Last week, I spent an afternoon working from a brewpub on Mt. Hood. Today, I’m in Silverton, OR, about to go for a hike at Silver Falls State Park. It’s all part of my three-week trip back to Portland where I’m visiting some of my old hangouts and catching up with friends.

For me, being location-independent isn’t about traveling to the most glamorous places — although Oregon is pretty impressive — but about having the flexibility to spend time with the people I care about. Even if that means tagging along in the passenger seat while my best friend drives to work all over the state.

Two guys in warm clothes standing on a gravel roadside in front of a snow-covered mountain.

I love that when I get up every morning, I have no idea where the day will take me. Last night, another friend and I made it to Closet Cases, a queer comedy event held the first Sunday of every month by the Fuse Theater Ensemble.

I’ll be in town for another week, probably hanging out at Skyhook, a queer-friendly bouldering gym and coworking space. If you’re around, let me know if you want to meet up for coffee or go climbing together!

7 Queer-Friendly Online Communities

Last week, we wrote about seven online communities for remote workers, digital nomads, and other content creators trying to make a living in this weird economy. There’s a forum for multipotentialites (people with many interests), a Slack group for indie journalists, and a Playhouse for online service providers.

Most importantly, they’re all LGBTQ-friendly and run by queer creators and/or allies. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the list here!

7 Queer-Friendly Online Communities for Remote Workers and Content Creators
Let’s face it: remote work can be lonely, especially if you don’t have any colleagues in your area to meet up with. It can be even harder for freelancers, who don’t have a go-to Slack channel or Discord server to have a running chat with co-workers. And
Remote QueerRemote Queer

Our New Bookshop

I just finished reading What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis by Malcolm Harris, and I can’t wait to start Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane.

I thought it would be a good idea to collect some of my recent favorites into an online storefront at Bookshop.org. Some of these are books by LGBTQ+ writers, while others explore topics that are relevant to the queer community, including passport privilege, environmentalism, and the tragedy of heterosexuality.

Bookshop.org is an independently-run online bookseller that makes for an ethical alternative to Amazon, and we get a small percentage of each purchase — helping us keep this site running so we dan write more newsletters like this one.

Check out our recommendations below:

An image of an online bookshop featuring several book covers, a purple background, and the Remote Queer logo of a purple palm tree.

And a Question for You….

As we work on growing this community, we want to know which of our efforts will have the most impact on our readers. With that in mind:

What type of resource would be the most helpful to you? (Feel free to click multiple links to record your vote):

Remember, if you like what we do, you can become a paid supporter or buy me a coffee. As always, thanks for being along for the ride!

The RQ Team