Press Release from Queer in Community

Queer in Community Gathering - May 12 - 14, 2000 in central Virginia


Queer in Community (QIC) is a network of queer intentional communities as well as communities seeking more queer members. It is also a resource for queer people seeking communities that are exclusively queer (such as separatist men's and wimmin's communities), primarily queer or mixed communities that include queers.

The Second Annual QIC Gathering was held on May 12-14 at Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia. It provided approximately 30 queer and queer friendly folks the opportunity to meet and share and discuss and vision and play with other queer folks who are already in community, who are looking for communities or who are simply interested in the idea. Events included a tour of Twin Oaks, a queer-friendly community and one of the oldest, largest and most successful intentional communities in the country. It was a great opportunity to find out current projects and to share dreams and hopes with others in the queer community movement. The results of the QIC Visioning Session will be posted here soon.

More and more queers are seeking new choices and paths for living their lives beyond urban apartment dwelling and suburban tract houses. And while many of them may be seeking a life partner, others may be searching for alternatives to coupling and nuclear families. They may be seeking more communal ways of defining and building families or they may be seeking a life apart from the world by themselves. Between them, QIC's affiliated communities offer all of these choices and more. There are more than a dozen individual communities in the QIC network, in addition to several community networks.

In addition to connecting individuals with communities, QIC provides networking between communities as well, since they typically face similar issues regarding finances, construction, governance and membership. It's also a way that established communities can share their experience with forming communities.

QIC has a general brochure describing its purposes and operations. It also has a website at www.ic.org/qic where each community has a listing describing itself so people can look for communities that interest them for future contact.

Please remember that communities prefer to hear from potential visitors before they arrive. It's also helpful to include a SASE to receive information.

The website also has a calender of upcoming events, a list of resources, links to related sites and other features.

People without easy Internet access can order a printed copy of the website by sending $5 in check or money order to:
QIC
c/o The Hermitage
RD 1, Box 149
Pitman, PA 17964

There is also a regular email newsletter sent to anyone who wants to receive it. It keeps communities and individuals informed about upcoming events, gatherings and what's happening in and around the network.

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