Results for: be the change
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The Flood Came Later
“I’ve always loved the water. Before top surgery, when my discomfort with my body was at an all time high, swimming was the one thing I could do that gave me a sense of freedom. It felt safe to connect to my body in an environment where I could be weightless and enjoy moving with ease. I could be held by something when I was too self conscious to be touched by other people. I learned to swim in the pool at a hotel gym near the house I grew up in. My father taught me…”
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The Eras of My Bisexuality
She was the straight, white, Christian girl who was so picture perfect no one could dislike her.
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Shame as a Black, Autistic Queer Elder
“Toward the end of our stay in Mississippi, a 24-hour crisis line started up. I called them almost every weeknight.”
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Not Grateful Enough
“Thank you for pushing me down a ramp so quickly that I slammed into a wall.”
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I’ll Never Walk Away: Writing About Motherhood From Imperfect Circumstances
“In the summer of 2021, right after a trip to visit him and my mom, my dad called me. He sounded weird.”
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Apparently, Shame Tastes Like My Cunt
“The other partners I had throughout much of my time in sex work were uncomfortable at best and shaming at worst. They were jealous and confused. ‘How can you interact with men like this?'”
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Running Away, Running Home: A Bipolar Queer’s Path to Family
“I drove so fast away from her, that house, that man, that job, those lost friends, those queer dance parties, that supportive church, the community I created, without a single sound.”
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Is There Life After High School?
“I wanted to have nightmares about monsters or mass shootings. It was too embarrassing — in the midst of global catastrophe — to be concerned with something as frivolous as high school.”
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In The Movie Depicting My Childhood
“Legislators pass laws enabling families to control children and defund social services that support them, all in the name of protecting the wealthy, white, girl body. These policies, which are part of the theater of stranger danger discourse, endanger children by isolating them in their homes, where Lego fortresses can become wine cellars, tombs. JonBenét as a symbol becomes the sacrifice used to sustain this system. Her story becomes a dark illustration of the consumption of the violence and abuse inflicted on girls and women.”
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The Price of Perfectionism: Chronic Illness, Unemployment, and Starting Over
“I could start a Youtube channel or a blog about disability rights and monetize it. FUCK. I don’t know how to turn it off.”
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I Was Supposed To Be Good At Math
For a split second, I thought about her racial calculations, not because I felt I needed to know, but because maybe, finally, someone might be like me. I knew our skin colors carried the weight of the same questions.
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This Never Happened
On family, memory, scar tissue, a 1999 Red Sox game, unreliable narrators, and setting the story straight.
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Between Orbits: Two Manipulators, Pulled Out of Abuse and Back
Or, the queer urge to almost form a cult with a straight woman.
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Lying’s the Most Fun a Girl Can Have
“I identified as a heterosexually-inclined bisexual when I started giving hand jobs for money, and I left more or less a lesbian. It wasn’t the only factor in that transformation, but boy was it a major one.”
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Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area
“My wife and son didn’t know; no one knew. The guilt crept up when I unloaded the groceries in the kitchen, stolen and paid-for alike.”
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The Happiest Place On Earth
“I was guilty and heartbroken and I wasn’t ready to let go of her: my first kiss, my first time, my first girlfriend, my first love, my first everything and before that, my best friend.”
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A Guide To Falling In Love For Hopeless Fools Who Can’t Read Maps
“You’re at a party; you’re on vacation; it’s your lunch break. You feel good, or maybe just bored, or maybe a little reckless, and you scan the room, the beach, the restaurant. You stop scanning. And she winks, or he grins, or they realize you caught them staring and blush awkwardly at their own feet for a thousand years, and when they finally look back up, that’s it.”
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Say My Name, Mey’s My Name Pt. II: Independent (Legally a) Woman
“As I write about my name now, I feel strength, and contentment and comfort and home. I feel more like myself than I ever have before.”
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Things Men Tell You When They Think You’re One of Them
“It was a predatory smile that he flashed at us, the rest of his pack, expecting us to become predators with him and start howling along.”
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YES CATS! Exclusive: The Incredibly True Adventures of the Backyard Bobbis
“…when my parents were yelling at each other and when my mom was slapping and screaming at me and when the kids at my school were making fun of me for being a cross-eyed dyke, I’d think about those kittens who were counting on me to keep them safe. I’d make it through another day.”