“QUEERING PSYCHEDELICS”

By: Dustyn Gulledge

The World of Wonder (WOW) gallery located smack dab in the middle of  Hollywood hosted the Chacruna Institute for a book launch last week on “Queering Psychedelics” written by researcher and psychologist, Alex Belser, co-authors Dr. Clancy Cavnar, Phd., and including founder of the Chacruna Institute, Dr. Bia Labate—-Unleashed LGBTQ was front and center to dig into all the “trippy” questions. 

The entrance to the WOW gallery dazzled with a red carpet (actually electric purple), and a matching backdrop that featured patterned logos of RuPaul’s House of Love cocktails, Chacruna, and World of Wonder. I’m not one for impromptu photo ops, but I did the gracious thing and propped my copy of “Queering Psychedelics”  with the title camera facing, suggested to the photographer we do at least three looks for a cheeky experience and Snap, snap, snap, snap. We did four, and had a laugh. 

I purchased my copy of “Queering Psychedelics” only days before on Amazon after being told I’d be covering the event. I received it hours before, and was able to skim on a subject I knew little to nothing about.  As a small town Texas boy whose sole experience with psychedelics, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, was pulling them out of cow dung, boiling them in cheap Lipton tea, and losing all touch with reality, I was…well, queerly intrigued by the notion of how something often associated with illegal drug use could be contextualized into a medical perspective.  

The Chacruna Institute’s mission statement is to “promote reciprocity in the psychedelic community, and support the protection of sacred plants and cultural traditions.” I continued on their website from my phone, legs rambling their way over to the House of Love open bar. I was presented with five different flavors, and some mock options, each with a tiny logo of RuPaul flashing that iconic smile. In an attempt to flirt, I asked the bartender which was his favorite, but he chose the least appealing to me, so I broke up with him, settled on the savory Strawberry Daiquiri, and found my place beside a ten foot Ru-Paul… cardboard cutout. My first sip was intercepted by a soothing voice that commanded the buzzy attention of the room. It was Alex Blesser, holding a smile and his book, ‘Queering Psychedelics' (high in hand). I was all ears. Bresler welcomed the guests, voiced purpose around his book, and certitude over the research and personal experience of psychedelics treating PTSD, primarily in the LGBTQ+ community. 

Following Alex Bresler, each co-author and contributor at the Chacruna Institute shared an excerpt of experience and personal research regarding the safe use of psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, biota, psilocybin mushrooms, and “other natural medicines” as a way to treat and heal different forms of PTSD, internalized homophobia, addiction, and other diagnosis often seen in the LGBTQ+ communities. “We, a hundred percent need to be thinking: how are we making psychedelic therapy accessible to people who need it the most,”  inclusivity and diversity expert Ariel Vegosen, who focuses on the concept they call “psychedelic privilege” in the book (Page 21). “Right now, so much of this is illegal, and as it legalizes, it’s going to become expensive.” 

Vegosen continued to share their research on the economic challenges queer, trans, non-binary, as well as other marginalized communities have historically been relegated from the access to these important treatments within our American healthcare system. Chacruna’s intention is to advocate for the safe accessibility to psychedelics as they inevitably become legalized and ostensibly eradicate the disproportion of socio-economic privilege around that access. 

I thanked Alex Bresler as he signed my copy of “Queering Psychedelics,” and bid him a good night.

I am always on the side of keeping an open mind and I feel most people should. This, I believe, is how we nurture the diversity of our world and begin to understand that there may be more than one way of healing. It would be challenging not to read “Queering Psychedelics'' without a slight curiosity around exploring different forms of healing trauma in the LGBTQ+ community—especially, when so many other modules have historically failed or have been misrepresented in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Are psychedelics for healing various forms of trauma that “far-out” from the realm of possibility? Unleashed says: read “Queering Psychedelics” and expand your mind. 

For more information on Chacruna, visit https://chacruna.net/

Other resources: 

https://www.worldofwonder.com/

https://www.houseoflovecocktails.com/