Queers, Beers, and Cheers!

Happy Pride month! This month is devoted to the celebration of LGBTQ+ community. Pride is a sense of well-being and worth. This is something everyone deserves. There are local individuals celebrating LGBTQ+ community while also sharing a love for local beer.

Shannon Curley formed a group called Queers & Beers of Rhode Island in January of 2022 to help bring people together. I had the opportunity to speak to Shannon and ask some questions about the group.

Kelly Lynn Currier (Motif): What inspired you to create this group?

Shannon Curley: COVID was definitely a factor! During the pandemic, it was really hard to meet new people. So when restrictions started loosening, I had this huge enthusiasm for branching out and making new friends.

The other thing, and maybe this is even more important, is that as a member of the queer community, I know how important a chosen family is, even for those of us fortunate enough to have supportive biological families. Often the way that you meet other people in the queer community is by going out to LGBTQ+ dance clubs or parties, and that’s just never been my scene. So I thought, okay, what’s a place where we can be relatively assured that LGBTQ+ folks will be and feel safe, that also takes off some of the pressure of having to “go out” every night, and can even happen in the daytime? Breweries seemed like an easy answer, because even if you don’t drink – which we 100% support! – breweries usually have lots of space to socialize, games to play, dogs to pet, and generally plenty of other activities to do that aren’t sipping a cold one.

KC: What keeps you involved? What has this group given you?

SC: I’ve definitely become less involved in the group – but that’s the way it should be, right? Queers and Beers of RI has taken on a life of its own – whether that’s with the other groups that have sprung from it like Queeraoke (bimonthly at Moniker), Queeriosity (bimonthly at Kimi’s), and Out with Ash (monthly) – or simply with the way that friends, relationships, and chosen family have formed bonds and started their own communities.

What has this group given me? This one is obvious – I met my fiancée through Queers and Beers of RI! We were both dating other people when we first met, but quickly developed a friendship that grew into so much more. She’s the best person I know and I can’t wait to marry her. Let’s be honest… we’ll probably have our reception at a brewery.

Beyond that, this group has given me a tremendous sense of belonging and purpose. The funny thing is, when the group started, I wasn’t 100% comfortable with my sexuality. I didn’t know exactly how to define myself and that made me really uncomfortable. Now I know that I don’t have to put a definition on myself to be happy and authentic. I love my partner, I embrace the spectrum of sexuality, and I’m proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community – and that’s something I would not have been able to say with such confidence two and a half years ago.

KC: Most memorable experience?

SC: Oh boy, that’s a tough one! Last year we had a Pride Puppy Party at Moniker Brewery which was pretty incredible. So many dogs were wearing rainbow bandanas and getting their photos taken.
I also loved our First Birthday Party at Narragansett Brewing in January 2023. We had people coming up to us all day asking where the “birthday baby” was. Spoiler: We were the birthday babies.

We’ve also had a table for the last two years at the RIDEA Craft Beverage Festival at The Guild in Pawtucket. That community has welcomed us with open arms since day one and going from our first year where we literally had a table with a flyer on it to this year where we had shirts, glasses, stickers, and a ton to learn about the group was incredibly special.

KC: Are you planning any events for Pride month?

SC: Yes! We’ll be partnering up with Out with Ash, run by Ash Kahlmeyer of Moniker Brewing, to host another pre-Pride party on June 15th, more details on that to come. We are also collaborating with some folks at Trinity Brewing to host a Pride event on June 14th. We plan to have t-shirts and glasses available for sale throughout June as well to raise money for some local LGBTQ+ charitable organizations. We’ll be posting about all the above on our IG page at @queersandbeersofri.

KC: What has been your favorite Pride event?

SC: Last year, Kimi’s in Providence hosted a wet T-shirt contest during their Pride after-party when we got hit with an unexpected rainstorm at the tail-end of Pride. It was pure, chaotic, queer joy. As a bonus, my then-girlfriend, now fiancée and I met our now-best-friends at this party (though we did not participate in the contest). We took a blurry photo together, declared, “Did we just become best friends?!” A year later, they have keys to our house and a permanent spot in our hearts.”

KC: What do you want the readers of Motif to know?

SC: Just a note: When I tell straight and/or cisgendered folks about Queers and Beers of RI, the thing that always raises an eyebrow is our use of the word “queer.” There is still very much an idea that “queer” is a slur. We use the word “queer” because over the years it has been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community as an umbrella term that allows us to belong to the community without having to put ourselves into a box or assign ourselves a label. If it’s a term that makes you raise an eyebrow, then I suggest you don’t use it; but rest assured, for those of us in the community, it’s a term that lets us focus less on what we are and much more on who we are – which is, at the end of the day, the whole purpose of this group.

KC: Do you have a favorite beer style?

SC: You saved the toughest questions for last! I can go either way here – super heavy, like a nice dark stout or Frozie from Long Live Brewery, or total opposite, a nice, light lager, like the Pickerel rice lager at Moniker. I’m also a sucker for the Screaming Viking at Trinity Brewhouse, or any IPA with cashmere or mosaic hops. Does that narrow it down?

For more information about upcoming events, follow @queersandbeersofri on IG.