged, ways. (5) To agitate and subvert models of gender, sexual identity, religion, and selfhood rooted in oppressive power relations, while simultaneously pointing prophetically towards new and liberatory possibilities on the horizon of human experience. In the language of street demonstrations, when we see the Faeries we can say, "this is what democracy looks like." (6) To lay a foundation for queerlings coming up now and yet to be born, building a better future for them by the work of our hands and minds. We have seen some things hopefully they won't have to see, but we also have things to pass along that were handed down to us. This involves ceaseless political, cultural, and religious work. (7) To create a body of spiritual traditions now that will give ourselves and future queers a source to draw upon. Acknowledging that much of our history, particularly the history of our spirituality, has been erased over centuries of repression, we commit to building new practices that are conscious beginnings of traditions. (8) To queer existing sacred Paths, including but not limited to the family of Earth-centered religions. To make available to larger faith communities models for post-heterosexist celebrations of the sacred. (9) To serve the Washington community, meeting human needs that mainstream LGBTIQ groups are unable or unwilling to address. (10) To make public ceremony, in order to effect real spiritual transformation in our own and others' lives. (11) To foster dialogue between the new Earth Religions and the historical religions, particularly in an LGBTIQ context. (12) To encourage the proliferation of new sites for bonding and cooperative work: in activism, in the arts and crafts, in ceremony, in sex, in working the soil, and so on. (13) To relentlessly expand the limits of the Fabulous. What exactly do you do? Monday Night Potlucks Our Monday Night Potluck and Program is the mainstay of our spiritual and social connectedness. Members of our group or guests have been coming together, sharing a meal and then conducting a program at our weekly gatherings for the past seven years. Monday night programs vary from week to week and for the most up to date information about what's happening check the events page. If this is your first potluck, you might wonder, what do I bring? Simply bring food and/or beverage enough to share. If you are rushed and can't bring something tonight please join us in the meal. Bring a double portion another week and/or contribute to the work of clean up. Large Events DC Radical Faeries host large rituals and parties, of varying degrees of opulence, according to the seasons. These correspond to the general Pagan calendar holidays of Yule ~ Winter Solstice, Brigid ~ Imbolc, Ostara ~ Vernal Equinox, Beltane ~ May Eve, Litha ~ Summer Solstice, Lammas ~ Midsummer's Night, Mabon ~ Autumnal Equinox, and Samhain ~ All Hallow's Eve. Feast of Red Dragon: This event is a combination feast, charity event and magickal working done with the intent of sending forth our red dragon to battle against blood-borne diseases. Previous donations raised for Red Dragon have gone to local DC charities and research projects to combat all types of blood borne diseases. Our recipients change every year, and past donations have gone to help cure breast cancer, Pediatric AIDS, Sickle Cell Anemia, Teen HIV/AIDS, and Diabetes. Faerie Whims These groups meet more or less monthly to focus on a specific area of Faerie Fabulousness. More information about these groups is available in the Auxiliaries section. FAG: Fiber Arts Group explores the craft of manifesting love in cloth, thread, and yarn. HAG: The Herbal Arts Group (or Herbal Activists Dreaming Amazing Spells) is made up of cooks and gardeners who share culinary, medicinal and magical uses of plants herbs and spices. IFF: DC RadFeys are active members of local interfaith organizations including: Celebration of Spirit Coalition of LGBT religious organizations, The Sacred Space Foundation, Mid Atlantic Pagan Leadership Conference, the Washington-Baltimore Pagan Leadership Conference, and the Interfaith Fairness Coalition of Maryland. MUFF: Musical Union of Faeries and Friends Singers and musicians who write and perform musical selections for events. OFF: Over Forty Faeries. A monthly respite for aging faeries that seek quiet time amongst peers for tea and talk of the mysteries of later years (as well as partying at Titan on third Thursdays). RiFFRaFF: Radical Faerie Front for Fomenting Fabulosity who advocate for social justice. What is a Radical Faerie in General? The Radical Faeries are a cultural phenomenon, and there is no one thing that makes an individual a Faerie, but there are many qualities that together create the Faerie. The following facets come from the research and hearts of Eridanus and Fritter, and are by no means definitive or doctrinaire. This is an introduction to what 2 faeries believe faeries are, and further resources are available at the bottom for you to explore on your own. Where Did We Come From? We are the children of the late Harry Hay a co-founder of the Mattachine Society and the modern Gay Rights movement who passed in 2002 at the age of 90. In 1979, Hay coordinated gatherings for gay men and named them the Radical Faeries. For over twenty years, Radical Faeries have experimented with creating community networks and intentional communities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. Why the name 'Radical Faerie'? We take Radical from it's original meaning- 'from the root'. And Faerie shows our being 'between the worlds'. So, Radical Faeries view all beings, animals, their environment, and the world from their own being, which is rooted between the worlds. This gives us Faeries a different view of the world than other people. A Different View Radical Faeries strive toward non-hierarchical relationships, because we view others in this world as co-equals. We call this subject-SUBJECT consciousness. I am a subject, and you are a subject. I am You and You are Me. Sharer to Sharer, Equal to Equal. Non-Objectivity When people are objectified, they are stripped of their humanity. This objectification leads to social injustice, because those who view themselves as subject and others as objects make immoral, inhumane, and destructive choices in regards to other lives. The Radical Faerie strives to break free from this objectification, by recognizing the subject inherent in others. This is most certainly not just limited to people. The spirit that flows in all beings is sacred, and must not be objectified. Look at how destructive humanity has been to the earth, because certain people do not recognize the spirit and the life in a tree, or an owl. When we break free from objectivity we have a different respect for all life. Heart Circles In order to truly understand and empathize with others we must come to know them, not intellectually, but emotionally. Radical Faeries come together in Heart Circles with the intent to know one another deeply by speaking the truth from our heart, not our head. When we speak from the heart we share the deepest parts of our souls, and when we listen to others speak from the heart we grow in mutual empathy for each other, increasing the subject-SUBJECT consciousness. Non-Hierarchical Because Faeries view others as co-equal we come together in circles, hand to hand, eye to eye, and heart to heart. Circles have no sides; no one Faerie is higher or lower than another. Because we believe in a non-hierarchical way of living Faeries break cultural and institutional taboos left, right, and all around. Queerness Radical Faeries are queer people. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, all of us have lived in a world where gender roles are ingrained into our psyches and we have rejected them. It is our unique perspective as an oppressed cultural-sexual minority that led to the concept of subject-SUBJECT consciousness. Only in the queer community were we able to break free from the oppression of gender identity and duality, with its emotional destruction. Gender Faeries are male-female-both-neither. Radical Faeries don't accept the cultural paradigms of boys play this way and girls play this way. We choose to play how WE want to play. Faeries break gender roles by dressing fabulously as any gender s/he feels. We are perfectly comfortable walking between the worlds of male/female identity, because we refuse to recognize the cultural stereotypes and artificial roles. Sex For a Faerie, all forms of love are sexual, because the Faerie strives for mutual pleasure. Sexuality is sharing mutual pleasure. If I touch you and this gives you pleasure, it gives me pleasure as well, because I gave pleasure to you. This form of sexuality does not require genitalia. The simplest of pleasures and sensations is just as sexual as genital sex, if not more so. Great Mother Earth Because we recognize the spirit in all things as co-equal to ourselves, Faeries have a different relationship with the land. We have seen the global environment destroyed, because people have refused to see the Earth as having spirit. Faeries recognize the spirit of our Great Mother and strive to live with the land, not on it. Sanctuary When Faeries gather in a Faerie space we seek to create sanctuary; a space where we can live in a community of those who love, respect, and share with each other. In smaller circles this may be someone's home, larger circles may rent or purchase a building, and the largest circles purchase entire areas of land to create a permanent sacred Faerie space. "Short Mountain Sanctuary" in Tennessee and "Faerie Camp Destiny" in Vermont are two examples. In Faerie space we can be everything we want to be and live with intent. Faerie Gatherings At different points throughout the year, Radical Faerie circles from all over the country will host large gatherings where Faeries come together to live in a Faerie space, partake of sacred rituals, celebrate living and live as community, if only for a while. Books:
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions / Larry Mitchell, Ned Asta Periodicals: RFD White Crane: A journal of gay men's spirituality Videos: Hope along the wind: The Life of Harry Hay / PBS Websites: www.radfae.org
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