Bay Area Queers Talking Race (QTR) Community Forum : Facing Racism & Anti-Blackness in the Queer Party Scene

***This Forum has been suspended***** First and foremost, we want to thank everyone in the community for the time, effort, and courage they put into their words in offering us advice about how to conduct this project. Your words have inspired us to step up and be accountable to those we are trying to serve by holding these spaces. QTR has decided to suspend this forum in recognition that a safer public forum space will take much more time and effort to develop, and also because of the excessive publicity and misinformation around this forum, (thanks to an article in the SF Weekly that was not edited despite our multiple requests). We would like to clarify our funds and their intended use at this time. $300 was contributed to this project from Ships in the Night, and $150 was donated from community members. This money was intended to pay Rhizome for their consultation and facilitation services, as well as for acquiring chairs, coordinating shuttle services, and other such needs. We have decided to take the following steps: 1) Lu and Ralowe will work towards holding a QTPOC caucus that will discuss how to center QTPOC voices and experiences, as well as reach out to QTPOC who may be interested in organizing open forums,tentatively scheduled for March 30th. This depends on whether there is interest in having us organize such an event. Lu is available as a contact for any feedback/ discussion from QTPOC community members who have input or are interested in holding or organizing such a space. His email is lucienmae@gmail.com. 2) Ray, Lex, and Rath will organize a workshop that is about unlearning white supremacy, tentatively scheduled for the weekend of March 22-23. They are currently reaching out to white anti-oppression facilitators. 3) It has been brought our attention that work has already been done towards holding a forum about racism in queer nightlife by Olivia Gonzalez and others. We offer to fund-raise in order to support those interested in taking up the Queer Nightlife Forum, and carrying it out as they see fit. We will wait a month to be contacted for fundraising support for this project, and if it is determined that no one else wants to take this project on, we'd like to attempt to host a forum about Racism & Anti-Blackness in Queer Nightlife because we see a need for this discussion in our community. However, we are open to community feedback about whether such a topic is an appropriate one for open discussion. 4) QTR will continue to work towards holding open forums on racism and anti-blackness in the queer community, and will work towards centering QTPOC voices. We will currently work on laying down the groundwork for such an endeavor, and would like to open up discussions around how to make this possible. Ray will step down from QTR, in light of critiques about their practice of Chinese Medicine. They will focus on cultivating accountability for their privilege, which provides them with access to the study of Chinese Medicine. Rath will also be stepping down from organizing any open forums, and is currently involved in the project in a supportive role. We acknowledge that these conversations have so far erased the history of the indigenous people of this land, and we thank Amberlee Cotchay for bringing this to our attention. We have neglected to set these conversations within a framework that acknowledges that we are all settlers, and have all benefited from the removal of indigenous people from their land. In our future endeavors we strive to include this acknowledgement in our work, not only by mention, but in any way possible to include voices from the Ohlone community in our work. We intend to explore this topic in more depth in future forums. Thank you, everyone, for your interest in this project. We hope to continue work and take the steps necessary in order to organize public community forums. We would like to thank Olivia Gonzalez and others for their insight and thoughts into how to carry such a project. We look forward to future spaces where we can share our experiences, be vulnerable with each other, and learn from each others' wisdom. We hope our efforts will yield a deepening commitment to the unlearning of internalized oppression, deconstruction of oppressive structures, and allow us to grow as a community. With love, QTR. This forum is intended to be the 1st of a series of open discussions held in the bay. QTR is organizing these conversations in an effort to create physical space to gather and talk about issues of race, white privilege, access, appropriation, oppression, etc, that are coming up in our communities. These forums have been inspired in part by posts and conversations happening here on the Internet, and online forums, and we feel excited about continuing these conversations in real-time. The topic of the 1st discussion on March 9th is Facing Racism and Anti-Blackness in the Queer Party Scene, and is a collaboration between QTR and the organizers of Ships in the Night. The intention behind this forum is to de-center white voices/ experiences, and create a space that feels safe for POC expression. In the next week, when we come up with an agenda with rhizome, we will keep this issue in mind and it will inform the structure of the space, and the way the forum takes place. We invite feedback and critique when the agenda comes up - We are invested in making this a space that is not white centric, and having it reflect the needs and wants of the qtpoc community in order to create safe space. The focus of the forum will be to get past theoretical conversations of race and privilege and move into action. We will work together to develop strategies for shared community standards, harm reduction and prevention, and transformation of queer space. We notice that theoretical conversations along allyship and conscious awareness of privilege get thrown out the window in party mode, and we desire a radical change in the way we build queer spaces together. The newly formed QTR Collective consists of Danielle Jackson , Luciano Sagastume, Lex Young, Ralowe Trinitrotoluene Ampu, Rath Skallion and Manhands Ray. We are open to more folks joining our meetings- shoot one of us a message if interested! Our meeting notes are available to be viewed on request. We are excited to have the Rhizome Consulting Project facilitating the forum for us! Snacks will be provided, as well as shuttles to and from the MacArthur Bart Station, details about shuttles TBA. The space is wheelchair accessible with accessible bathrooms and we ask folks to be mindful to come scent free for those who are chemically sensitive. We will be posting an agenda for the Discussion Forum ASAP. Please feel free to share questions, concerns and ideas. We look forward to seeing you at the forum! xo, Danielle, Lucien, Lex, Ralowe, Rath, and Ray