Queerness, Community & Nature at Platt Fields Alt Pride

Saturday 5th September saw the return of Platt Field Market Garden's Alternative Pride event. The day was filled to the brim with fascinating talks, wholesome plant-based food and creative workshops, such as lino printing, botanical paper making, and even an intense portrait drawing followed by turning your paper into mulch.

One of the events that stood out to me was an engaging panel discussion on finding solidarity within queer communities through green spaces and nature. This discussion was led by Frankie (she/they) who works for a not-for-profit organisation called All The Elements. All The Elements is passionate about making the outdoors an inclusive and representative space for marginalised groups of people, and they strive towards making access possible.

Next to Frankie sat Thryn (they/them), a facilitator for the organisation Nature Queers: queer-led community events that help people connect with nature, their inner sense of play and others in the LGBTQIA+ community. Lastly we had Jesse (they/them), an ecologist from the workers co-operative MYCO. MYCO, a prefix for the study of fungi, is a non-profit that creates accessible spaces for curiosity and learning about the natural world and how we can deepen our relationship to it.

The discussion opened with the group openly asking each other about what they really wanted to rant about at that moment in time, and they landed on the power that queer spaces (in nature) have to dismantle pre-existing binaries. Frankie spoke about the liberation experienced in nature, as the outdoors does not care about how you show up, allowing you to authentically be yourself.

Thryn reckoned with queer groups in nature as an act of resistance - calling upon queer ecology's grounding message: we have always been here, and we will not be going away any time soon. The development of language such as 'queer' and 'non-binary' has given name to feelings and identities that have always been experienced, but have not always had the language to be named. Like all discoveries of the natural world, queer people have always existed, and we are just finding new ways to acknowledge and identify our existence.

Similar to this, Jesse argued that our perception of nature is socially constructed. Once upon a time, nature was viewed as an inherently scary place: 'where the wolf lived'. This benefitted a society that wanted to deforest landscapes and build up. Now we are experiencing a change: people desire reconnection with nature. This shift in our perceptions of nature proves its power to dismantle the categories or binaries that surround it.

All of this can be summarised by saying that nature is genuinely freeing, and through connecting with nature we can connect to the parts of ourselves that are joyful, liberated and imaginative beyond social constructions of gender, race, class or sexuality.

Moreover, the panel focused on the resilience of nature. Even in the big city, Thyrn observes the moss creeping in and dandelions shooting through paving slabs. They anecdotally share their experience of finding a fallen willow tree, and instead of devastation, noticing new shoots for new willow trees feeding alongside it.

Thryn says: 'If you chop down a hazel, you get twenty more shoots.'

This resilience is key to the queer community, and truly bonds our existence with that of the natural world. Just like plants, if you chop us down we will grow back, and stronger. In a world faced with a sliding political landscape, anti-trans rhetoric, and a climate emergency quite literally looming over our shoulder, this message gives me hope for our community and our persistence to survive, as authentically as we are able to.

A slight detour from our usual houseplant content, but a true reminder of our roots, and what makes Potty feel so connected to nature.

Thank you to Platt Fields Market Garden for such a wholesome, inclusive day and to Frankie, Thryn and Jesse for their inspiring messages of queer hope and joy in such turbulent times!