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Report from Queeruption VI

Dominic Wetzel

Imagine hundreds of radical queer punks and anarchists converging in an abandoned former chocolate-factory-turned-squat with a bridge running through the first floor, facing a quiet canal in Amsterdam. Sounds like a queer paradise, right?
As an annual, migratory, international, mainly urban-centered gathering, in some ways Queeruption could be viewed as an international queer social forum. However, we should note the large representation and high economic status of the mainly white, North American and European queers who attended.

Governed by a Do-It-Yourself approach, the gathering consisted of workshops, sharing skills, incredible vegan food, a plethora of cultural performances, and even occasional political actions. Over a hundred mattresses had been stockpiled and were rolled out for the attendees’ comfort, which, along with mats and sleeping bags, filled up several floors of the cavernous six-story building.

Any attendee could list a workshop, and everyone was encouraged to do so. Curiously, many of them occurred hours or even days later than scheduled (but man, the bud in those coffee shops was good!). Somehow, everyone found each other and the workshops happened.

Several workshops focused on the creation of queer squats around Europe, and mainly in Amsterdam and Barcelona. With the chilly climate for such activities in the US, it makes a New Yorker envious. Other skill-sharing workshops included amateur tranny porn-making, networking for sex workers, and various discussion groups addressing race, class, ableism (prejudice against the disabled), cultural exclusivity and transphobia both in the queer community and in wider political contexts.

One “action” - an anti-fascist demonstration against an anti-semitic, fascist demonstration against US aggression - put this particular “American” in jail. Ironically, I was booked at The Hague, the center of the International Criminal Court from which Bush and his war cronies have wanted special US exemption. Standing in for Bush, I guess, I wasn’t treated so bad. It’s the only place in the world where the police will give you fresh coffee, cigarettes, and safe-keep your drugs in a plastic baggy for you to pick up on your way out. Another action protested refugee detention centers.

Night themes included a performance night, full of queer punk bands, drag performances and performance troupes, a film night, full of mostly amateur films, as well as a radical sex party (grr…). Queeruptions are planned for Sydney in February and possibly in Barcelona next summer. Check out the website www.queeruption.org for more info.

Dominic Wetzel is a student in the PhD program in Sociology.