Fat Crush: Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Loyd, the co-envisioners behind Queer Nature

This month, we are crushing double hard. Our hearts are thumping with the work of Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Loyd, the co-envisioners behind Queer Nature. 

Pinar (they/them) is an Indigenous multi-species futurist, mentor, consultant and eco-philosopher. So (they/them) is a white queer Greek-American nature geek, interdependent scholar, mythic non-fiction writer, & wilderness EMT, who grew up in the northern hardwood forests of Alnobak territory. 

In 2015, Queer Nature was born— an education and social sculpture project based in the Pacific Northwest that actively dreams into decolonially-informed queer ‘ancestral futurism’ through mentorship in place-based skills with awareness of post-industrial/globalized/ecocidal contexts. Place-based skills include naturalist studies, handcrafts, “survival skills,” and recognition of colonial and indigenous histories of land, and are framed in a container that emphasizes deep listening and relationship building with living and non-living earth systems. 

Queer Nature designs and facilitates nature-based workshops and multi-day immersions intended to be financially, emotionally, and physically accessible to LGBTQ2+ people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Two-Spirit) and QTBIPOCs (queer and trans black and indigenous people of color). Queer Nature carries the story and hope that these spaces create new narratives of belonging for folks who have often been made to feel by systems of oppression that they biologically, socially, or culturally don’t belong.

Follow @queernature on the gram and visit the links below to learn more/ get involved/ support:

• Recent publication (accessible online for free but also available via print Weaving New Worlds). 
• Queer Nature Patreon 
• The fundraiser QTIBIPOC scholarship for @mama_maiz's project, Flora y Tierra, with the Decolonize Your Medicine set
• Newly published website with So's writings on Apocalyptic Ecology
•  Queer Nature blog