Queering harm reduction

We define as “queering harm reduction” the extension and expansion of the harm reduction care and advocacy agendas to include the priorities of queer people who use drugs. 

Citing Jay Hogan in a piece for Volteface in 2022 “the emergence of HIV/AIDS and the way in which the queer community choose to care for one another popularized many of the harm reduction models still used today”. For this reason, we can say that the history of harm reduction is queer. However, harm reduction practitioners and researchers are still learning how to implement approaches which are responsive to gender and sexual diversity. In this talk, we invited three inspiring experts to discuss and share with us their knowledge and visions about queer drug subcultures, drug policies, harm reduction queercare and safer space policies. 

This talk is organized in the scope of the project Queercare, a partnership co-funded under the Active Citizenship Programme (EEA Grants) managed by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Fundação Bissaya Barreto in Portugal and coordinated by Kosmicare. 

Moderation

Cristiana Vale Pires (she/her) from Kosmicare

Speakers

João Florêncio (he/him) is Professor of Gender Studies and Chair of Sex Media and Sex Cultures at Linköping University, Sweden. He has researched and published on queer sex and drug cultures in academic journals and generalist media, and he is the author of Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures: The Ethics of Becoming-Pig (Routledge, 2020). 

Mathilde Neuville (they/them) is the co-founder and president of Consentis, an NGO established in 2018 in Paris, France.  Consentis is a prevention and awareness-raising organization dedicated to combating sexual and discriminatory violence while promoting harm reduction practices in nightlife.

Mar (they/them) took a MsC in Pharmaceutical Sciences. They currently work with Kosmicare, doing drug checking and developing harm reduction materials. Mar collaborates with the queer collectives mina and Post Carbon and works with Planeta Manas, a DIY queer feminist venue in Lisbon. Here, they developed Ravers Care Corner, a self-organized harm reduction and queercare awareness team. They explore the merge of care, dreams and non-human entities through illustration, zines and handpoke tattoos.