Queering the Gift Economy 

Building Community in Queer Neighbourhoods

The Buy-nothing Group for my neighbourhood has over 1,800 members, all of whom live in Grandview-Woodlands, a 4.5 km area in East Vancouver with a population of slightly more than 27,000 people. This means that almost 7% of this queer-friendly neighbourhood are members of the group, which focuses on giving, asking and gratitude in a hyper-local environment. 

It's fun to see the quirky things people ask for and offer. This morning I wore a bathrobe gifted to me by a neighbour a block over I've never met, and he likely dried himself after a shower recently with a towel I gave him. Last week I ate a delicious home-made apple pie the sister of my very first girlfriend gifted from her freezer. I asked for and received a random electronic part I needed, and several contact-free pairs of nearly-new sensible footwear in my hard-to-find size. They make me happy every time I wear them. 

My neighbour two doors down is walking on a carpet I used to own, and others are using furniture or drinking from hand-crafted pottery I gifted. 

I borrowed a book from a queer acquaintance I hadn't had a chance to connect with before, and we had a socially distant catch up chat in her courtyard when I stopped by to pick it up. 

Queer Buy-Nothingers

The queers are out in force in this group – I recognize queer people I know every day. What is particularly wonderful for me is that when I wrote my last novel (about time travelling lesbians and goats) it contained a gift economy, but I'd never really experienced gift economies outside of some short term environments. Now here it is in my neighbourhood and I can see how a fully gift economy actually works and works well. You ask for what you need, and usually someone has it to give. You give what you can, and feel the pleasure of finding a good home for something you valued. It's quite miraculous. 

Queer buy-nothinger paula luther has also really appreciated the feeling of connection with neighbours “with covid, I haven't had that kind of social aspect of being around the neighbourhood, running into neighbours, but the buy nothing group has supplemented that and filled a gap that is really important to my daily existence.” luther has reconnected with a queer couple and their children she'd lost touch with through the group. The couple had been next-door neighbours but had moved away. When they'd moved back to the neighbourhood, luther hadn't been aware they were back until she found them on the buy nothing group. She has also been gifting crafting supplies to a women's patriarchy-smashing themed craft group. According to luther, the group acknowledges that “smashing the partriarchy is non-binary, and sparkles are an integral part of that”.

Fast Growing and Fabulous

Buy Nothing Groups are hyper-local, which means that the other people in the group generally live within easy walking distance. Because of the pandemic, most items are gifted without contact,  left outside our homes in places where the other person can pick them up. At least one member makes dropping off their gifts part of their daily walking practice. 

If a group gets more than about 800-1000 members, the group 'sprouts' into smaller and even more local groups by dividing the territory smaller. My own group has become so busy – it's grown from 1500-1800 members in the last three weeks, that it will be 'sprouting' shortly into two or three smaller regions. 

World-Wide Gifting Movement

The Buy-Nothing movement was started by Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller, in June 2011, inspired by Clark's encounter with a gift economy in the Himalayas while they were filming a documentary with National Geographic. The network includes over 1.5 million people in 26 countries worldwide.  Clark and Rockefeller have also written a book called The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan: Discover the Joy of Spending Less, Sharing More, and Living Generously 

Get Connected

You can locate your local buy-nothing group or find out how to start one at the organization's website. 

Written by Sophia Kelly

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