Fascination-Queerness & Nature.

I'm starting this blog just after the Autumn equinox and as the world begins to change outside, and new energy fills the air I want to talk a little more about queerness and nature. Historically it's hard to find stories of queer life outside of the cityscape, and there's a widespread myth that LGBTQ+ folk only dwell in cities and while metropolitan life is exciting, I still crave the exploration of the relationship between queerness and the natural world.

Gender non conformity to me is as vast as the mountains, with its parts both majestic and rugged. Tectonic, a balance of opposing forces; dysphoria, euphoria. Stoic but never rigid. Being queer can feel as smooth as beach pebbles, warm under bare feet, yes sometimes, as craggy and daunting as the eroded cliffs behind them. Being nonbinary to me is like a dance, I am a part of the natural world. Uncharted but at peace.

“Trans people belong in the rivers, the forests, the meadows, the oceans. We are nature, we are grown from the land, we are born in the water. We are the rock and the sediment and the wildflower. We have always been here; we have always grown here.” – Ziggi Willpower

Queering : 'The active process of making an unquestioned and taken for granted idea or social relationship into an unfamiliar or strange on to unpack its underlying power relations to offer resistance and other ways of thinking, doing, living and loving.'

The process of Queering what it is to be in nature: I feel that sometimes, outdoor activity can get caught up in a cis-heteronormative set of boundaries. How to present yourself, how to act and how we are perceived is interesting as a visibly queer-rural person. For me, my queer identity is tied to the wild and untameable. I see myself reflected in landscapes, the vastness and extensive openness of nature is mirrored in my queerness. Forever growing, fluid and strong. I am held by landscapes.

The earth does not judge us.

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Photos by Grace Musgrave, pictured in order : James and I mark making with mud and canvas on the winter solstice 2020. A shot of me on the bank of the river Mersey, Fletcher Moss Park. Standing stone, Godalming 2020 Winter solstice. Me in an Oak Tree, Waverley Abbey, Winter 2020.