After some serious googling, it looks like gestures is a feature that really only exists in the “luxury” DEs. There is something called Touchegg and Touche that can add them to others, but I’m not far along enough to know if it will do what I want it to.
I just tried debian with Xfce, and it’s pretty fast, but I REALLY love using gestures! It makes my tiny screen feel way bigger.