The Mercury‘s annual Queer Issue debuts this June, so that means issue editor Stephen Marc Beaudoin has already doled out the article assignments, ordering each writer to cover a different part of Portland’s queer subcultures. For me, Beaudoin saved a special assignment: the Radical Faeries.

I had never heard of the radical faeries. In fact, in response to Beaudoin’s autocratic assignment email, I asked, “Do you know if these fairies have any gatherings or hippie dances coming up or anything?” and Beaudoin replied, “FAERIES.” Right. So. I perused their Wikipedia entry to discover they’re a mostly-male group of spirituality-seeking queers who do pagan-like rituals out at hot springs and communes while also engaging in discussion groups called “heart circles.” Apparently, they’re really big in Portland. Who would have thought, right? Anyway, all of this deep research brought me to Portland’s Three Friend’s Coffeehouse on a Saturday afternoon, in search of a rumored faerie coffee hour.

I was a little afraid I wouldn’t be able to find the faeries, but as soon as I opened the door to Three Friends, there they were: thirty or so chatty men, drinking coffee, holding hands and overflowing the coffeeshop’s sofas.

I sat down next to an older guy with a Hulk Hogan mustache.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Sarah.”
“Nice to meet you!” he replied, shaking my hand. “I’m Leo Starfucker Sunshine!”

Starfucker Sunshine explained that he received his name after that one time when a ray of sunshine gave him an erection. The conversation only got better from there.

To top off the afternoon, I also met a faerie who does Beyonce-themed drag under the name Feyonce. Video here.

Much more than you ever wanted to know about the Radical Faeries and other LGBT Portland subcultures this June in the Queer Issue!

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

14 replies on “Field Report from the Queer Issue: Radical Faeries.”

  2. Having left the faerie haven of Portland, two and a half years ago, for the (other) sunshine and work opportunities in Dallas, Texas… I cannot tell you how my heart sighed to read Sarah’s Field Report.

    My partner Faun and I helped start a Saturday Faerie Coffee in Dallas, to spread the cheer, but here in the buckle of the Bible Belt, there is still much faerie magick to be done.

    But, I wanted to say that it was refreshing to hear that Leo Starfucker Sunshine has lost none of his luster. Leo was the second or third Faerie that I met when I first encountered Faedom, and will always cherish my time in PDX and the relationships I developed there.

    Thanks again, Clay Henderson – Dallas, Texas

  3. As a former employee of th’ Troika, I’d like to go on record as saying that these are some of the most annoying people I’ve met in my life.

  4. Having grown up dealing with the queer-pagan community, RB has the right idea.

    Also, anyone spelling the word ‘magic’ with an extra ‘k’ needs to stop right away. It’s dumb. Really dumb. And don’t drop that that Crowley differentiation crap on me. Dumb.

  5. Oh my stars! Is THIS what passes for “journalism” these days? I would never think of my facial hair as a “Hulk Hogan mustache” and at age 43 I think I fall firmly into the middle of the Radical Faerie age demographic! Also, I clearly told that lovely reporter that I got JUST my MIDDLE name from the time that the sun gave me an erection. I was simply “Leo Sunshine” LONG before that particular erection happened. And as for that little local band formerly known as “Starfucker”; I was known as Leo “Starfucker” Sunshine long before they warbled their way into Portland’s psyche. Oh well, at least that lovely little reporter Sarah Mirk presents me in a gracious, polite, and kind light. It’s not like she just casually mentioned me as some copycat poseur drag artist with a link to a soundless video….

    As for the previous comments, I personally have never been to Troika. By no means are all queer-pagans Radical Faeries, nor are all Radical Faeries queer pagans. I consider myself to be more of a “Gnostic Christian Cock Sucking Yoni Worshipper.” Faeries are open to people of all belief systems and if you ask a dozen Faeries to define what a Faerie is, you’re sure to get at least 20 responses…..

    I can’t WAIT to read the whole article!

  7. As an occasional customer of “the Troika” (Three Friends Coffeehouse), I’ll say in return to “Rich Bachelor” above that 3F has some of the filthiest, most disgusting restrooms I have ever seen, no doubt thanks to the efforts of employees just like you. You get what you give, dear …

  9. That looks exactly like a Hulk Hogan moustache, Mr. LSS.

    Your self-description notwithstanding (though it seems to qualify squarely as pagan), I’m surprised not all Radical Faeries would consider themselves queer pagan.

    An ex of mine was a bisexual pagan Faerie. I was dragged to ritual gatherings. Certainly not the worst crowd in the world, yet these were almost unbearable to attend. For me, that is. I disliked the posturing, the body odor and rampant pubic hair. I met lots of people. Then met the same people again, and again, and again. Not a single one was able to draw outward from their flighty nonsense world to remember meeting the same “normy” week after week after week.

    Btw, my middle name is “Ice Balls” cuz I once got a boner during a hail storm.

  10. what a snarky, dismissive, shallow, bigoted, uninformed and uninformative, little piece of gutter-sniping. entertaining as a car wreck or a football game, with it’s commentary and scorekeeping for those who can’t count (and who can, these days?)

    Apparently the assignment wasn’t up to our author’s whining skills, honed as they are by the writing of . . . what is it she has won awards for? oh, nothing? -hard to believe isn’t it –

    The Radical Faeries might not be the center of the mental universe they might like to think they should be, but as far as i know, and i know pretty far, they don’t really cast such aspersions, at least in public, upon closed and small-minded nobodies, as our author seems so willing to indulge herself in like bubble-bath and cold duck.
    And even while the Faeries work on their own self-worth rather more than their radicalness, perhaps they don’t spend nearly enough time cutting down the fools out there who think only their own flavour of saccharine and mapleine is as god wills it – Some just don’t see the satire of Drag, preferring instead the ‘fantasy princess’ rather than a sword wrapped in silk. Well, there is just no accounting for taste – if there were, we’d have some self-control rather than Dream Whip, et al, wouldn’t we.

    I do hate to put down a whole city (so I won’t) for one little voice such as our author’s, but my experience here leads me to believe her to be a good fit for waaay too many in this little town – and that is really too bad – Portland as a modern backwater metropolis, the sheen of growth like pond-scum on black-water – maybe those redneck hate mongers really do have a future and welcoming home here – can’t wait for that boot on my neck too- oooo, licky licky

    thanks, author, for a really well researched, deeply thoughtful and thought provoking toss-off article – some writers really do reveal more about themselves than they do of their subject, and to be seen as so ungenerous is not really the accomplishment i would have gone for – but then i have an education, one that i sought and cherish, and occasionally flaunt, and i’ve always found more interest in difference, rather than felt threatened by it, and although i know well the feeling of “some things are just beneath me”, as this response surely is, (so i had someone else write it for me, and i just approved it)- so talk to your editor, whine some more, and maybe someday you’ll have that job and the paper will be even more worth burning, i mean recycling, before reading.

    OMG can i wait for the whole article to appear

  11. Iolo,
    This is not the article, this is the blog post about the upcoming article. Nothing in it indicates harsh prejudgments, merely (some accurate) pre-conceptions about group norms.

    To imply it could foster a culture of hate/violence against Faeries/you is misguided and in very poor taste. In fact, it casts greater aspersions on the group than anything said here or to be written in Sarah’s article.

    Your letter is reactionary, childish and defensive. Want a lesson on how to quell preconceptions with some maturity, character and class? Check the Cabaret thread. Those ladies worked the room.

  12. it might not be the article, but it is an article, and nothing in it indicates anything more than distaste- for the assignment, for the editor, and really for the effort she has sorta tried to put into it-

    some accuracy, eh?

    your over-reading hardly correctly places me, but it’s nice to know i got under your skin – tight in there isn’t it

    i did look for some ‘cabaret thread’, perhaps if you could to be more specific . . .
    i might be able to either lampoon or recommend that too

    btw how did you manage such a close look at the pubic hair
    -and how ashamed of yours are you?

    just wanting to know

  13. @Iolo: Holy Christ, get a grip on yourself!!!

    @Sarah: How nice of you to inquire! I refer to my mustache as a “Horstchu” which is a variation of the horseshoe and the fu-man-chu as worn by a man named Horste. You seem like a nice reporter and I’m glad I gave you something worth reporting. I look forward to your article and hope your brief interaction with just a few members of our community was illuminating.

    @two squatting women: It’s easy to just classify the Faeries as “Pagan” but apart from a belief in some degree of subject-Subject consciousness and an appreciation for Heart Circles (with token to serious casting and releasing thereof), there really isn’t any “Faerie Ritual Dogma”. Many would probably identify as “Spiritual, not religous” even when it comes to Paganism. We’re a pretty self identifying and disparate group. BTW, I LOVE your middle name.

    @Iolo: Jesus MARY, get a grip on yourself!!! I actually talked to Sarah, the reporter, and she was nice and gave me her card. I told her the story about my name as soon as she told me she was a reporter cause I wanted to give the young lady something fun to write about and guarantee that I got my name in the paper! It seems to have worked!

  14. To P.B.H.P.D.: That was “former” employee, there, sweetpants. It’s been eight fucking years. Reading comprehension is your friend.

Comments are closed.