By Ally Kotetsu

If you’ve read my blog or watched my streams, then I probably sound like a broken record at this
point, but I truly believe that forming in-person community for MAPs and other radqueers is
absolutely essential for our movement to make any headway. Where I live, I’ve met dozens upon
dozens of radqueers and supporters, but there isn’t a solid community for them. And that much is
true all around the world; they say that approximately 1 in 20 people are MAPs. That’s a lot!… So
why don’t we have an in-person community?

Well the “radqueer community” has become synonymous with online spaces such as Discord and
Tumblr, which makes sense given how new of a thing radqueer is. But MAPs started forming
communities decades ago, starting officially with the North American Man/Boy Love Association
(NAMbLA), a man-boy-love organization that formed out of the aftermath of the Stonewall riots.

But NAMbLA made mistakes, after all, it’s not here anymore. It got caught in legal battles and
lawsuits, and it made the same mistake that the emerging LGBT movement made when it decided
to kick out NAMbLA: it wasn’t inclusive enough. Instead of welcoming everyone who was
minor-attracted, they curated spaces exclusively for men and boys. The aftermath can be seen in
online space such as BoyChat today, with posters regularly spewing transphobia, sexism, and
racism. It’s true that groups like the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) pushed
out NAMbLA because of publicity, but if the boylovers at the time made more of an effort to
move forward with the other queers then maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

So to answer the question of “what happened to our community?” That’s what. In the end it was
due to choosing exclusion over inclusion. The queers at the time pushed out NAMbLA so they
could achieve United Nations consultative status, and even when doing so they didn’t get it for
another decade. Many gay groups at the time pushed MAP groups away to save face and appease conservatives, but look at what’s happening today. Conservatives are still calling queer people
pedos.

Despite that, these separations in MAP spaces still exist today; online spaces focus mostly on
what gender of youth MAPs are attracted to, anti-c spaces try to push away pro-c’s, and MAP
spaces treat other paraphiles and people with transids like they’re freaks who don’t belong. So
what do we do differently this time around with forming community? Learn from the mistakes of
history. If we want to form new communities, then it’s imperative that we don’t make the same
mistakes of dividing our people. The more we divide, the weaker we become.

I think that’s the beauty of the radqueer community. Much in the same way that the then-LGB
community welcomed transgender people, radqueers promote coming together over our
differences. Maybe someone attracted to children doesn’t have anything in common with
someone who’s transrace, other than not being welcome in the mainstream queer scene, but by
forming community, we’re creating safety nets and making a real change.

Many think that being online is “safer” than doing stuff in-person, but is that really true? It’s true
that it can dangerous to go out and meet other MAPs, especially in places that aren’t liberal cities,
but is never taking that risk any safer? By staying online, all we’re doing is making ourselves
lonelier. Sure, we have online community, but that community can’t give us a hug when we’re
feeling sad. It can’t give us a place to stay when we lose our homes. Even if the internet feels
“safer” than going out and taking a risk, it isn’t really.

Online communities can only get us so far. They’re susceptible to censorship, fascist-spying, and
attacks by anonymous antis, and they reinforce the idea that staying where it’s “safe” is going to
get us somewhere.

The internet can never be where our movement stays, it must go in-person if
we want to overcome getting banned and doxxed, and doing so will give us a platform where the
world can’t ignore us and will know that we exist. The internet is helpful though, and we shoulduse it for all the help we can get out of it, but it’s not the real solution, just a tool to help us get
there.
And on the supposed risk of going out and meeting people in-person, this doesn’t go for everyone,
but I’ve done many, many meetups and never encountered cops or vigilantes or anyone. Sure,
they exist, but with the right precautions taken the chance of encountering them goes down.
Precautions such as not giving away personal info, meeting somewhere public, and not doing
meetups for the intention of breaking the law (which is how most stings happen).

So I can’t speak for everyone, but the supposed “risk” behind going out there and forming
community hasn’t hurt me much. On the contrary, the benefits it provided has been life-changing.
But don’t just take my word for it! I used to run Beyond the Plus, an organization for promoting
community for Washington state radqueers, so I’ve seen how it changes people to meet others like
them. We all live lives where we have to pretend to be people we’re not, but when we gain the
ability to take that mask off, it’s freeing in a way that’s indescribable.

These days I don’t run Bt+ anymore, but I still go out and meet people, and I’m still managing to
change lives for the better. But Seattle isn’t the only place where people need community, they
need it all around the world. This is where you come in.

Many people in this community want to make a difference but don’t know how. Well nothing is as
important right now as organizing our people. Find others like you, bring them together in real,
in-person communities. If that’s not your speed, then utilize your unique talents to help do that.
Reproduce this magazine, put up fliers advertising radqueer online spaces, advocate for radqueers
online, etc.

It may seem like you’re not going to make a difference, but remember, there are a lot of us. If
about 1 in 20 people are MAPs, then that means a city the size of Seattle has around 40,000 of us! That, plus zoophiles, people with transids, and queer folks who are allies to the radqueer cause
show that there are truly many of us here, either hiding in the shadows, or unaware that radqueer
exists. The more public we make the radqueer movement, the more people we’ll have in our
communities. So showing light to the existence of radqueer is a great way to help the cause.

When the Stonewall riots happened, queer people banded together to literally fight for their rights.
The time will come when we make the same decision, but much like back then, we’ll only have
the power to do that once we form community. I know many people in this community are scared,
but community is a backbone, a safety net that’ll protect you. If you get doxxed, or fired, someone
can take you in. By staying online and being lonely, we’re only making ourselves more
susceptible to being attacked.

So let’s start over. Let’s build a new queer community, one that is inclusive of everyone, MAPs
included. This time around we won’t add letters one by one to the acronym of who is and isn’t
valid in their queer identity. No, this time we’ll form a movement that’s inclusive of everyone
from the start and excludes no one.

It’s a risk, but it’s one that we have to take if we want something to change. They say that if you
don’t make a change, then no one will, but that’s not true. If you don’t make a change, someone
will, but they’ll just make things worse! Every second that we don’t stand up for ourselves is a
second that youth and MAPs around the world are being discriminated against. We can’t just sit
back as laws against people like us are passed, we have to make a change. For those of us who try,
we’ll get pushed, but that’s why we need community, to catch us for when we fall.

So that’s why me must take these risks. Hopefully this has presented a good case for why
community is so important. The radqueer community may be new, but that doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t try our damnedest to make it real.Adventure is out there, go find it.
– Ally K <3

*For those unaware, “radqueer” is an identity/movement for accepting paraphiles (such as MAPs
and zoophiles) and people with transidentities (such as otherkin and transage) as being queer,
among other things.