ABOUT QMF

Art by Noah Grigni

Queer Mushroom Forest is a community effort to share and create resources for gender expansive folks. The topics are sexual wellness, body positivity and self-determination. We gather clothing suggestions, DIY solutions, sex toys and prosthesis reviews, link to small queer shops and makers, while promoting body diversity and acceptance. Content warnings will always inform you at which point graphic and sensitive content starts.

​"We live impossible lives. Miracles are not exceptional; they are everywhere. In order for me to be here writing this to you now, for you to be here reading it, a billion things had to go right and a billion things wrong. This was not supposed to happen. And it is. We are not supposed to happen. And we do. If that's not a testament to the gruesome charm of being alive and meaning it, I'm not sure what is."
By poet Alok
WHO IS WORKING AT THE PROJECT CURRENTLY?​
KAOS NEST (MUSH)
Mx. | any pronouns

Anti-speciesist mad trans person. Artisan and illustrator with the dream of a future queer commune. Creator of the project, works on website, writes and draws. Local transbassador.
SANT'ARMA
She/her

Translator, printer and designer, partner in crime, printing zines and stickers at her LunaLab Shop.
Hosts a creative neuroqueer space where to hang out and work together.
ALL OF YOU
Who are gathering online and offline, sharing, sending resources, supporting and cheering us!
WEBSITE STATUS
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Project launched on Trans Day of Visibility, 31th March 2021. The website is a work in progress: little by little we are going to add resources, links, new comics and illustrated guides. If you wish to contribute to the project or join, please contact us via mail using the form in the English Home.
LANGUAGE AND ARTISTIC CHOICES
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Pages and guides are written in italian and in english. Language tries to be neutral as much as possible, to better encompass all the experiences and identities without separating them when it's not necessary, or naming all of them each time.
Words will be written in their complete forms because we believe in the familiarization of our bodies and experiences. The only exceptions will be medical terms that are unnecessary and stigmatizing, or don't reflect the lived reality of people. We apologize if that can end to be distressful or confusing to some, and we encourage to be contacted about improving the language with suggestions.

WHY QUEER?

[insert new text]

Mush has always been singled out as weird, bizarre, dangerous when not performing learnt gender roles. Queer was a vague enough word to describe both the dread and the joy of never being at home. They found later the resonating words of Bell Hooks: "…all of our lives we have experienced ourselves as queer, as not belonging, as the essence of queer… queer not as being about who you’re having sex with (that can be a dimension of it) but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live."
picture of Bell Hooks

WHY MUSHROOMS?

Stylistic choice, ​inspired by Queer Theory for Lichens and The Science underground: Mycology as Queer Discipline:
"Fungi are often seen as poisonous, agents of disease, degenerate, deadly, freaky, gross, and weird - language historically leveled against both queer and disabled people - and as having no positive interrelationships with their environment" and we know that's far from the truth. Mycelia are vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Mushrooms are super interesting and fit the project quite well! They have thousands of sexes and while they might be the most familiar part of a fungus, most of their bodies are made up of a mass of thin threads, known as a mycelium. Mycelium are incredibly tiny “threads” of the greater fungal organism that wrap around or bore into tree roots. Taken together, myecelium composes what’s called a mycorrhizal network, which connects individual plants together to transfer nutrients and info.

Art by Jamie Green​