Thistle will be a queerfeminist* gathering held in Bristol from Sep 27-30, 2018. It will be an open space for anyone except for cis-men** to get together, share skills, do networking and have an awesome time!

Check out the program here.

Thistle aims to be a safer space for people affected by any type of oppression, such as ableism, racism, cissexism, transmisogyny, misogyny, heteronormativity and many more, as well as for survivors of any kind.

In an effort towards that, there will be a zero tolerance policy towards TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and SWERFs (sex worker exclusionary radical feminists) trying to attend the gathering. We believe that TERFs and SWERFs actively enforce oppression and should have no space within our movements.

Furthermore, Thistle will be a dry space. This means we ask participants not to bring any alcohol and/or other drugs with them as well as not to attend the gathering while being intoxicated. By asking this, we try to make the space more accessible for people that have trauma related to alcohol/drug use as well as people struggling with past substance dependencies. We feel a dire need for having social spaces that are dry within a culture that is heavily based on intoxication.

Thistle will be a DIY/DIT (do it yourself, do it together) event in which we want to organize in a non-hierarchical way. We want to emphasize that it requires the collective effort of the participants of the gathering to turn it into an awesome experience for everyone. We encourage folks to reach out if something bothers them and we encourage everyone to take responsibility to support one another and speak up. If you get called out for your behavior, listen. We are very aware that there is a long way to go on the path of learning how to interact with each other in a non-oppressive way and this space will be for us to do our very best to listen to each other and be accountable.

If you want to facilitate a workshop, do a performance, play a gig, cook, translate workshops or contribute to the gathering in any other way, you can contact thistle-bris@riseup.net (pgp key available) or you can just show up (there will be an open schedule at the gathering!).

Hopefully, there will be space for folks from abroad to stay at the location of the gathering but please do get in touch if you plan to come and need a place.

* There’s a nice definition of the term queer-feminism to be found here: https://queerfeminism.com/what-is-queer-feminism/

** We won’t question anyone’s presence based on other people’s perception of their gender.