Ooh they can walk
Apparently “queer” people have been denied access to the outdoors?
I’ll be darned. I could have sworn it was just for cis, straight, middle class “folk.” (What are “middle class folk” anyway? Is that similar to middle class peasants and middle class working stiffs?)
Ailish had personal reasons for setting up Queer Out Here. They grew up in the Yorkshire countryside where a love for the outdoors was practically mandatory. After university, and a period in which they stopped exploring the outdoors, Ailish “rediscovered it and found how beneficial it was for my mental health and wellbeing”.
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But they were also keen to challenge what they see as a lack of equality around access to the outdoors.
A lack of equality around access to the outdoors…like, the doors are all locked from the outside? That can’t be right, we would have heard. Are there checkpoints between us and the outdoors at which “queer” people are told to turn around and go back? If there are why have I never seen them, let alone been asked to show my papers?
“I think a lot of people do feel that the outdoors is only for certain types of people,” Ailish says. “People think it’s for middle class, white, heteronormative families, or there’s there’s the really outdoorsy people who’ve got all of the gear, which can be really expensive.”
Nope, sorry, I don’t believe a word of that. Nobody thinks the outdoors is reserved for “heteronormative” families. Some people probably think it is reserved for people who like to go outside and get moving, but the word for that is “laziness,” not a lack of equality around access to the outdoors.
There’s also a “macho” side to the outdoors – plenty of people take on extreme challenges. The idea alone can be alienating for queer people.
Nope, I don’t believe that either. Yes, some people climb mountains, but what does that have to do with other people going for walks? Nothing. Not one thing. The fact that some people like to climb mountains can’t possibly be “alienating for queer people.” That’s a stupid, whiny, self-indulgent claim. It’s a dire symptom of Pink News’s need to fill its pages.
Among those who might not find that atmosphere particularly welcoming are trans and non-binary people. Ailish was thinking specifically about the trans and non-binary community when they set up Queer Out Here.
Why? Why would trans and non-binary people not find that “atmosphere” welcoming? What “atmosphere”? There is no “atmosphere,” there’s only a claim that the idea that some people take on challenges is “alienating.” Well it’s not. That’s a bogus claim.
This is how it all works, isn’t it – start with a childishly absurd unsupported claim and then weave a giant superstructure on top of it, and a wall of abuse and bullying all around it. Progress!
“We do have loads of trans and non-binary people that come on our walks, and that feels so powerful and empowering when we’re all walking together in a big group in the Peak District and in these rural areas where we don’t see groups of people that look like us all the time. There’s something that feels quite political and powerful about that.”
Except that’s not true, is it. The groups of people do look like all these loads of trans and non-binary people. The photos with the story make that very obvious – they all look like people out for a walk on a chilly day. They don’t have a special glow, or extra limbs, or rainbow bubble-wrap over their heads.
It gives too much away, this story. It reveals the pathetic truth that much of this nonsense is about young people who want to be Special, and are too dim or feeble to become Special by actually doing something. “Look at me, I went for a walk while Queer!!”
It’s all about affirmation in every aspect of life for them. What a bunch of narcissists. When I cross-country ski I don’t find myself feeling like I have to exclaim to everyone I meet on the trail “HI IM CIS! AFFIRM MEEEE”, because it would be silly.
Same here! When I’m out for a walk (which is at least a couple of hours every day) I don’t look for affirmations, I’m too busy looking at daffodils or a body of water or a nice dog or [the list is long].
The “macho” vibe for “extreme” hiking and climbing only alienates queer people. see, not all the rest of us. And there aren’t any queer people who like to climb mountains, see, they are all a bunch of frivolous out-of-shape dilettantes.
How utterly insulting even to the audience they are trying to reach.
That’s hilarious. Is that strapping ginger the poor little boy who has never been walking with queer people before?
I certainly had been, and that was back in the dark ages. I knew plenty queer hikers back in the day; I had the impression hikers were more likely to be gay than the general population.
Maybe this is one of the differences between then and now: back in the day, my gay and lesbian friends liked hiking because there weren’t people about to judge them; today’s kids can’t stand not to be constantly judged and found delightful, so they need to bring a Twitter mob with them in meatspace.
I hope they don’t fall over from trying to click on each other.
Sackbut, the person who thinks gay men are never macho simply hasn’t met many gay men.
This is another example of the TRA/Enbies trying to claim that they have the same problems as Black Americans. Because I absolutely CAN accept the claim that African-Americans get odd looks, or even low-grade hostility, when they go hiking or climbing; that’s simply where America is at right now, and it’s utterly uncomplicated to apply that general rule to wilderness areas. The general assumption that “Black” and “Urban” are synonyms was a key bit of Trump’s campaign, after all.
It reminds me of the end of Revenge of the Nerds, really (a film I WISH I could scrub from my memory–total side-rant, it’s got about every sort of modern misogynist bullshit, from revenge porn and stalking, all the way through ‘it’s okay to be a rapist if you’re good at sex’, all committed by the ‘heroes’), wherein one of the ‘nerds’ explains how being a nerd is just like being black–and gets a standing ovation from the members of an all-black fraternity.
There’s more to access to the outdoors than not being locked out, legally barred, etc. like how black people are sometimes afraid to go jogging/go out because some racist might call the cops on them for existing while black.
As for queer people, I can see how say an obviously visibly trans person or two men holding hands might not feel safe out in public some places.
:”today’s kids can’t stand not to be constantly judged and found delightful”
I LOVE that. So accurate and so funny.
Freemage, Anna, yes, I agree. It’s just that “queer” people don’t get to appropriate what happens to non-white people as if it happened also to them.
One of the good things about hiking is that it’s a relatively cheap hobby. I think I just bought a new water bottle for $10, and that’s pretty much the extent of my “equipment” — I use clothes and shoes that I already have for other purposes.
I mean, if you want to drop hundreds of dollars at REI or wherever on the sharpest-looking stuff, have at it, good for you. I’m always a sweaty mess anyway so I can’t be bothered to try to look good while hiking.
I don’t begrudge people wanting to go hiking with particular groups they identify with. I get lots of notices on Meetup for hiking groups for various demographic or interest groups. I don’t bother with them myself because for me, hiking with a large group of people would take away the peace and quiet that is a big part of the enjoyment, and also, see above re sweaty mess.
But why not just leave it at that? It’s fine to want to hike with fellow LGBTQ people or whatever other group, why the need to dress it up as a bold stroke for social justice? (That’s a rhetorical question, obviously the answer is “because it makes people feel good about themselves for doing something they’re already doing.”) If there’s an accessibility issue around hiking, it would be that many trailheads aren’t reachable by public transit, though I’m not sure what can really be done about that. Unless a trail is popular enough to justify a dedicated shuttle bus.
As a kid I wasn’t able to do much hiking because my asthma would almost inevitably kick in. Now I can control it, but because I never quite caught the bug it’s something I do only intermittently (also, I hate camping). Maybe I should start a hiking club for asthmatics and go on Twitter complaining about how horribly oppressed we are because we
lookbreathe so differently, and how brave we are in facing that oppression. (Actually, the first part sounds appealing, except I don’t particularly like groups.)Oh JFC, this just… just silly! Oi you lot. Admire the view instead of your navels.
I must say, when I go out hiking, whether a group or by myself, I have never once had to show my membership card as a “cisgender heteronormative middle class” person. As for stares? If you do everything possible to get people to notice you, and they notice you, why are you complaining? Really. just because that’s still another way to be noticed.
“Hey, look at me! Ain’t I great!….Hey, bud, why are you lookin’ at me? Police! Help! He’s looking at me!”
When I go outside and the first thing I do is exclaim “Oh what a beautiful morning!” I know I’m channeling Rogers and Hammerstein. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
What the hell is this crap? OK, I am going to out myself as an aging British dyke who likes a walk now and then, and testify that there have been lesbian hiking groups for decades.
Also, the scene in that photo looks very heteronormative to me: male person addresses the group while female person stands silently supporting him with her thumbs up.
>A lack of equality around access to the outdoors…
This is a real issue for less affluent people in urban and even suburban areas. For such individuals, the parks and walking trails accessible by foot are often outdoors only in the sense that they’re not indoors; they’re not what we would think of as The Great Outdoors, and they may not be particularly safe or pleasant.
All that being said, well-off white kids with gender thetans have just as much access to the outdoors as anyone else.
Wellll less affluent people in urban areas aren’t reliant solely on walking for access to parks and trails. Cities with good public transportation are a fix for that. I use the Seattle bus system to get to some killer places to walk. Others, admittedly, are far away and not as well served, so I get to them less often or not at all except when I have the use of Cooper’s car to take him there, but still there’s a pretty wide menu here. I’m sure not all cities are as good at it, but it’s not a complete barrier everywhere.
Maybe, just maybe, there’s a bit of justification. There’s a strong tradition of ‘queer’ people gravitating to urban enclaves like the Castro or Greenwich Village and centering their social life around bars. But breaking out of that stereotype might, just might, require a minimum of self-reflection and thought.
There is actually great hiking within blocks of the Castro? Not Yosemite but…,
Indeed. SF is a brilliant place for hikes and long exploratory walks aided by public transportation. Like Seattle it’s extremely lumpy, so there are views, not to mention ferries to Sausalito, walking across the GG bridge, etc etc etc.