Comfort & Joy is a global queer community and arts collective based in San Francisco.

Our annual journey to Burning Man was our original reason for coming together and remains at the heart of who we are. However, as the years have gone by, we’ve expanded beyond Black Rock City to create and reinforce queer community in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world.

At Black Rock City we become a family. As queers, we often come from biological families where we are not accepted or where we cannot express all facets of our true selves. As such, our main value is that we welcome all people as they are. We combine that acceptance with expressive encouragement, holding space for people to manifest their most authentic and fabulous selves. Part of that journey comes through art, which plays an outsized role in our camp — we believe that art gives us life and unlocks comfort in any environment…and that everybody has an artist lurking inside. Through joyful celebration, workshops, and play we provide the tools to help that inner artist come out.

At the Burn we don’t simply celebrate, we also aim to provide a space that is comfortable, safe and perfectly set for joyous queer immediacy.

Burning Man is an opportunity for people to step outside of daily routines, something that is both exciting and sometimes scary. By making safety a priority, we allow for vulnerability. From that vulnerability, we encourage people to explore themselves and what type of society they wish to create both at Burning Man and outside.

While that inner exploration is important, we believe that the journey is not complete without giving of ourselves to something greater. As such, part of the community we create is one of cooperation and participation. Everyone works together to help create our family, each person providing service to the best of their ability so that the community is owned by all of us. And as members give, they become further enmeshed in our mutually supportive family.

After Burning Man, we then move back out into the main world taking what happens on the playa and reinforcing community, individual growth, and expression by coming together at events and online throughout the year. Most of all, what we provide throughout the year is that mutual support. There have been many times when those in our community have experienced need, and we are there for them -- holding fundraisers to help people with unexpected health care costs, or hands to help someone move out of a difficult situation. That support gives us all strength and allows us each to grow and have the strength to bring along others who are drawn to us and our welcoming space.

The heart of our 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public benefit corporation is our volunteer Board of Directors, who make decisions directing the organization and assuring that our programming is aligned with our Mission and uplifts our Shared Values. Meet our current Directors and learn what motivates them to the right.

Supporting the Board is the Purple Circle, a collection of high contributing committee members, committee chairs and exemplary queer community members who advise the Board in their decisions and act as the membership of the corporation.

Assisting both Board and Purple Circle in goal setting and organizational operation is the Pink Circle, including active committee members, community allies and queer burners who desire a voice within our creative community.

We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the thousands of current and previous volunteers, former board members, members emeritus, former campers, queer allies, friends and lovers who contribute time, resources, financial backing and/or emotional support to the above. Thanks to all who are now or have ever lent a hand…we are only as strong as the community we serve!

One way to define Comfort & Joy is as art collective, supporting and uplifting community members whose work provides inspiration, queer expression, sex-positivity and the creation of joy through ART. Get to know a few of the myriad individuals adding their creativity to our community-serving endeavors here!

Nondiscrimination Policy

Comfort & Joy was founded to advance queer culture. We celebrate the inherent beauty in everyone. We do not discriminate on any difference, and we encourage your love to grow. To help draw a picture of the radical inclusion we work to achieve, we strive to not discriminate on the basis of perceived or actual:

  • Assigned Sex

  • Gender expression

  • Preferred pronoun(s)

  • Sexual practice(s)

  • Sexual orientation(s)

  • Ethnic Background(s) / Identity

  • Color

  • Race(s)

  • Lived culture(s)

  • National origin

  • Immigration status

  • Place of residence

  • Kind of building you live in

  • Religious belief(s)

  • Age

  • Disability

  • Marital or relationship status

  • Employment status

  • Place of employment

  • Occupation

  • Social class

  • Education

  • Literacy level

  • Primary language

  • Species identity

  • Appearance

  • Physical size or shape

  • Attire

  • Preferred foods

  • Taste in music

  • Artistic ability

  • Form(s) of creative expression