The Queer Cannabis Club is a consortium of LGTBQ+ owned and operated businesses in the cannabis industry.
WE HAVE TWO GOALS…
1) TO CREATE A QUEER COMMUNITY THAT IS LACKING IN OUR INDUSTRY.
2) TO BRING TOGETHER ARTISTS, CREATORS, ENTREPRENEURS, BON VIVANTS, ICONOCLASTS AND ANYONE ELSE KEEN TO EXPAND HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.
Founded by Farnsworth Fine Cannabis (Great Barrington, MA) in partnership with CANN Social Tonics (Los Angeles) and Different Leaf, a journal of cannabis culture, we are out, proud and puffing.
Email: qcc@farnsworthfinecannabis.com.
PRESS:
Forbes Magazine: “Introducing The Queer Cannabis Club: The Industry’s First LGBTQ-Led Consortium”
READING:
“The Great Marijuana Hoax” by Allen Ginsberg
A Queer History of California’s Medical Marijuana Movement, Merry Jane
It is a fraught, frustrating, fascinating and fabulous time to be queer.
Cannabis and the queer community have long been familiar, albeit somewhat estranged for the last three decades. It was, after all, a San Francisco gay man named Dennis Peron who led the modern legalization movement after his partner died of AIDs-related complications in 1990.
Peron became a cannabis activist after a home raid landed him in jail for possession with intent to sell. While Peron had sold his fair share in the past, this particular supply of marijuana belonged to his boyfriend Jonathon who was using it to ease symptoms of late-stage AIDs. Six years later, in 1996, Peron co-wrote and helped pass Proposition 215, allowing patients throughout the state of California to use marijuana for medical purposes.
30 years on, legalization for both cannabis and queer rights, march forward if not in step, then on paths pointed to a similar destiny. And what is this destiny, exactly? That is what the Queer Cannabis Club hopes to find out.
What Is It to be Queer in the New Cannabis Capitalism?
The cannabis industry is as well-intentioned a community of entrepreneurs as you will find, a community that is nonetheless shaped by market forces, government regulations, supply chain quagmires, marketing and financial gymnastics, horrifying tax codes, structural bias and bad graphics. What will emerge from the chaos? Will there be a rainbow after the storm?
By god, there better be. The queer identity, no matter how co-opted or corporatized, homogenized or persecuted, remains a radical act. Don’t believe the hype. Gay people cannot actually make more gay people. We are re-born everyday in every town and village at complete random. And while we cannot make more gay people, we can make space for them to live and love and organize.
Can an American corporation actually participate in this? Where are the lines between empowerment, well intentioned, but empty gestures and just plain cynical pandering? Dr. Cornell West argues that, “spiritual and moral greatness have nothing to do with skin pigmentation, gender, sexual orientation, or national identity. They have to do with human beings making choices in the name of love and justice, not hatred and revenge.” Let’s try, at the very least, to be proud of the choices we make.
Worlds collided as the Farnsworth Team launched the Queer Cannabis Club in the chaos of Gay Ski Week, X Games, and a ski town that just won’t stop.
We’re in the elevator when an athletically- built man enters chatting on the phone about the “speed of the course.” On a hunch we ask, “Competing in X Games?”
He responds cheerfully, “Yup. Snowboard Slopestyle.”
Before we can say, “break a leg,” the doors open again and a drag queen in hot pink spandex sashays in. We all exchange knowing glances that communicate something to the effect of, “oh, Aspen,” before exiting into the disco-chaos of full-tilt après.
Oh, Aspen Indeed
It was into this frothy, frozen mix that the Farnsworth Fine Cannabis team spent a week on and off the slopes hosting the inaugural meeting of the Queer Cannabis Club. We kicked off the week at a special viewing of Andy Warhol: Lifetimes at the Aspen Art Museum and over the course of the next few days made friends on the gondola, danced with OnlyFans models at the Caribou Club, got drenched in champagne at Cloud Nine, closed down Escobar’s
We went shirtless at the White Party, pretended not to be sticker-shocked at Cache Cache, nor star struck by Orlando and Katy, sipped Montrachet at the new Sterling Club, took in the Tom Sachs at Baldwin Gallery, browsed endless cashmere and crystals, worked reconnaissance at the dispensaries, and lastly, debated various high-minded ambitions at a West End house party hosted by our Queer Cannabis partners, CANN … and all the while hosting in our hotel room we nicknamed, The Hummingbird Suite.
Part of a Legacy
Aspen has long been a leader in gay rights and it was an honor to attend their 45th year of Gay Ski Week. Really, the best part of the trip was getting to be out and proud, as a family and as a business. It’s critical for us to be visible and forge community, especially outside of a major city — and especially in cannabis.
The Berkshires share a lot with Aspen. They’re both escapes from urban life, but also independent and self-sufficient communities. They both cherish a beautiful vista as much as a beautiful symphony. They both have long and storied histories filled with ups and downs, zigs and zags. They both are a fine place for a Farnsworth. Until then see you in the shop and on the slopes!