For me, queerness and contemplation or the contemplative path are just such a natural union… the Christian contemplative tradition began with a lot of weirdness in third and fourth century deserts. — Cassidy Hall
Debonee and Skye have a joyful and insightful conversation with Cassidy Hall, author of Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality, invoking Alan Watts, Pamela Lightsey, Ram Dass, Lerita Coleman Brown, Richard Rohr, Cody Sanders, Grant Morrison, and The Book of Common Prayer.
Along the way we discuss the uses and limitations of labels, the evolution of the word “queer” from its Scottish origins to use as a slur to the reclamation of it in recent years, the relationship between definitions and cultures of domination, the history of HIV activism (incidentally, the phrase “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” dates back to about 1990), and the “answerless questions” that the contemplative tradition beautifully embodies.
Queerness belongs to all of us… There is something unique, odd, strange, oblique about all of us. — Cassidy Hall
