What It Means to Be Safe, Seen & Free in Queer Spaces
- Radha Hilery
- Jun 5
- 4 min read
A reflection on trauma, embodiment, chosen family, and the healing power of places like Stargaze Festival
There’s something sacred about a space where you don’t have to look over your shoulder.
Where no one asks you to explain who you are. Where your gender, your softness, your loudness, your messiness, your magic — all of it — is welcomed. Celebrated. Revered.
For many queer folks, this kind of space is a dream we were never handed — one we’ve had to build for ourselves, piece by piece, through chosen family, whispered affirmations, and radical joy.
Stargaze Festival is one of those spaces. And in a world that often asks us to conform, to shrink, to stay silent, or play it safe, Stargaze dares to ask a different question:
“What would it feel like to be safe, seen, and free — all at once?”
🛡️ SAFE: Beyond Survival
Safety is not a given for queer bodies.
Many of us carry a nervous system shaped by microaggressions, rejection, and the sting of conditional love. We’ve learned to mask our truth. To scan the room. To ask, “Will I be safe here?” before we exhale.
At Stargaze, safety is not a buzzword. It’s a sacred commitment. It’s in the careful curation of who we invite into our spaces.
It’s knowing you can walk around in glitter or overalls, alone or hand-in-hand, and not just feel tolerated — but fully honored.
Because here, your body belongs. Your emotions belong. You belong. You get to show up as your true authentic self without judgment.
👁️ SEEN: A Mirror & A Witness
To be seen is one of the deepest human needs — and one of the things queer folks are most often denied.
To be seen is not the same as being looked at. It is not performance. It is being witnessed in your wholeness. Not just the parts that make others comfortable.
At Stargaze, we see you when:
You show up to a dance party in a self-made costume that took you months to create.
You speak your truth in a story circle and someone nods with tears in their eyes.
You take a break mid-day to cry by the lake, and someone sits beside you without needing you to explain.
This is where chosen family begins — not with bloodlines, but with soul recognition. It’s the knowing look, the shared laugh, the “me too” that reaches through time and says, “I’ve walked this path too.”
🕊️ FREE: Reclaiming Joy, Pleasure & Play
Freedom is more than legal rights. It’s the ability to be in your body without shame. To move, dance, express, cry, flirt, rest — without fear of being punished, ridiculed, or harmed.
To be queer and free is a radical act. And Stargaze is built for that liberation.
It’s in the barefoot forest dance floors, the glitter rituals, the body painting glow party, the gender-euphoric drag shows, skinny dipping in the lake, and the silent discos under the moon. It’s in saying “yes” when you mean yes. And “no” when you mean no. It’s in choosing rest over pressure. Play over perfection.
There are no expectations here. You don’t have to do it all. You just have to do what’s true for you.
💗 Trauma Lives in the Body. So Does Healing.
We talk a lot about joy at Stargaze. But what we’re really doing is reclaiming our nervous systems.
In a world that’s wired us to brace for impact, festivals like this offer an embodied rewrite. Here, healing isn’t forced — it’s invited. Through:
Somatic workshops that help you feel safe in your skin
Dance as release
Community as medicine
Nature as witness
Each moment becomes an opportunity to return — not just to yourself, but to a version of yourself before the world told you to hide.
🌲 A Chosen Family Reunion
More than anything, Stargaze is a coming home.
It’s a home where no one asks you to be anything other than real. Where “too much” becomes “just right.” Where love is loud and healing is communal. Where you can hold someone’s hand for the first time — or the first time in years — and know you're safe.
🌀 So What Does It Mean to Be Safe, Seen & Free?
It means being surrounded by people who reflect your light and hold space for your shadows. It means your body unclenching for the first time in a long time. It means tears on the dance floor and laughter in the bathhouse and a stranger who feels like a sister. It means being held by the earth and the sky and your community all at once.
It means belonging — not because you fit in, but because you finally don’t have to.
🎟️ If your soul is whispering “yes,” trust it. Join us at Stargaze Festival, August 22–24, 2025 — where you are safe, seen, and free.
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