Why do queer people use drugs? And what does this consumption reveal about queer life realities, agency and shaping the world? On this evening full of critical perspectives and stimulating discussions, the Gay Museum invites you to the event “Queer Psychoactivity: Switching Frameworks” with Prof. Kane Race (University of Sydney) and Dr. Fay Dennis (Goldsmiths, University of London).

The starting point is a keynote speech by Prof. Race, whose concept of disinhibition challenges established medical and psychological explanations of queer drug use. Instead of pathologizing readings – such as self-medication as a reaction to marginalization – Race brings another dimension to the fore: drug use as a conscious, creative interruption of heteronormative orders. Substances are not understood here as a means of escape, but rather as tools with which queer people open up spaces for intimacy, joy, desire, dance, tenderness and other “small offenses” – with the potential to test alternative worlds and self-relationships.

However, the concept of disinhibition also remains ambivalent. Race critically discusses how it can reactivate deeply rooted binary thought patterns (reason vs. intoxication, order vs. chaos, control vs. loss of control) and unintentionally support the stereotypical image of “irresponsible” drug users. In his keynote, he therefore asks: What other frameworks and concepts do we need to understand queer psychoactive practices – beyond pathologization and liberation rhetoric? How could aesthetic, relational or processual perspectives open up new ways of looking at queer subjectivity?

Following the lecture, Prof. Race will enter into a dialog with Dr. Fay Dennis, who has developed her own critical approaches in her research on drugs, bodies and queer experiences. Together they will open up a conversation about drugs as methods of being queer – and about the changing frames of thought that such methods enable.

The event will be held in English spoken language. Admission: free

A cooperation between the DFG-funded project „PrEPped Intimacies in Berlin“ (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin) and the Schwules Museum.