Queer The Land is a collaborative project grounded in the self-determination of queer, transgender, and Two-Spirit Black/ indigenous/ people of color (QT2BIPOC) and the vision of collectively owning our land and labor. Founded in Summer 2016 by two local QT2BIPOC community-based organizations, Building Autonomy and Safety for Everybody and the Queer & Trans Pan-African Exchange, we’re working to establish a cooperative network anchored by a community center and transitional and semi-permanent housing that meets the needs of working-class QT2BIPOC in the greater Seattle area. Our mission is to create a movement-building space that can generate income and become a political hub for QTBIPOC and our community organizing.
We’re seeking to fund the resources we need to create a QT2BIPOC-owned and operated cooperative in one of Seattle’s historical communities of color to include transitional housing, co-working space, venue space, communal space, and a community garden. We’ve been working towards this since summer 2016, when a group of working-class QT2BIPOC community and cultural organizers came together to brainstorm strategies to increase our communities’ housing stability, thus increasing our capacity to engage in critical movement-building work. Most of us had been and continue to be directly impacted by displacement and gentrification in Seattle.
What emerged from our initial conversations was a desire to create our own solutions to the housing crisis and other crises that disproportionately impact QT2BIPOC. The co-op we envision won’t only provide housing, but also a safer space for QT2BIPOC to create alternatives to the medical industrial complex, police and prisons, and more.
