Queer Across America: Salem, Hocus Pocus, & the East Coast

My Queer Across America road trip is officially a coast-to-coast journey! After exploring queer communities in 20 different states, I’ve reached the East Coast in Salem, Massachusetts. I don’t know if there’s anything inherently queer about Salem, but at least it’s where the iconic, queer-coded movie Hocus Pocus was filmed.

The city is full of beautiful, ancient architecture that now holds modern establishments like organic cafes, occult shops, and more museums than you can imagine. Puritans, those who came to Salem in the 1600s to freely practice their strict interpretation of Christianity, would have been thrilled to see their American dream charge $6 for coffees.

The queer community and the Salem Witch Trials have a lot in common. In the trials, 20 people were executed in what can now be seen as due to xenophobia and religious extremism. Puritans believed that people were either born good or bad, and it was the responsibility of the former to punish the latter.

Anytime an event occurred that the Puritans didn’t accept the explanation of (like if their crops didn’t grow properly during a season), they just pointed to the nearest person that stood out in any way and labeled them a “witch,” accusing them of using “devil’s magic.”

It’s impossible not to see that pattern in modern times: the despicable xenophobic rhetoric presented by the Trump administration, the record amount of legislation aimed at eliminating transgender people, the control over women’s bodies, and the violence enacted toward the queer community. All of these people are constantly on trial for not fitting into what a loud, patriarchal society deems acceptable.

I spend the afternoon wandering around the city, exploring Harmony Grove Cemetery, visiting a pirate museum that holds real artifacts from ship wrecks off the local coast, and enjoy the view of the house that I recognized as Allison’s from Hocus Pocus.

Only a few steps away from the house stands a towering church on a plot that has been a religious sanctuary since the 1600s. On top of the towering monument is a rainbow flag proudly waving over the city. I’m shocked! Who would have believed that a Puritan church, proprietor of the Salem Witch executions, is now a queer-friendly spot!

A poster promoting equality and LGBTQ+ learning through the church’s queer-focused events is strung along the iron gate surrounding the building. The church is also lead by a female reverend and boasts a Little Free Library in the front. The protestants are probably rolling in their graves seeing the promotion of education and minority groups. Good.

Finally, I take a taxi to get to the very tip of the country where I can touch the East Coast water, making the coast-to-coast odyssey official. Salem Willows Park is a lively recreational area full of kids, Holy Cow Cafe, and Peppy’s Pizzeria. It’s also home to one of the most unholy “amusement parks” I’ve ever seen.

KiddieLand is what nightmares are made of. The rides are rickety death traps; the mascots are clowns with vacant stares, and the carousel is full of cursed objects. This is by far the scariest thing in Salem.

I maneuver past KiddieLand, avoiding eye contact with any of the clowns. I descend down a sandy slope reaching the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean.

I take a deep breath.

I made it. I set out on a journey exploring queer communities around the U.S., not knowing how it would end up or what I would find. The adventure was filled with some of the hardest moments of my life and some of the most fulfilling.

My happiest conclusion is that, no matter where I am in the country, there is always a queer community close by.

Photos and videos courtesy London Alexander