Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine

As the psychedelic resurgence reaches a pivotal moment of mainstream interest and regulatory legitimacy, Queering Psychedelics 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 collected volume spans a broad range of perspectives from queer academic researchers, LGBTQIA+ clinicians, indigenous two-spirit activists, transgender autodidacts, and queer neo-shamans. Each of the 38 essays articulates essential insights on the cultural heritages, implications for current research and clinical work, and transformative healing potential of psychedelic medicine and queer identity. In probing a largely uncharted relationship, the book traces a vast and colorful history of the enchanted, wayward, and weird as well as the concrete ways in which queer folk have fundamentally shaped the substance, style, and spirituality of the psychedelic movement, though they have been harmed by its heteronormative applications. Inclusive of the intersectional and liberatory applications of queerness, the volume integrates indigenous outlooks on psychedelics, gender roles, and identity and seeks to ally its struggle with those of other marginalized groups: women, people of color, the disabled, the poor, and people residing in the global south. The book 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. Queering Psychedelics interrogates the continuing radical potential of queer psychedelia in today's era of assimilation, paving the way for the movement's liberatory potential for all people.
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