i would really like to start a queer action group here in milwaukee. although we have a flurishing lgbtq community, there seem to be few openly queer radicals in the area. let's come together! solidarity, people!

i would like for this group for the time being to be queers only. it will be open to anyone within a queer identity: basically anyone who is other than straight. there is something to be said about having a closed, safe space to work within. i'm hoping that this group could branch off into smaller discussion groups, including but not limited to a gender outlaw group and a femme identity discussion group.

i feel that there is also action that can be formed through this group that will include the entire community. i hope that there is also discussion that can take place around issues that are not solely queer-related, such as body and sex positivity.

if anyone is interested please let me know. i will try to publicize this idea in other forums as well.

i'm queer identified but i haven't really ever acted on it, if that makes sense. I'd like to atleast stand in for a discussion and learn a thing or two and if nothing else i'd be down to help promote. some shit like this seems really necessary.

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain

but i'd be more than willing to put something up on the website. that way you could have a "for more info" thing.

On a similar note, some folks were talking about being at Pridefest, which is June 8-10th this year which gives us a little over two weeks to prepare something. Maybe a meeting early next week sometime?

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

i'm totally down for doing some at pridefest, that would be awesome!


i'm not really sure what time or place works for people, but let's tentatively just say... meeting next wednesday at 7? please let me know if there are other times that are better for people.


ALL QUEERS ARE WELCOME! i personally should hope that there will be no queerer than thou attitudes at this group. we're here to network, to learn from each other, and to hopefully raise lots of awareness.

if people want to contact me outside the forum for any reason, email me at jkutil@antioch-college.edu

I would definitely like to promote and see this group and more stuff like this happening. I feel like there is a gap right now between the queer community and the anarchist community that needs to be bridged.

I definitely agree, as a queer-identified anarchist I think that we need to start building bridges between the radical community and the queer community, and I think a group like this would be fantastic.

I don't think that we should limit meetings to only queers though. By disallowing "non-queers" we are only reinforcing gender and sexual divisions, rather we should work to promote the queer potential inherent in everybody and end distinctions and labels such as 'straight' and 'gay', but thats an entirely different conversation.

I don't think i could make a wednesday meeting, but I think we should for sure start brainmstorming about what kind of presence or actions could be done at Pridefest that weekend.

Any Ideas?

i guess i'm curious if people think we should be IN pridefest, like on the summerfest grounds, or do something at the gates?

i was hoping that we could take some sort of action around the overflow of capitalism in gay mainstream culture. be loud. have huge posters. hand out some propaganda. etc.


as far as the exclusivity of a queer action group, i guess that's something that can be decided by whoever shows up. i really hope that more than a few people would be able to attend, so maybe hold off on meeting until i could put a decent amount of flyers up and stuff.

i personally think that some meetings should be queers only. within identity groups it's real important to have safe, closed space. part of identifying as QUEER is that it encompasses a ton of different sexual and gender identities. don't get me wrong, i work with straight people on all kinds of different stuff. but i personally brought this up because i felt that there was a lack of solidarity within the queer community, and that it would be important to build from within before branching out. i'd love for straight allies to be involved in planning and action. but there is some solidarity stuff that i'd like to see be queers only. that's just me.

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'We are an army of dreamers, and therefore invincible.' -Subcomandante Marcos

I think that the exclusivity of the group is definitely a conversation worth having. We should work on meeting sometime soon, so that we can work out some of these details and also start brainstorming for pridefest which is coming up quick.

i think it's going to take some serious flyering effort to advertise some kind of meeting. i totally do not know the queer demographics of milwaukee, or even how much of a radical queer prescense their is in the anarchist scene here, or in the city in general. is anyone willing to help me make flyers? any suggestions on where we should put them?

as far as pridefest, it's coming up real fast. maybe we should have a planning meeting that's specific to this event, and then try to have a larger network meeting later in the month.


so i guess let's start a discussion about what we want to happen at pridefest!

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'We are an army of dreamers, and therefore invincible.' -Subcomandante Marcos

I don't think we would necessarily need to do a massive flyering for the first meeting, For the first meeting to plan things out, we would be just fine with a smaller group of really dedicated people. I think though that after we get established and all, we should definitely flyer at pridefest about future meetings.


So here are some possible ideas I brainstormed for at Pridefest:

- The bookmobile there with Queer Themed or Feminist literature (and other radical lit too). I know there isnt much queer lit in the distro right now, but the CCC has a fairly good selection. So we could just distro flyers and information about the CCC, then information and probably sign-up lists or contact lists for the Queer Action Network. In addition to that we could print copies of queer zines to distro too.

- Radical / Anti-Assimliationist / Anti-Capitalist contingent to join in the pride parade?

- Perhaps confronting the protesters out front in a creative way.

What are ya'lllz ideas?

i have a decent amoun to queer zines we could copy, and maybe if we came up with a really loud colorful queer addition the pride parade that would be great. there was a banner drop that gay shame did which said 'queer mutiny, not consumer unity'. that could be kinda tight, something like that maybe?

as far as the protestors out front...i guess i'm not really sure. it's usually pretty extreme catholic organizations. when people like that used to come to our high school we used to just make out in front of them. maybe we dance and sing in queer brilliance?? do a radical cheerleader kind of thing?

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'We are an army of dreamers, and therefore invincible.' -Subcomandante Marcos

james wrote:

as far as the protestors out front...i guess i'm not really sure. it's usually pretty extreme catholic organizations. when people like that used to come to our high school we used to just make out in front of them. maybe we dance and sing in queer brilliance?? do a radical cheerleader kind of thing?

I think the MKE ARA would be willing to come out there in solidarity with y'all.

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The Spectacle wished to make us appear dreadful. We intend to be much worse.

i hear protesters like pie?

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"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
-- Mark Twain

Hell yeah on pies.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."