Mastering the Art of Coming Out (and Making Lobster Bisque)
“I decided to make lobster bisque for my mom at the same moment I decided to come out to her. Only one of those things went according to plan.”
Confessions of An Undocumented African Immigrant
“I couldn’t afford to go home, but it was common knowledge among the many international students that, technically, one could remain in the country beyond the visa validity period as long as you were still enrolled in school. So I did.”
Beyond Self-Care Bubble Baths: A Vision for Community Care
If I and other people with certain disabilities are going to survive, we need care — and not from ourselves. Because when it gets really bad for me, self-care is literally impossible. In those moments, I need community care.
All My Exes Live in Brooklyn
“They were a union organizer and liked to throw themed parties (for example: Naked Brunch). One time I bought Gap jeans and they called me a capitalist pig dog. They were not wrong.”
The 25 Gayest Things I Did When I Still Thought I Was Straight
Do you ever wish you could travel back in time and scream at your younger self to open their eyes?
Get Ready, Stay Ready: Allied Media Conference Reps the QTPOC Future
“The conference serves as a portal to collective dreaming and scheming where barriers become bridges to a more just future.”
That One Time The Patriarchy Blessed Me
“I loved the Church, and I loved the gospel. I was the kind of Mormon who politely dismissed myself from classrooms when teachers showed R-rated movies. At my first and only high school rager, I texted my mother to pick me up because I felt out of place amidst the drinking and smoking. That was me, Straight-Edge Dera, except apparently I wasn’t so straight.”
I Never Meant for My Hair to Be the Way Back to the Lighthouse
“I thought changing something on the outside would change the wrecked ruin of me on the inside. I thought somehow the inside would get a memo from my outside and get into shape. It didn’t, but my hair is the first way I was able to gain autonomy over my body.”
I Accidentally Went Looking For God In Portland
On Easter Sunday, I didn’t go to a church, but I quietly praised God at brunch in community with friends and strangers and so many carbs and those tiny Cadbury chocolate eggs.
Toward an Understanding of Whether Straight Fanfiction Exists: A Study
Straight fanfiction? I don’t know her.
This Queer Fat Femme Is Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and You Can Follow Along
Vanessa is thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer and she’s taking us with her! Follow along as she walks 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada.
Feelings Rookie: Hopping Off the Plane at L.A.X. With a Dream and a Cardigan
Fitting into Los Angeles wasn’t going to happen for me. Or so I thought, until I stopped trying.
Photoessay: Self-Portraits Fueled by Hope and Anger
“What I’m saying is not that art solved my problems, but instead that the strength I found through creating and through fighting back, still pushes me forward.”
We’ll Have Sex Again, I Promise
The joke was that we had to have sex before the election, because if Donald Trump won, I never wanted to be touched again. It was a joke. A joke.
Line Breaks for Resistance: How Black Poetry Lets Us Rescue Ourselves
If Alice Walker once said “hard times require furious dancing,” then hard times call for reading poetry, particularly black poets. Follow zaynab’s journey in reconnecting with black poetry as a means of daily survival and understand why reading the work of black poets can enhance our collective understandings of what it means to cultivate and sustain resistance.
87 Weeks Ago: The Night Mykki Blanco Made a Small Girl Feel Big
“I pushed and shoved and laughed and danced in big black shoes that would later bruise my feet, next to a girl who would later love me back.”
A Proposal
“It is a matter of national survival that we never get used to the president’s hair.”
Feelings Rookie: Letting Anger Light My Fuse
I like to think I can control my anger, but I usually end up burning my own life down instead.
Shoulder Pads and Short Cuts: How Grace Jones Made Me Powerful
A love letter to the only woman that stole my heart and snatched my scalp at the same damn time.
How Whitney Houston Taught Me the Greatest Love of All For My Queer Black Self
My journey to self-love through the influence of Whitney Houston’s life and music.