Category: Fall Conference

GSV 2022 FALL CONFERENCE: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Fall Conference

GSVFallRetreat2022

Who do you think you are?


September 22 – 25, 2022


The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC


4 Day/3 Night Package (Thursday through Sunday)


Lodge (shared room) $315.00

Cabin (shared room) $315.00


Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $270.00


Register Now!

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Siblings,

As the hot, sticky summer weather gives way to the temperate breezes of autumn, you are invited to come home to the magic of The Mountain. In this serene atmosphere, you will be surrounded by loving siblings to rekindle longtime relationships or spark new ones. During our time together we will explore who we are, identify what restrains us, and choose what we can unload to enhance our life journey.

Who we are and what we become are based on our thoughts! They include perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view. Thoughts can be reactive and situational or grounded in willful awareness. While thoughts are shaped by life experiences, genetics, and education, they can be brought under conscious control. In other words, if we are aware of the thoughts that have formed our character and attitudes, we can choose to change them. We can change the tenor of our story and thereby enrich the quality of our journey.

“Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character – and our character will determine our eternal destiny.” – Ezra Taft Benson

Our keynote speaker will be David Ault who is currently walking the Camino de Santiago. David is an award-winning author, leadership coach, and global education advocate. His books include the bestseller Where Regret Cannot Find Me and the multi-award-winning book The Grass is Greener Right Here. He loves leading through example and abides by the motto that people would rather “see a lesson than hear one.”

You are invited to share your gifts during this retreat by proposing a workshop. We are looking for persons with topic-related ideas who desire to provide an interactive and informative workshop experience. Contact [email protected] with your ideas and questions.

COVID-19 Information

To help make this event safe and healthy for everyone attending, please review the following hyperlinked documents.
2022 Fall Conference COVID-19 Safety Protocols
2022 Fall Conference COVID-19 Notice of Actions Taken
2022 Fall Conference COVID-19 General Liability Waiver

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns.

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is September 7. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is September 7.

Make plans to return home to The Mountain in September, as you have been missed. More information will be available in the coming weeks.

In gratitude,
Bill Harris
GSV 2022 Fall Conference Convener

Register Now!

GSV 2022 Fall Conference: Who do you think you are?

Fall Conference

GSVFallRetreat2022

Who do you think you are?

September 22 – 25, 2022

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC

4 Day/3 Night Package (Thursday through Sunday)


Lodge (shared room) $315.00

Cabin (shared room) $315.00


Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $270.00


Register Now!

“Who you think you are each day, completely determines the universe you live in.”—Ram Dass

Dear Siblings,
Come together during the time of harvest. Celebrate your bounty; replenish your soul; examine your essence; acknowledge your gifts. Surrounded by loving siblings in a serene atmosphere, we will share time to reflect, inspire, and empower. Let us open the steamer trunk of who we are, see what is weighing us down, and what we can unload to enhance our journey through life.

Who we are and what we become are based on our thoughts! Thoughts are our ideas, opinions, and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. They include perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view. While thoughts are shaped by life experiences, genetics, and education, they can be brought under conscious control. In other words, if we are aware of our thoughts and attitudes, we can choose to change or discard them.

Let us first explore the experiences that formed our beliefs. By looking at our formative self, we can nurture our innocence and provide the encouragement we desire. We will then identify our created story and examine the constraints that may no longer serve us.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Pack lite, throw it in the overhead, grab a window seat, and enjoy the ride.”—Bill Harris

Our 2022 Fall Conference keynote speaker will be David Ault. Known by many at Gay Spirit Visions as a spiritual teacher from Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, David is also an award-winning author, leadership coach, and global education advocate. He loves leading through example and abides by the motto that people would rather “see a lesson than hear one.”

You are invited and encouraged to share your gifts during this conference by proposing a workshop. We are looking for persons with topic-related ideas who desire to provide an interactive and informative workshop experience. Contact me at [email protected] with your ideas, dreams, and questions, and we will be glad to support you in the creative process.

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is September 7. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is September 7.

Make plans to return home to The Mountain in September, as you have been missed. More information will be available in the coming weeks.

In gratitude,
Bill Harris
GSV 2022 Fall Conference Convener

Register Now!

GSV 2021 Fall Conference – Last Call

Fall Conference

GSV 2021 Fall Conference

(Re)Directing Our Energies to Queer Worldmaking


September 23 – 26, 2021


The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC


4 Day/3 Night Package (Thursday through Sunday)


Lodge (shared room) $436.26


Cabin (shared room) $404.24


Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $372.21


Register Now

Dearest GSV Brothers and Siblings,

The magic of the Fall Conference is coming together, breath by breath, seed by seed, story by story. I have had the honor of speaking with many of our brothers and siblings over the last several months, hearing their laughter and words of excitement for our return to The Mountain. Indeed, our love is buzzing and the hope for sharing hugs is electrifying.

“Everything vibrates. Everything moves. Even when matter appears to be standing still, its atoms are moving. More important, the energy animating it is moving. Similar vibrations gather together.”
—Christopher Penczak

As I promised in my first call, this year’s Fall Conference will be a gathering of both old and new, past and future bridged in the present to reconnect with ourselves and each other in a space we call home.

We will engage in familiar rituals with a sacred fire and our beloved talking stick, weaving our hearts together in circles, small and large. We will revisit workshops of yore, breathing life into memories long since passed and energies needing renewal.

I mean, really. Who doesn’t love a good hands-on enneagram workshop? Or a body-centered performance breakout session? A little art, anyone? Wanna run some energy, or meditate, or exchange a massage? Perhaps do a deeper dive into some tango or tarot? Maybe you’d like to honor our ancestors while directing our energies forward during a Lingam Puja?

Are you also looking for some downtime to talk with one another? Or to “talk” with one another? To listen to each other’s stories in space and time, to feel each other’s energy in breath, intertwined?

Maybe you need a moment at Meditation Rock, or a contemplative pass through the Labyrinth? How about a gaze at the waning gibbous moon from atop the Fire Tower, or perhaps a special rendezvous in the Love Nest?

A dance? A musical soirée? A parade of beauties? A variety show? Let’s not forget some Faery chants.

We are the flow and we are the ebb.
We are the weavers, we are the web.
—We Are The Flow, Shekinah Mountainwater

My questions above serve as winks to what you can expect from our Fall Conference.

What else can you expect? A slightly slower pace—built-in breath breaks and coffee space for us to come and go as we need and as we please, to reconnect and to recharge.

What you can also expect, different from years past, is a memorial ceremony of one of our earliest founders—Ron Lambe. We will take time to honor Ron and his contributions to our tribe. We will breathe in statements from Peter Kendrick and Running Water Farm. We will take in songs and gifts from Ron’s time here on Earth. And we will make space to reflect on our futures with Ron and his guidance from the spiritual realm.

And you can always expect the love and the light of GSV family, shining together and fire-bridging from afar.

I call to you, dearest GSV brothers and siblings, to write up your stories of Ron from over the years. We would like to compile the stories and share them with our Gay Spirit Visions Oral History Project at Georgia State University. And we would like you to share them with us during his memorial ceremony. If you cannot be with us in body, email them to me and I will invite our brothers and siblings to read your stories in your honor.

I also call to each of you who will be coming together on September 23rd to join a working circle. Whether this is your 1st GSV gathering or your 32nd, we welcome your gifts and your energy in transforming The Mountain as our brothers, siblings, and ancestors have done before us.

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is September 9. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is September 9.

Our time is coming, dearest brothers and siblings. Prepare your long wing feathers and make space to circle around the boundless universe of the queer worlds you wish to create.

Blessed be,
Bumblebee (Greg Hummel)
GSV 2021 Fall Conference Convener
[email protected]

Register Now

GSV Seeking Cellist

Fall Conference

Dear Brother Musicians,

We are seeking a cellist who will be attending the Fall Conference to assist in playing “Reverie” for piano and cello, composed by Ron Lambe, one of GSV’s founders. We hope to perform this as a way of memorializing Ron at the conference. If you are interested, please contact David Berger by email [email protected] or phone 614-579-2324.

GSV 2021 Fall Conference: (Re)Directing Our Energies to Queer Worldmaking

Fall Conference

GSV 2021 Fall Conference

(Re)Directing Our Energies to Queer Worldmaking

September 23 – 26, 2021


The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC

4 Day/3 Night Package (Thursday through Sunday)


Lodge (shared room) $436.26


Cabin (shared room) $404.24


Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $372.21


Register Now

Dearest Brothers and Siblings,

Almost two years has passed since our tribe gathered in the ways that we had become accustomed for over three decades. In the meantime, we adapted as our kind has always had to do. We did our best to hold virtual space for each other; we were led by gifted conveners who worked boldly and tirelessly to create spaces for us to continue the journey of bringing our sexual and spiritual selves into conversation with each other during a time when many of us were otherwise isolated from our kind. The time has come for us to come together again. We will reconvene in-person this fall at The Mountain, September 23-26.

Breathe with me.

This fall will be a mix of old and new, a sort of homecoming to a place we’ve always known was ever-present in our bodies, even when we knew the physical realm could not maintain or sustain our tribe. Our focus will be on that which has been a through line of every GSV gathering, yet never officially named in our gatherings’ titles: Energy. And while I’m sure this gathering will be different from any other gathering, in some of the ways that every gathering is different, much of what we know as GSV will be reawakened with the energies of every brother and sibling who came before us. With hope and intention, we will rekindle and rejuvenate GSV with the energies of every brother and sibling who we have yet to meet.

How might we intentionally—spiritually—(re)direct our energies to create the worlds and realities we have always needed, yet may have never known the deep-seated necessity of such worlds beyond our own?

This fall will be a bridge of past-present-future in ways that only gay and queer bodies know. We will focus our energies on coming home to ourselves and each other, while continuing the work of creating worlds for ourselves and each other in spaces and places not designed for us and our communities. We will honor our pasts—and all the messiness that comes with our pasts—to free up our energies from tiresome drudges that only hold back our progress as gay and queer energetic entities moving through multiple planes of existence. And we will do so in ways that are both familiar and uncomfortable, affirming and challenging, reconciling and forgiving.

Cami Delgado, the 2019 Thirtieth Anniversary Fall Conference convener, ended his first conference announcement letter with a Margaret Mead quote that I have always adored: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” We have been changing worlds since the moment we began radiating energy. When we come together, again, with purpose and intention, we will foster a space necessary for us all to do the work we have always been doing: building queer worlds. I cannot begin to express how excited I am to gather with you, again, from the welcoming rituals in the afternoon of September 23 to the closing heart circle from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. on Sunday, September 26.

To do this, though, we must also continue to be mindful of and diligent against external forces that make gathering difficult. We will need all of us working together to create and sustain the safest conference that we can possibly manage. And so, for the safety of all, please read and understand The Council’s messaging on gathering during what we hope will be the late-stage of this current global pandemic. We will be gathering in a limited capacity based on what The Mountain can sustain at this moment in time, so register early. Consider reaching out to brothers and siblings with whom you can room comfortably and safely. And as noted elsewhere, vaccinations will be required to attend the fall conference. Please get vaccinated early if you plan to attend.

If you are attending and are interested in sharing your gifts with our community, please feel welcome to reach out to me at [email protected]. If the conference theme calls to you, I look forward to chatting with you about a workshop you might host. Our brothers and siblings have been asking for some more hands-on activities (of course they have been!), and so I especially welcome workshops that give our brothers something to do with their hands…

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is September 9. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the
Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is September 9.

My hope is that we can hold space for each other as we have always done. And my sincerest hope is that many of us will be able to hold each other, once again, in ways that elevate our energies, both individually and collectively.

Registration is now open, brothers and siblings. With love and virtual hugs!

Blessed be,
Bumblebee (Greg Hummel)
GSV 2021 Fall Conference Convener

Register Now