The Gay Outdoors Interviews
The Gay Outdoors, a play on the phrase “The Great Outdoors” is a photoshoot that showcases Black and brown Trans bodies enjoying and connecting with nature. Outdoor spaces look different through a Trans POC lens. Alongside the photo shoot, we did a short interview.
Che (they/them)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
As a youth, growing up in Roxbury, a historically Black neighborhood in Boston, I did the outward bound program which was my entry way and threshold into the outdoors but especially into rock climbing and setting up tarps and camping and finding meditative space away from the city. Being away from the city wasn’t really my thing before that, I still feel magnetized by the social & material infrastructure of urban space (I live mainly in NYC lol!) but now I think because of living in NYC and because my partner is in Portland and I’ve been visiting for 3 years, it’s reactivated a desire in me and appreciation for hiking and the beauty of PNW landscape.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
Primarily living in NYC and I really enjoy West coast nature. Nature is always mediated by culture, and there’s versions of nature everywhere but PNW is new to me and I’m so enchanted by spring here and also the flora and fauna that’s in the outdoors but also on Portland city blocks even which is 😍— wild lavender and bees cruising.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
I think the expansiveness and the relative silence compared to the stimulus of the city is a feature of PNW nature that I really appreciate and enjoy. I went on a hike on Angel’s Rest and got to a summit and it was this euphoric feeling of both finishing a journey — achievement — and also the sublime view and calming atmosphere of the horizon. It was magical and restorative, and hiking or also going to the coast and seeing the ocean (for example) provides those moments of pause and deep reverence.
Forrest Klamath (they/them)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
It's easier and more comfortable to be outdoors than indoors. Nature doesn't care what I'm wearing, it welcomes me anyway.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
Schedule and winter weather!
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
I find joy in camping, hiking, walking, and foraging. My time outdoors is time I get to spend connecting with my ancestors amd reconnecting with my primitive self.
Jasmin (they/she)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
connecting with god. connecting with spirit. connecting with our trancestors. i am prayerful every time i go towards the forest, the ocean, the mountain. i am prayerful for our safety and protection. i am prayerful for our wellbeing and feeling at ease. i am prayerful we make it back home.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
i am stopped from connecting with nature more when i am not trusting that i am + we are safe as we are where we are within city limits. i have to lock in my memory the sweetness that comes from an open sky, rolling waves and giant tree elders to hug to keep prioritizing regular dates with the land, sky, and bodies of water. taking Yucca, my dog friend, as a companion is necessary for me. Yucca’s easeful joy of a new adventure energizes me beyond what stops me.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
i experience joy and ephoria when being outdoors by being present. by feeling the elements below, above and around me in whatever form they arrive in. by knowing change is the only constant and god is change (Octavia Butler) and nature allows me to bathe in this experience, through the day and through the seasons. resting in this experience strengthens my healing, my presence and my focus in my part of this marathon towards liberation. nature teaches me joy by being in rhythm with itself and knowing harmony will prevail.
Lalo (they/them)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
It's been intimidating and space is taken by a lot of white cis people but very healing once I push myself to continue to be in these spaces.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
Feeling safe. I’m new to the Oregon outdoors and wanting to find community to help show me the way.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
Being indigenous being around nature is a part of my roots and it’s where I connect and find healing and support to continue on.
Li (he/they)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
It is the ultimate connection both to the land and to myself. When I'm feeling disconnected from my body, I go outside and see the beauty that surrounds me, and remember that what my body is and who I am is nature. Everything around and inside us is nature -- it is inseparable from and essential to us.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
My biggest boundaries to connecting with nature more are work, and anxiousness being a queer, BIPOC person outdoors (in what many consider to be a "white" space). I am working to overcome both by setting boundaries with my employer and by asserting myself as an outdoors person, regardless of if white folks expect or support me being in "their" space.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
As an autistic person, my euphoria while being outdoors stems from my senses -- the scent of densely wooded pine forest, the sight of bees gently landing on petals and deer watching meekly, the sound of bird songs and coyote cries, the feeling of the cool wind on my skin as I peer into the moon over the Willamette, and the taste of ripe salmonberries inspiring new flavors for foraged recipes.
Rudy (he/him)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
Sometimes it’s hard. I always think about “omg what if I have to go pee and it’s an emergency, I don’t want to squat because people might know I’m trans”
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
Feeling like I MUST have access to a bathroom.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
Man, forest bathing is the best feeling ever. When the world around me is falling apart being in the forest is calming and serene. That’s when I can feel like all my what feel like huge problems are just so small.
Teiah (they/she)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
A lot of the time it feels like being an outsider. I see so many non-Black and Brown folks, while not really being a space for me. Seeing so many with all this equipment and toys that it feels like it’s such a discrepancy. A lot of the time it’s hard having such a large chest that I become seemingly passing. It makes me really want top surgery just to be able to be chest out and take up space. As of now, I feel like safe being passing, but do have a fear once I no longer become less passing.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
The access to get out in the woods and feel safe while alone or even with other feels stifled. I’m thinking about how many people believe they have their own occupied spaces when at the beach. I’ve had some times where people will assert that that area has been used by them for years or non-Black and Brown boat owners having all the space out in the water still just lingering very close to my friends and I enjoying our queer and BIPOC experience with their country music blasting. It is a constant remainder we are never alone or not surveyed
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
I spent 2015-2022 outdoors camping with 2-3 buffer friends or past partners. One of the first friends to ever get me out of my hometown was Liz. She made me so much less fearful of camping, hiking and just being outdoors in general. She was the first one I ever cliff dived with. Every time I camp/ spend time outdoors it reminds me of her. She passed away a few years back, so now the outdoors is a space for healing and as a past addict a reminder of what is so grand and beautiful in this world and how desperately I’d like to remain here.
Tekai (they/she/he)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
The gatekeeping of outdoor spaces is a very unspoken, but very present reality. There seems to be a belief that trans bodies are not "family-friendly" and inappropriate in public spaces. The PNW is generally more accepting than other areas, though transphobia can exist anywhere.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
The uncertainty of being safe. If I'm not with at least one other person, my safety is significantly more at risk. I’m not only AFAB and more femme presenting, I'm BIPOC and trans. Those compounding factors always bring my safety into question when in public spaces, especially ones that have a gatekeeping aspect upheld by white, cishet individuals.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
Being outdoors brings me the euphoria of connecting to nature through my cultural roots. Many Native people refer to the divine idea of "The Creator" when speaking about our surroundings and the earth. This can be a divine being, but it can also be organic matter, life. Creation comes from life. As a two-spirit individual, my life is my creation. Being proudly in the open is my freedom.
Vanda Hunter (they/them)
What is it like or what is your experience being trans and participating in outdoor/nature activities?
Growing up in Oregon, for most of my life I considered outdoor activities to be white people shit. I was always trying to distance myself from the outdoorsy white folks that surrounded me. It really wasn’t until the pandemic that I began going outdoors to connect with myself through nature, and I couldn’t be happier I did. At times I still find it difficult to be Black, plus size, and non-binary outdoors in such a white space, when it comes to the way people stare or look surprised to see someone like me out on a paddle board just like them.
What stops you from connecting with nature more?
My work schedule stops me from being able to get out in nature as much as I’d like to. Depending on how hot it is, it may not be safe for me to spend long hours in the sun, as someone who is sensitive to heat.
How do you experience joy or euphoria when being outdoors?
Being able to put my phone down, or leave it behind in the car or on the shore, gives me the opportunity to listen to nature. One of my favorite parts about being outdoors is all of the sounds. To sit on the earth or water with eyes closed and ears open, to me is euphoric.
