The final weekend of September marked the first annual Here Queer Sober Roundup, a three-day-long conference consisting of events and panels geared towards the sober queer community.
“It’s very interesting going from participating in the event to putting it all together,” said Here Queer Sober co-founder Logan Slaughter, an NYC drag artist who is celebrating five years of sobriety.
Slaughter said the roundup formed out of a need for a sober gathering space within the queer community that is open to all levels of sobriety, especially because “not everyone is in a 12 step [program].”
Here Queer Sober was totally self-funded and without sponsors or “big names,” according to Logan, who pulled the Sept. 26-28 event off with the help of a talented team of fellow drag artists and members of the queer sober community.
“I’m very proud of everything we’ve done,” Slaughter said.
One of the key players who helped bring the Roundup to life was NYC drag artist Marti Gould Cummings, a staple in NYC nightlife and entertainment.
“For so long, sobriety has been one of those taboo things or there might have been a taboo around it, but now sobriety is becoming so much more mainstream,” Cummings, who served on the Here Queer Sober Roundup planning committee, said to Gay City News, “especially in the queer community.”
Now celebrating almost 15 years of sobriety, Cummings was the first non-binary candidate to run for City Council and served as grand marshal at NYC Pride 2025. Cummings and Slaughter have known each other for a number of years and have collaborated on similar community events in the past, including co-hosting a June 2025 pageant titled “Royalty in Recovery.”
Cummings expects the sober pageant, presented by Here Queer Sober, to return for 2026.
“Because I am so public with my sobriety, I feel a lot of people have learned about sober living through that, and now Logan is doing that as well,” Cummings said about their growing involvement in planning events for the sober queer community. For September’s Here Queer Sober Roundup, Slaughter asked Cummings to do what they do best: coordinate entertainment and nightlife.
For Cummings, fostering and promoting a safe, fun space to be queer and sober is hugely important work.
“I think it’s really important for people in nightlife — whether they are people going to see events or going to the clubs or people working in that environment — to know that if you are struggling with alcoholism or addiction, if you work in this space, there is help out there, and there are people like you.”
September is National Recovery Month, an observance started in 1989 to raise awareness about recovery from substance abuse, and an opportunity to dedicate resources to communities in recovery.
