Sarah Cooper
Professor
Clemson University
Mapping Hope for Queer Futures in Sourthern Oregon Women’s Lands
If queerness is on the horizon, as José Esteban Muñoz suggests, how do find that horizon? Building on the work of Elizabeth Freeman and Heather Love, this paper counters Muñoz’s assertion that “what we will really know as queerness, does not yet exist” to suggest that historical queer countercultures provide markers and directions toward this horizon. In the late 1970s intentional communities were formed in various parts of the United States to create a space outside of patriarchal control. Archival materials of these Lands reveal vibrant communities in Southern Oregon where women committed to live in harmony with land, offering hope for queer futures in queer pasts.