At home, together: Kindred’s queer community in motion
For many LGBTQIA+ people, travel is a search for comfort, for safety. Three Kindred members share how they’re using their own homes to build a worldwide network of trusted, welcoming spaces.
What does it mean to feel at home in the world? It’s a question that travel often asks of us. For some, the answer is simple. But for many, especially those in the queer community, the world doesn’t always offer a soft place to land.
Travel has always been a search for connection, but for many queer travelers, the journey carries a deeper weight. It can be a form of self-preservation, a quiet rebellion, and a profound search for belonging.
This theme was beautifully explored in a recent feature on queer travel in Marie Claire UK, which highlighted the powerful ways community is built across borders. It’s a conversation we see unfolding every day within Kindred, where members are turning their homes into sanctuaries of trust and connection.
For members Chadi Zeneddine and his partner, Roberto Acosta Velazquez, whose story was shared in the article, love itself was an act that crossed borders. Chadi is from Lebanon, Roberto from Mexico, and they met in Beirut — a city they describe as “vibrant and complex when it comes to queer love.”
“For us, traveling across borders became a form of quiet rebellion,” Chadi says. “It allowed us not just to escape judgment, but to actively challenge the norms that tried to define our identities.” Moving to Madrid gave them the space to build a freer, more visible life, and they joined Kindred as a way to extend that freedom to others.
“It’s our way of turning hospitality into solidarity,” he explains. “We put our apartment on the platform because we believe in creating safe, warm homes for people like us, places where love isn’t questioned or hidden. Its activism in a quieter form: opening your home to someone who maybe hasn’t had that safety before.”
“We put our apartment on the platform because we believe in creating safe, warm homes for people like us, places where love isn’t questioned or hidden.”
This idea — home as a sanctuary you can share — is a powerful one. But what happens when the need for community grows beyond a single apartment?
Tomás Drouin, a trans man and frequent traveler whose story was also featured in Marie Claire, felt that call. After a year of traveling the world, he found his sense of belonging in Lisbon’s vibrant queer community and was inspired to build something lasting. He founded Aconchego House, a nonprofit community space for LGBTQIA+ locals and travelers to connect. (He splits his time between the Portuguese capital and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.) “I know that connecting with LGBTQIA+ folks during my travels was a huge part of my journey,” Tomás says.
“I know that connecting with LGBTQIA+ folks during my travels was a huge part of my journey.”
He believes deeply that the movement of queer people across borders brings “representation, belonging, and hope” to local communities. His work is about creating a permanent anchor for that connection — a physical space that says, “you belong here.” It’s a sentiment that we at Kindred believe in whole-heartedly.
For decades, Fire Island in New York has been a special place for LGBTQIA+ folks. Jon Staff, a Kindred member with a beautiful home in Cherry Grove — what’s been called America’s “oldest gay and lesbian town” — feels a deep sense of stewardship for this legacy. “LGBTQIA+ folks have a long history of making amazing places and cultures and then getting displaced,” he says. “We feel a responsibility to do our part to protect it for queer people.”
For Jon, sharing his home on Kindred is a way to do just that. It allows him to open this historic space to others in the community, especially those who might not otherwise be able to experience it. He seeks to host people who come to “honor and participate in what makes the place so special.”
“The credits are nice," he says, "but the feeling of getting a note of gratitude from someone who not just got to experience the place but was additive to it is very meaningful to us.”
“The credits are nice, but the feeling of getting a note of gratitude from someone who not just got to experience the place but was additive to it is very meaningful to us.”
A personal sanctuary, a community hub, a shared legacy. These are the spaces Kindred members are creating and sharing. Their stories remind us that hospitality, at its very best, is an act of recognition. It’s a promise of safety, a gesture of solidarity, and a celebration of the beautiful, diverse world we all deserve to explore. It’s the understanding that wherever you are, you can find your people. You can find a place to call home.