Editing Radical Faeries (section)

==Philosophy and ritual==
{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote="We are the equivalent of Shamans in modern culture," said Peter Soderberg, during an interview at the 1985 Pagan Spirit Gathering. "Many gay men want to be middle-class Americans. They want to be respected as human beings and they want their sexuality to be ignored. But radical faeries are willing to live on the edge. We feel there is power in our sexuality. You know there is a power there because our culture is so afraid of us."|source=[[Margot Adler]], 2006.{{sfn|Adler|2006|p=361}}}}

Hay's biographer Stuart Timmons described the Faeries as a "mixture of a political alternative, a counter-culture, and a spirituality movement."{{sfn|Timmons|1990|p=249}} Peter Hennan asserted that the Faeries contained elements of "[[Marxism]], [[feminism]], [[Modern Paganism|paganism]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] and [[New Age]] spirituality, [[anarchism]], the [[mythopoetic men's movement]], radical [[individualism]], the therapeutic culture of self-fulfillment and [[self-actualization]], [[Ecology movement|earth-based movements]] in support of [[Sustainability|sustainable]] communities, spiritual solemnity coupled with a [[camp (style)|camp]] sensibility, gay liberation and [[drag (clothing)|drag]]."<ref name=FBL>{{citation |title=Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen |first=Peter |last= Hennen |year=2008 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]}}</ref>

The Radical Faerie movement was a reaction against the social emptiness that many gay men felt was present both in the heterosexual establishment and the assimilationist gay community.{{sfn|Timmons|1990|pp=248&ndash;249}} As one Faerie commented, in his opinion mainstream gay culture was "an oppressive parody of straight culture", taking place primarily in bars and not encouraging people to "form bonds or care for each other". In contrast, the Faeries "live their sexuality in a way that is very connected to the earth."{{sfn|Adler|2006|p=358}}

[[File:Philosophie Radical Faeries.JPG|thumb|left|A Faerie banner]]
Faeries represent the first spiritual movement to be both "gay centered and gay engendered", where gayness is central to the idea, rather than in addition to, or incidental to a pre-existing spiritual tradition. The Radical Faerie exploration of the "gay spirit" is central, and that it is itself the source of spirituality, wisdom, and initiation. Mitch Walker claims that "because of its indigenous, gay-centered nature, the Radical Faerie movement pioneers a new seriousness about gayness, its depth and potential, thereby heralding a new stage in the meaning of Gay Liberation."<ref name=mitchwalker>{{citation |first=Mitch |last=Walker |title=Contradictory Views on Radical Faerie Thought |date=Fall 1997 |volume=34 |periodical=[[White Crane (magazine)|White Crane Journal]] |url=http://www.whitecranejournal.com/wc01019.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990819094144/http://whitecranejournal.com/wc01019.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1999-08-19 }}</ref>

In keeping with [[hippie]], [[neopagan]], and [[ecofeminist]] trends of the time, gatherings were held out-of-doors in natural settings.<ref name=leather_thompson>{{citation |page=282 |title=Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, And Practice |first=Mark |last=Thompson |publisher=Daedalus Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=1-881943-20-8}}</ref> To this end, distinct Radical Faerie communities have created sanctuaries that are "close to the land".<ref name=haggerty>{{citation |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofga00ghag/page/1123 1123] |title=Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia |volume=2 |first=George |last=Haggerty |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2000 |isbn=0-8153-1880-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofga00ghag/page/1123 }}</ref>