English Out On The Land (OOTL) is where Land Workers’ Alliance LGBTQIA+ folx come together to build solidarity, to network and connect, and raise the voices of queer and trans landworkers. We do this in order to reduce isolation, challenge cis-het-normativity and to create spaces for queer and trans joy. We are an unabashedly queer and trans positive group, led by queer and trans people, and celebrate all the beautiful ways we can be Out On The Land!
How we organise: We are a small volunteer-led organizing team. We meet online on the 2nd Monday of the month for an hour & in between on Discord. If you are an LGBTQIA+ LWA member and want to organize with us, you are welcome to get involved. Please read our Values (see below), and Safer Spaces Policy – if this is something you agree with, email lgbtqia@landworkersalliance.
What we do: Interested in hearing about OOTL’s opportunities, events and exciting news? Sign up for OOTL’s Newsletter– everyone is welcome – it’s currently our main way of communicating OOTL events and opportunities. It’s also how we pass along opportunities and events that may be of interest that we haven’t directly organised. We want LGBTQIA+ landy folx to be connected with as many fun and cool opportunities as possible – so if you have something we should be sharing, drop us a line!
OOTL has been involved with creating the project Cultivating Justice, in which we worked with Land In Our Names a Farmerama to produce incredible zines (find these yma, and yma) and truly amazing podcasts.
OOTL’s Values
This is a living document that represents the values that are important to us:
- We uplift all the different ways LGBTQIA+ landworkers exist and all the different contributions we bring to the movement.
- We centre the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA+ and marginalised peoples.
- We value all the different journeys that LGBTQIA+ folks are on, wherever that may be, and whatever that may look like.
- We find, bring, create and resource joyfulness and fun
- We organise from a place of mutual aid, support and sharing of resources.
- We value the diversity of our membership and work towards supporting an ever increasing diversity of this group.
- We are an unabashedly trans-positive group and actively work to fight the struggles faced by trans people in the UK today.
- We intend to create an environment in which we can all bring an awareness of the power and privilege with which we walk through the world.
- We stand in solidarity with other marginalised groups, recognising that the injustice that LGBTQIA+ folks face is a part of the same struggle and that many in our community sit at the intersection of multiple oppressions.
- We know that oppression can materialise in organising work and are committed to anti-oppressive practices.
- We are an LGBTQIA+ led group. We make our decisions collectively and work to prevent hierarchies.
- We welcome solidarity & allyship as an active mode of being.
- We aim to hold one another accountable to being better versions of ourselves, recognising that we are all learning all the time.
The LWA strives to support trans people – read about this here!
To learn more about trans landworkers we recommend these two resources, Embracing Rural Diversity a Coming Out! Gender Diversity in the Food System.
