Cover Photo: Two mannequins well dressed in men's suits, with more department store suits visible in the background.
Photograph by Alexander Naglestad/Unsplash

“Passing” as Straight at Work Didn’t Protect Me from Homophobia

I privately couldn’t get over the fact that she’d even felt comfortable speaking to me that way.

My favorite part about working at JCPenney was getting to choke men.

dear

real

Gross

Nasty

Drag Race

Obviously

and

nasty

did

youshe

Edgar Gomez (he/she/they) is a Florida-born writer with roots in Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. A graduate of University of California, Riverside’s MFA program, he is a recipient of the 2019 Marcia McQuern Award for nonfiction. His words have appeared in Poets & Writers, Narratively, Catapult, Lithub, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Plus Magazine, and elsewhere online and in print. His memoir, High-Risk Homosexual, was named a Best LGBTQ Book by Harper’s Bazaar. He lives in New York and Puerto Rico. Find him on Twitter @OtroEdgarGomez.