Gender Blender
All Genders Welcome ALLways
Know Your TheyStory
Mission Statement
A community committed to the formation of brave, awesome, fun, and creative spaces for trans, gender queer, gender variant, gender nonconforming, queens, kings, and all of us that are shape-shifting the gender binary. Gender Blender is committed to raising awareness, education, social justice, co-creating gender liberation, and running THE most amazing Burning Man theme camp!
In the beginning…
In 2008 Ariel Vegosen (aka: Trixie Lamonte) and Ronnie Appleseed sitting on playa dreamed up a new vision of community, exploration, love, acceptance, and radical liberation. We wanted a space to talk about gender, to process our own gender, to get others to explore, to create a safe and fun place for all people bending and blending and exploring gender. We named our vision Gender Blender and in 2009 a small group of us arrived on playa to start our new home, lives, and community.
After that burn Ronnie, Cassandra, Rae, and Etom took some time off playa for various different reasons. Ariel became incredibly committed to seeing Gender Blender thrive and exist on and off playa. Ariel turned to the Queerborhood to relocate Gender Blender and to create long-lasting bonds with other queer camps. Ariel has been in continuous leadership both on and off playa from 2009 until now. They are proud to be of on-going service to this vision. Ariel’s commitment to this project and belief in trans and nonbinary liberation and thus liberation for all people in all genders is unwavering and neverending. Ariel believes in GenderBlender and is so proud of how far this camp has come. From 2010-2014 Gender Blender teamed up with Camp Beaverton to become CBGB. Camp Beaverton is the home for wayward girls (centering the lesbian experience) and is currently still the only camp doing so. Gender Blender is the only camp centering Trans experience on playa. We dream of a time where more lesbian and trans camps will exist. We are proud and happy that there is an abundant of gay male centered camps and we hope for a time when there is an abundance of lesbian and trans camps on playa. We understand that it is way harder for resilient identity people to create a BM theme camp. The teaming up of two marginalized resilient identity camps was very important for both of our camps to thrive and to co-organize. Queer people working together is magical and powerful and we sparked a whole new way of being on and off playa. Our camps are still super close friends and allies for each other and are happy to be in a HUB together this year. We still work together often and we still have a deep love for each other. We realized in 2015 the need to split back up since both camps had become larger and needed more space to have each mission shine.
For Gender Blender building community with other camps is important. We value the Queerbhorhood and our relationships and co-creations with Future Turtles, 8-Bit Bunny, Comfort and Joy, Glamcocks, Astropups, Beaverton, BAAHS, All of US, Something Queer, Velvet, Electroluxx, Queericulum, Queertirement, and the whole Queerbhorhood.
We feel a deep commitment to seeing queer liberation. In addition, we have special ties with camps outside of the Queerbhorhood and in 2017 we were immensely honored to see FOAMation camp inspired by Gender Blender take on the theme TransFOAMation. Their camp partnered with us to create art, interactive activities, and storytelling to educate the larger community about how to create safe and inclusive spaces for people of all genders. We are incredibly grateful for FOAMations and the Foamie Homies partnership, love, and support for all these years and we are so excited that this year in 2025 they are bringing back the theme Trans Foam Now. We all realize more than ever the need to support trans liberation.
Back then we had no idea exactly what we were getting into or how significant this camp would be in our personal lives and for so many Trans, gender non-binary, gender queer, and gender non-conforming people. We just knew we had a plan to talk about gender and make smoothies in the desert. That first year we were placed on the esplanade! It was Ariel (Trixie), Ronnie, Cassandra, Etom, and Rae. Plus an amazing father-daughter team that joined us at just the right moment! We had a scrappy set up of Ronnie’s Subaru, a u-haul trailer, and a shade structure that instantly fell apart. We were operating on a shoestring budget and a prayer. Yet Burning Man believed in us! Placement believed in us! And most importantly we believed in our dream. We knew there was a real need to create safety for gender variant people, to give people the chance to express their gender identity to the fullest, to end gender-based harassment by educating others, and to create a strong vibrant community. That first year we weathered injuries, dust storms, other camps being mean to us, and a deep longing to be surrounded by other queer camps. We also triumphed, taught workshops, made smoothies, asked people difficult questions about gender, explored our own sexuality and gender, gave space for others to explore their sexuality and gender identity and to challenge gender norms and stereotypes, and we gave birth to a whole new paradigm on Playa.
Throughout the years our camp has grown stronger and become a beautiful community based on the hard work of so many fabulous blenders. Every year camp exists because of the leadership team that works tireless hours making sure we have our infrastructure in place and are able to produce inspiring events. Big love to our leaders who make this vision a reality and whose commitment, dedication, and love powerhouse Gender Blender. Special love to all past leaders and to our current team of Deity, Ariel, Ryde, Jay, Caleb, Mila, Ama, Louise, and Lisa.
Every year Gender Blender has an anti-oppression workshop, a support group for Trans people called Trans Tea Time, a performance experience where people can come and be witnessed in their full selves, a Queerborhood smoothie party, and an award-winning safer space play party centering Trans and non-binary people. We have also offered sex workshops, drag workshops, the creation of a life-size blender, dance parties, ritual, and performance. Our camp is committed to social justice, love, exploration, play, and fun!
We deeply value the support Burning Man has shown us over the years and the way we can give back to BM. We have helped Burning Man with diversity and inclusion efforts and many Gender Blenders have served on committees and been part of year-round BM volunteer opportunities. Gender Blender has grown from a small rag-tag group of committed activists, educators, and performers to a full-blown brilliant bright thriving community. We are proud to say that we exist on and off playa. That we run yearly events from play parties to workshops and that we have had a steady presence on playa since 2009. We have never missed a year except 2020 when we all had to because of COVID. We are so excited for how big we have grown and for the way we all show up for each other as family.
From the beginning and for always we are Gender Blender. We welcome All Genders ALLways. As in we welcome you no matter what your gender is or how you choose to express it. We welcome all the ways you can be and this is for always. We welcome people of all backgrounds in our camp and at our off playa events. We aim for radical inclusivity and to prioritize people in resilient identities. We are creating a safer space for us to shine and thrive.
Our camp has campers from all races, backgrounds, adult ages, genders, and abilities. While most of our events are all inclusive, we have some specific events for people in resilient identities to bond and be safe without the pressures of the dominant culture. We host a BIPOC only play party and a trans only support group. These events are important because resilient people need spaces to thrive. We believe in collective liberation and we work from an anti-oppressive lens. We are committed to being intersectional and acknowledging how racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism are directly connected. We believe that queer liberation means liberation for all peoples everywhere.
We honor our dear blenders who passed away including Yodassa Willams and Nika Zelichowska who both died in part because of discrimination. We honor their memory in the temple and at our camp and in all we do.
We are proud of our identity as a camp designed to center trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, gender variant, gender expressive, drag kings, queens, everything in between, and anyone questioning or exploring. We know each category we just named is unique and different and sometimes even holding competing needs. We strive to build a strong community where we can all thrive and be welcomed. We hope one day for there to be many trans and nonbinary camps in the Queerborhhood the same way there are many gay camps. We hope for a world in which one day we all feel safe and fully welcomed to be anywhere on or off playa.
We are committed to creating a fun, beautiful, wild, amazing time on and off playa. We are a community committed to creating safer, awesome, fun, creative liberatory spaces for trans, gender queer, gender variant, gender nonconforming, queens, kings, and those of us that are shape shifting the gender binary. We are so excited for this year’s Burning Man. We are planning our Sweet 16 party, social justice workshops, a radical consent-based play party, smoothies, and lots of fun times with the Queerborhood.
As a community, we work to serve, educate and give space to the entire gender spectrum, especially those that are exploring gender beyond the binary. Through continuously expanding in both service and celebration of gender non-conformists, we aim to provide genderqueers, gender variants, and trans individuals the support to just be themselves.
In addition to our theme camp on playa, we run workshops, facilitate educational events, campaign for trans rights, host play parties, and events year-round. Blenders can be found facilitating discussions and providing education around gender issues throughout Northern and Southern California, Washington DC, Portland, New York, and even internationally in Canada, Greece, and Mexico. We also host zoom meetings, chat groups, and offer support.
We are grateful for everyone who has participated in our events, programs, workshops, and Burning Man theme camp. We plan to continue to offer quality amazing experiences that amplify our joy, resiliency, fun, love, and activism. We believe in community building and creating healing. We strive for social justice and are committed to working from an anti-oppression lens. We recognize our country is in very serious and scary times and that we are all going to need each other more than ever. We have been here for 16 years and we will continue to be here. We welcome you to camp with us this year on playa or to attend our play parties, potlucks, workshops, and events off playa.
