Queering Psychedelics: Intersectionality, Healing, Spirituality and Liberation

Psychedelics have encompassed a colorful history of the enchanted, wayward, and weird; its history also includes concrete ways queer folk have fundamentally shaped the substance, style, and spirituality of the psychedelic movement. At the same time, some queer people have been harmed by psychedelic culture’s heteronormative assumptions. As the psychedelic renaissance reaches a pivotal moment of mainstream interest and regulatory legitimacy, this course aims to foster accessibility and diversity in psychedelic science, practice, and discourses by addressing and dismantling sexist, heteronormative, transphobic, and homophobic forms of oppression in the psychedelic movement. This course will cover topics such as the cruel effects of patriarchy, practicing self-acceptance, the dark sides of psychedelic research such as conversion therapy, the move towards LGBTQ+ affirmative psychedelic-assisted therapies, transpersonal queer spirituality, sex positivity, trans and BIPOC issues, Indigenous perspectives in queer psychedelia, and pleasure. The course also grapples with how modern psychedelic research might address the unique needs and traumas of sexual and gender minorities—populations that can suffer from challenging mental health conditions brought on by social exclusion, pathologization, criminalization, and stigmatization. It is vital that queer spaces be established for exploring the unique needs, gifts, and strengths that LGBTQ+ communities bring to psychedelic medicine, and how psychedelic medicine can help queer folks move towards healing and liberation.