Bliss Magdalena Qadesh*
The recent flowering of open, diverse expression within LGBTQIA+ communities has been celebrated through the rise of popular ‘out and proud’ artists 
such Alok Vaid-Menon and Chappel Roan; however, a vocal backlash against queerness and gender-nonconformity has also been felt and expressed within feminist academia, in what could be described as a culture war that is being waged on the turf of sex and gender (Lewin, 2024). Similar tensions have also arisen in relation to the fields of critical race theory and decolonial studies (Butler, 2022). Black and queer intersectional activist communities have turned towards their kinship with one another for support and resilience (Blaedel, A.K., 2024), employing spirituality and wellness modalities as balm for the deeply-felt wounds inflicted by their experience of daily invalidation and structural discrimination. Alternative communities that employ spiritual practices and holistic philosophies enable those who have been harmed by othering to receive affirmative care, bolstered by a sense of being valued and cherished, which helps liberatory movements to continue (Prescott, 2024).
A reluctance to acknowledge these valuable resources through ‘academic spiritphobia’, stemming from the over-valuing of a rationalist mindset, persists. One remedy for this is an awareness of ‘otherwise’, defined as the wisdom of the ‘othered’, who can offer generative knowledge from perspectives outside the established systems of domination; another remedy is the application of the threshold liminality of the nepantla (in-between) ontology, offered by Nahuatl spiritual activists working at the intersection between decolonialism and environmentalism, and merging direct action with ceremony and meditation. This idea of bridging commonalities transcends binary or oppositional stances and invites an interconnectedness, designed to nurture personal and collective transformation. Nepantla activism is interchangeable in praxis to the concepts of queering within gender studies and intersectionality. Ramirez (2016) queers the term itself to NepantlerX in reference to this capacity for transcendence beyond ideas of difference or fixed oppositionality. Gloria Anzaldua offers a similar concept of the left-handed world, as a creative open connective space for transformative collaboration – El Mundo Zurdo: “not a fist but an open hand raised collectively in struggle, in celebration and in song” (Keating, 2008).
The inspirational writing and activism of Black Feminism has empowered shifts in academics’ cultural understanding of intersectionality throughout the social policy, gender, and violence research fields, offering us an insight into the complexity of the systemic harms endured by everyone deemed ‘other’ by the colonialist patriarchy. Queer, femme, Black woman poets and theorists have offered a framework for living embodied spiritual activism that fosters connection, the recognition of worth and reclaiming of kinship and spaces of community through a disidentification from the denigration of generations of violence endured by those deemed who were other or less than by those in positions of cultural power. The writers Gloria Hull (1982) and Audrey Lorde (1985) , both of whom are members of the Combahee River Collective, which first coined the terms ‘intersectionality’ and ‘identity politics’ through the Black Feminist Statement , suggest an activism of the soul and body which both liberates and rejects the dominant discourses within political movements focused on theoretical concepts and the intellectualisation of empowerment for those suffering oppression.
In parallel to this flowering of a spiritual activism within Black Feminism, the Radical Faerie movement also took root from within the Gay Liberation movement during the 1970’s, as a radical response to the clone culture of urban homosexuality, which celebrated materialism and conformity to an uber-masculine expression of gay culture. Faerie gatherings and sanctuaries offer a queer utopian alternative to life within the structures of conventional society, where subject-subject consciousness is practised as a value system for interaction and a personal process of developing one’s emotional and spiritual consciousness. Radical Faerie culture is a form of disidentified abolitionism in this respect (Hennen, 2004), through the creation of a liberated cultural framework for relationship, creativity, and activism, which resonates with the pleasure activism and wild love concepts of Audrey Lorde. Although earlier Radical Fairie philosophy has been criticized for being phallocentric and transphobic, in addition to the appropriation of indigenous concepts such as ‘two-spirit’ and the syncretisation of other global spiritual traditions (Pape, 2013), this has been addressed in the current evolution of Faerie culture and the communities and gatherings are often attended by representatives of many diverse backgrounds, genders, and expressions of queer sexuality and relating, as well as the growing global majority racialised and endarkened contributors (Sandford, 2013).
Activist groups, such as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, have adopted a spiritual but not religious approach, which incorporates a bricolage of varied spiritual pathways into a path of devotion and service which has been shared as ministry through public protest as well as a global network of support and solidarity within LGBTQIA+ communities (Wilcox, 2018). The Ecosexual movement has approached intersectionality through a lens of irreverence, framing their activism through queer, erotic collective action and radical performance art in addition to a ritual context, linking sexual freedom with environmental justice and the idea of the ‘Earth as Lover’, where the abuses and exploitation of nature are framed as extensions of gendered violence. The absurdity and sensuality expressed through actions such as ceremonies designed to celebrate group marriages to bodies of water, or the Fuck for Forest sponsored pornographic performances, represent embodied participatory alternatives, which situate humanity within, rather than apart from, nature, inviting us to step in and act rather than fearfully grieving in a mainstream apocalyptic environmental narrative, where many feel devoid of personal agency (Reed, 2019).
The focus of feminist activism must not be swayed from intersectionality by postmodern neoliberalism within academic culture, where the commodification of ideas has grown in prevalence. Chandra Mohanty (2013) reminds us that individual experience is never distinct from power and institutions, and that intersectionality is made compelling by the interwoven inequities within social structures and processes, rather than a cult of fixed identity politics. The reductionist application of intersectionality risks watering down the resistance to systemic oppression into ‘diversity and inclusion’ within the HR departments of corporate organisations that are deeply complicit in the environmental devastation and exploitation of countries that represent the global majority, where inequalities of gender and violence serve as a constant backdrop to the profit-making machine (Salem, 2016).
The terms ‘community care’ and ‘self-care’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘inclusion’, ‘diversity’ and ‘political emancipation’ can be interchangeable in their meaning and context. The utilisation of spiritual practices within activism and the ideological frameworks for liberation must be brought into the centre also, to the benefit of marginalised people themselves (Doetsch-Kidder and Harris, 2023). The dismantling of oppressive systems, that are founded on constructs of class, gender, sexuality or race, lifts the limitations imposed on personal agency, the capacity for joy, relational freedom and life opportunities, so this endeavour must remain at the heart of intersectional politics and social movements (Cohen and Jackson, 2016 ).
Author details
Bliss Magdalena Qadesh – University of Bristol is in the second year of their funded PhD in Social Policy within the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the School for Policy Studies, where their research focuses on Intimate Partner Violence and Spiritual Abuse within Pagan Faith Communities. They are interested in the intersection of spirituality with activism in the context of gender and systemic violence.
*Blog series editor: Aisha K. Gill, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol [https://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/centres/genderviolence/]
