Sep 18, 2019
How My Community Showed Me I Could Be Both Muslim and Queer
“It was this Islam, the Islam of authenticity, community, justice, and love, that showed me how to be a truer version of myself.”
Letting Go of Guilt to Live My Truth as a Queer Woman
As euphoric as my queer epiphany felt, I’d had it as my mother lay sick. It felt like I was reentering the world as my mother was leaving it.
Jul 01, 2019
Reading My Way Into a Queer Literary Lineage
For queer writers, the discovery of this literary lineage is essential to our very existence, to our very expression of self. We can’t find the words without them.
Jun 20, 2019
Son Boy Allowed: A Trans Mother Finds Space for Boyhood
Well, what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? The answer so often is, simply: I don’t know. And I’m not sure that it actually matters, anyway.
Jun 18, 2019
I Let Go of My Faith When I Came Out—But I Still Believe in Jennifer Knapp
What was I getting out shame, anyway? So I walked away from it all: going to church, reading scripture, prayer, even the Christian music I loved so much.
Jun 17, 2019
These Boots Were Made for Walkin’ Away from Oklahoma
There was nowhere to go back to. Oklahoma was out of the question, always out of the question. But then, where was home?
Jun 13, 2019
Cooking Up Pride and Community at the LGBT Center’s Annual Garden Party
There’s nothing more queer than cobbling together something fabulous out of very little.
Jun 11, 2019
What It Means to Be Trans in My Tiny Town
My trans friends rarely come home, and when they do, it is for brief bursts of time. They question why I’ve chosen to keep living here.
Jun 10, 2019
Speculating on Queer Pasts to Achieve a Queer Eternity for My Tío Cano
I want to believe that I inherited too ways of feeling joy, ways of finding pleasure, ways of being with other queers in raucous and wild ways.
Jun 03, 2019
When I Started HRT, I Discovered a Sweeter Side to My Masculinity
I was leaving femininity behind, grateful to have an example like my grandpa to grow toward.
May 20, 2019
We Barrio Boys and Our Papi Chulo Philosophics
Who are we if not kin through our deviations? Street hustler and femme queen, macho and maricóncito, variations on a chulo aesthetic.
Mar 26, 2019
How Queer Korean Representation Helped Me Understand Who I Am—and What I Could Lose
I know that I’m living in a ticking clock, and all of this—dinners with my parents, peaceful conversations—will likely be gone one day.
Feb 07, 2019
Twinkdom Has an Expiration Date, But Spinsterhood is Forever
For me, homosexuality is an invitation to opt out, to abstain from the trappings of heteronormativity, a gift of eternal boyhood.
Jan 24, 2019
“I should hate forever to be a burden to you”: Lessons in Love from Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
I don’t want to take time away from your book, she said, but the book could wait. My writing was always there. She might not be.
Jan 09, 2019
As a Trans Person, I Don’t Need You to Hug Me. I Need You to Fight for Me.
Trans people have rights because we’re human—not because we’re special. So why does having those rights recognized require a flood of trans tears?
Dec 06, 2018
How I Learned the Craft of Going on Dates with Girls
I have dated long enough to see a change, and I am still young enough to work at the craft.
Nov 15, 2018
When Your Family Wants You To Be “All Boy”
I wanted to tell him that, if I could, I would give him my body to use however he saw fit. It meant nothing to me. If only bodies were like gloves you could peel off and lose.
Sep 12, 2018
My Queer Chinese Comrades, in My Mother Tongue
Today tongzhi is seldom used in a political context, if ever: The Beijing LGBT center is called Beijing Comrade Center; 同志村, or comrade village, translates to gayborhood. So yeah, everyone knows what comrade really means—everyone except the president of China, apparently.
Sep 04, 2018
