OFM culture
Psyched for Queer Healing
by Addison Herron-Wheeler
T
oday, it isn’t uncommon for people to speak of psychedelics in a positive light. Denver has decriminalized magic mushrooms, and the impacts of MDMA and psilocybin mushrooms on depression, anxiety, and PTSD are being explored. But this wasn’t always the case. Following the initial boom in psychedelics curiosities, a time when Timothy Leary spoke up about the powers of consciousness expansion and even The Beatles sung its praises, there was an almost-immediate backlash from those who were nervous about consciousness expansion. Falling in line with the rest of the war on drugs in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s, the reaction fit in with the racially fueled hate against cannabis and the xenophobic attitude toward substances accepted in other cultures. Now, as we collectively start to unpack colonization and the war on drugs, it is time also to unpack the stigmas against psychedelics. “Psychedelics are being researched right now at universities and various institutions all around the world, and MDMA and psilocybin have been given what’s called breakthrough therapy status with the FDA, which means that they’ve been put on the fast track to be approved by the federal government as prescription medications,” explains Shelby Hartman, editor and co-founder of DoubleBlind Mag, a publication that covers all things psychedelic.
Now, there is a universal realization happening across academia, science, and medicine that, while certainly, mindexpanding drugs can be dangerous to experiment with in some cases, and without regulation, they can also offer a lot in terms of therapy and relief. Among those who need these mental health resources are people in the queer community.
“One of the things that advocates are most hoping to see is a large chunk of federal funding being allocated to support psychedelic research for two reasons: one, because research is really expensive, and two, because if the money comes from the government, then it’s also a signal of the federal government’s interest in at least exploring the potential of these medicines therapeutically.”
“Even when folks who are in historically marginalized communities do have resources for mental health, a lot of times, they just feel misrepresented or unseen,” Hartman continues. “We need to be recruiting queer therapists and therapists of color to administer these medicines when they do go to market. It’s not as simple as just, ‘Psychedelics should be given to marginalized communities.’ It’s also about
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