" Queerhoven is an unapologetic, defiant, shamelessly queer safe space for anyone and everyone who belongs under the rainbow. It’s a haven for the members of the alphabet mafia with no need to disclose, try to fit in, or be anyone other than your unapologetic self "
By stepping into a Queerhoven space - you vow to keep the community safe with:
Acceptance: you’re home. No need to be anyone else than yourself, bringing your authentic self is a way to ensure the community stays healthy and thriving.
Thoughtfulness: be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud! This must stay a safe space for every member of our community, treating the space and the people within it with kindness, respect and consideration is a key component for it.
Mindfulness: we’re only as safe as every member of our community. Everyone has different boundaries and we welcome everyone to communicate them. Make sure to be mindful around slippery conversation topics such as alcohol/drugs abuse, dysphoria, trauma, mental health, and so on. By staying aware of the situation we’re in, we can notice someone in distress or boundaries being crossed: feel free to speak up or alert an organizing member if you witness or experience anything unpleasant.
Inclusivity: use gender-inclusive language, make sure to hold space for those of us who might be less confident or have issues communicating, and overall make everyone who belongs in Queerhoven, feel at home too.
Being a part of Queerhoven means you will refrain from:
Assuming people’s genders, sexual orientation or anything else: that’s a hard no. It makes people uncomfortable and lets the ordinarity of cis-straight-normative reality seep into our queer safe space. In a nutshell, instead of assuming, ask kindly and with respect.
Bigotry: homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, racisms, ableism, ageism, sexism, body-shaming, and hatefulness of any sort will not be tolerated.
Non-consensual actions: unwelcome physical touch and sexual attention, photographing or recording without consent, outing anyone… any form of non-consent is considered unsafe within our space and will not be tolerated.
Minimizing anyone’s experience or diminishing their right and place to exist within the Queerhoven community.
Microaggressions: this one can be a tough one as we’re not expecting you to be aware that you might be doing it. However, be mindful of how you’re approaching the other members of the community, and do not take offense when someone points out an area you might be lacking on at the moment. Instead, treat this as a learning moment.
General harmful behavior: trauma dumping, littering of the space, trolling, tone policing, victim blaming, intimidation, disrespect… Please, just act right.
Please Note: The intention of your behavior is not as important as the impact. No discussion is to be had about how your behavior was meant. What matters is how it makes our community members feel. Please just respect that if one of the participants is hurt by your behavior, it is your responsibility to change it or leave.
If you think you might have difficulty understanding or following this code of conduct which applies to our online spaces, events, and the general community, please let us know before the start of the event so that we can help you.
When Something Happens
If you see a Code of Conduct violation, you can follow these steps:
If you can, let the person know that what they did is not appropriate and ask them to stop and/or rectify their behavior.
That person should immediately stop the behavior and correct the issue. If this doesn’t happen, or if you’re uncomfortable speaking up, contact an organizer.
As soon as possible, an organizer will take action, starting with making the situation safer. Conciliation and understanding are preferred over conflict, but the utmost priority is ensuring the safety of the community.
The organizers prioritize the well-being and comfort of those affected negatively by the violation over the comfort of the violator.
Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior:
Unacceptable behavior from any community member, whether online or in person, including organizers will not be tolerated. Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to stop immediately.
If a community member engages in unacceptable behavior, the community organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including a temporary ban or permanent expulsion from the community without warning (and without refund in the case of a paid event). Queerhoven organizers may choose to identify violators of our code of conduct to other local queer groups as to keep our local community safe. We may also choose to share that harassing or abusive content within or outside of Queerhoven channels if we feel it is best for the safety of the community.
Examples of things we can do:
listen to you in a private space
talk to the others involved
ask for an apology
give a warning
ask them to leave you alone
require them to not be where you are
exclude them from the rest of the event
exclude them from future events
If you feel you have been falsely or unfairly accused of violating this Code of Conduct, you should notify one of the organizers via direct message with a concise description of your grievance. Your grievance will be handled in accordance with our existing governing policies.
This code of conduct applies to Queerhoven spaces, but if you are being harassed or have been harassed by a member of Queerhoven outside our spaces, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by Queerhoven members seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. We reserve the right to exclude people from Queerhoven based on their past behavior, including behavior outside Queerhoven spaces and behavior towards people who are not a part of Queerhoven.
In order to protect organizers and members from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be disregarded.
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
lNSPIRATION & CREDITS:
https://www.equality-network.org/code-of-conduct
https://queerdesign.club/code-of-conduct
https://nycsaferspaces.com/code-of-conduct
https://www.instagram.com/spielraum_amsterdam
Big thanks to all the creators of safe spaces who came before us and allowed us to use their hard work and ideas. If you wish to use Queerhoven code of conduct as a starting point for your own safe space regulation, feel free to!