Last updated: 30 June 2026

This harm response system was developed over Summer 2025, after I noticed that people were often banned from the The Queery, a venue where I held Queer XXXtreme Sports Book Club. A group of us from the book club got involved and saw that The Queery did not have an agreed-upon system for understanding harm and responding to it. The Queery (2022-2026) was a queer co-operative, a bookshop, a cafe and a venue in Brighton, UK. It got closed down due to financial struggles and polarisation in May 2026, just a couple of months after we started implementing and testing out this system. I hope this manual will be helpful to others wishing to develop harm response systems for their groups, collectives, organisations, co-ops and so on! It was developed under continuous year-long mentorship from Spring Up Collective, I’m forever grateful for their love and vision. And thank you to all the queery folk who were down with this experiment and learnt from its ideas. – soil <3

introduction: The Queery Harm Response Zine

Thank you for your interest in Standards and Ethics Collective (S+E) at The Queery. The Queery is a co-operative and a volunteer-run cafe, bookshop and venue in Brighton, UK. At S+E, organisers:

• give shape to The Queery’s values, code of conduct, policies, procedures, safety plans;
• handle things like feedback from space users and volunteers;
• prevent and respond to harm and conflict when they manifest.

This zine is about the most complex part of this work – our harm response system – that requires extra orientation.

🧭 where these ideas come from

🪨 helpful language & definitions

🫚 yes / no / maybe list: what issues does S+E have capacity to take on?

🩻 our map for responding to harm

🎴 our toolkit