Through work connecting with 2SLGTBQIA+ farmers, farm workers, ag enthusiasts, homesteaders and land stewards, EFAO has discovered there may be more cool queer pals living in rural spaces than one might think. As folks with identities, genders, families and relationships that don’t fit into binary, heteronormative categories, the move to the country can be complicated.

This event brings together panelists to speak from lived experiences as queer and gender-diverse folks who have moved rurally to pursue their farming, homesteading and land stewarding dreams. They’ll share candidly about the challenges and the beauty of queer rural life. We’ll save some time for questions, audience sharing and discussion after our panelists present.

Panelists may reflect on questions such as: How will I find a place I can afford to live? Will I be safe? Will I make friends? How do I access affirming medical care? How can I connect with community and the land?

This event aims to spotlight 2SLGTBQIA+ voices. Allies are welcome and encouraged to attend, but please consider holding onto your questions or comments until community members have had a chance to speak. You’re always welcome to follow up with EFAO staff after the event if there wasn’t time for your question or comment to be addressed.

Speakers

Maureen Bostock & Elizabeth Snyder
Elizabeth and Maureen have been together for 44 years. During that time we farmed in northwest British Columbia and since 2003 in eastern Ontario, retiring in 2017.  We grew certified organic crops, with a focus on vegetable production since we moved east. We started Queer organizing in Terrace in the 1980s and successfully won a human rights case against the City of Terrace in 2002.  We have always believed that being visible as queer people is the key to social change. Since moving to eastern Ontario we continued to organize with Elizabeth still being active with Queer Connection Lanark today.

Photo by Kat Sylvester

Krys McGuire & Connor McCollum
Krys discovered his love of growing food through the happy accident of living in a collective house with a backyard in Toronto and being underemployed for a summer. He went on to complete two seasons of internships on ecological farms before running a small farm business selling pastured pork & poultry for a half dozen years. Having shifted his focus to growing food on a personal level and ‘cultivating’ local queer community, he now co-hosts the annual Maynooth Pride Festival, alongside his partner Connor, and many other local queers and allies who pitch in to make this celebration of rural queer pride a community-building event.

Connor is a Queer Trans man living and growing food in “Gaynooth” Ontario. He moved here 17 years ago from Toronto after attending a Pride party of a couple hundred queers and allies in the middle of the woods, complete with a bagpipe-led parade around a pond and fireside Irish music session. The healing power of walking in the woods, listening to birds, feeling the seasons change, stacking wood with friends and campfire sing-a-longs sealed the deal for putting his roots down in this gay little town. For the past 3 years he and his partner Krys have been hosting the annual Pride party in Maynooth.

Jess Tong
Jess (she/they) is a first-generation, queer farmer who has familial roots in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Scarborough, ON. After studying agriculture, they worked on several farms throughout Ontario. Alongside their partner, they started and operated a small market-garden that sold at Farmers’ Markets, a Food Co-op and through a small CSA program. They have experience leasing land, growing via incubatorships as well as purchasing/stewarding (and losing) farmland. Currently, Jess works as the Land Access & Outreach Coordinator with the National Farmers Union of Ontario. They come into this work with the intention of building meaningful relationships with the land, nourishing community connections and uplifting intersectional food sovereignty movements. These intentions are grounded by the past and present work already being done by amazing communities beyond them.