It was somewhere on the M1 motorway, that drove from Dublin, Ireland, to Belfast, that I first considered the differences between gay travel and queer travel. I was on the back of the coach, Airpods in, listened to the entire discography of my favorite Irish songwriter, CmatAnd stares boring through the window. I had mentally prepared myself for a scenic driving (yes, I have seen “jump year”), but the only pieces of the countryside I could do came in odd blips – a cabin here, a hill of emerald there. Otherwise, we were attached by a high thick thicker that stretched along either side, an unreadable blur bushes and branches.
When we entered Northern Ireland – so everyday a business that I didn’t even notice that we had crossed into a new country – opened the road. I could see farms and charming villages. Our guide, Paul, gave us an orientation on Belfast’s gay history during the period from the 1960s to the 90s called “The Troubles”, a violent conflict between Catholic nationalists, who wanted to unite with Ireland and Protestant Unions, which were pleased to be admitted to the UK. The first pride pair in Belfast took place in 1991, after years of more silent activism that happened in the shadows of the greater conflict that seized the rest of the nation.
My little group had been invited to march in this year’s Belfast Pride Parade, and I was proud of a mini -historical lesson to balance part of the party that lay forward.
“It’s about making trips feel accessible and happy for all of us, not just a narrow record of society.
When I think about gay trips, I think of speedos and sex packages; I hear the nightclub’s Oonts-Oonts, can practically taste the green applequila jell-o-shoots. But Queer Travel? It feels like another thing completely. Queer Travel sounds like braid each other’s hair on a beach somewhere, or eating at some unclear pop-up restaurant run by lesbians who only share their place via Carrier Pigeon or in a day-of Instagram story.
It turns out that I’m not the only one who feels that way. As a professional queer traveler, Chase Vondran, alias @ExplorewithchaseAlso think about these differences a lot. They were on Ireland’s journey with me, and we talked about this topic a little abroad and again when we got back to the United States. They pointed out that although gay journeys have historically centered the experiences of thin, cis, white gay men, queer travels probably more to people like us – who do not fit that description – because it is “broader and more inclusive.” Gay Travel often highlights clubs, circuit areas and pride festivals, which makes it feel a bit one -dimensional, Chase told me. “It can strengthen stereotypes that queerness is just about nightlife, drinking or who we sleep with.”
It is not to say that gay travel does not have value. But Queer Travel is more likely to embrace the larger society – whether it is womenTrans-, non -binary, asexual, neurodian or bipoc travelers.
“It’s intersectional. It’s political. It’s cultural,” Chase told me. “Queer Travel Highlights that are not only welcome, but deliberately inclusive.”
As a queer person himself, my travel lightings from the island of Ireland, surprisingly, were the queerest things on our itinerary (and the things we stumbled upon by chance). In Dublin it was LGBT hiking tour that covered a span of the story from the beginning The workers’ clubWith three all-trans ties. And in Northern Ireland it was the visit to Kulllott – Where the British kings stop when they come – for a queer history tour told through the hundreds of artwork shown. (The portrait of a cross -dressing Mary by Modena was my favorite.) It was the stop at the new Window with painted glass at Belfasts City Hall Memorializing, among other things, a local gay hero named Jeff Dudgeon. And that was the visit to the queer-owned bookstore-slash barber shop, PaperxclipsWhere I bought two pairs of handmade clay pants for just under $ 6.
Between march in Pride Parade and late nights at Legendary Belfast Drag Club MaverickThere were really lots of rainbows and mesh tank tops to walk around too (and I’m not angry with it). But my overall experience on this trip felt like a beautiful network of another kind-one of classic gay travel stiles that fed the little party monkey in me, and one of a more community-driven travel style that filled my intellectual and emotional copper. The whole thing together was as soul confirming as it was chaotic fun.
I have not had almost as many explicit queer-coded travel experiences as Chase, which has done this type of full-time work for three years. But the reality is that “queer travel” is not always noticed as such. Sometimes queer travel is just about knowing where the gender-neutral bathrooms are, what local companies are queer-friendly, and how safe and conveniently a visible trans or queer pair feels when explore. If you are a queer person and you are traveling you already do. Chase agrees. “It’s about making trips feel accessible and happy for all of us, not just a narrow record of society.”
When I think back, some of my most Meaningful travel times Have been occasions when I surprised myself with the unexpected. And in retrospect, many of these moments are also quite queer. It was the time I was tattooed in a queer-owned studio in the Grungy Brunswick area in Melbourne, Australia. Or the time I Sipped beer with the prolonged bartender at YadirasAn unofficial lesbian bar in Tijuana. And the time I sat in the oldest woman-owned strip club in Portland, or, electrified by the artistry and sensuality of the red light-best dancer on stage.
And now I have memories from that punk show in Dublin, watching a bunch of rough children jump around, shreds and proclaimed in no uncertain terms that they were free, at least in that room, surrounded by a family of friends and strangers. It doesn’t get much queer yet.
Emma Glassman-Hughes (She/her) is an associated editor at PS Balance. During her seven years as a reporter, her beats have extended over the lifestyle spectrum; She has covered art and culture for Boston Globe, sex and relationships for cosmopolitan and food, climate and agriculture for ambrook research.