For Trans Puerto Ricans, Passing Laws Is Only Part of the Battle for Liberation
Trans activists in Puerto Rico insist they are not a distraction, but central to the struggle for independence.
The State of Trans Lives in the Birthplace of the American LGBTQ Movement
Despite New York’s progressive reputation, it ranks among the top states for anti-trans violence. What are the factors that contribute to the plight of trans New Yorkers?
The Barriers that Keep Trans People From Thriving in Texas
The Lone Star state has repeatedly attempted to take life-saving resources away from trans people.
The Roots of Anti-Trans Violence
Trans people have been reported as experiencing an epidemic of violence. But why does the violence happen in the first place?
How Louisiana’s Antiquated Laws Set Trans People Up for Violence
Louisiana is in the top three states for the highest amount of anti-trans violence. Remnants of laws from the 1800s continue to trap trans people in a cycle of abuse.
Crafting The Narrative Of Abuse
Narratives of violence and abuse are so familiar in our history and culture that we hardly notice them. Corinne Manning shares what it took to notice and transform these narratives in their own fiction and their story collection, We Had No Rules.
In Pursuit of a Pirate
We were just friends the first night she stayed over. I only had a single bed and there was little choice but to press our bodies close together: one big spoon and one little spoon. My desire for her followed me around like a lost dog. It would scratch at the door, whining and begging to be let out.
The Private Activism Of Personal Connection
There are multiple ways to be an activist. It does not have to be a large public gesture. In private, trusting conversations with someone very different from you, you can create the space for revolutionary change. Connecting with each other on every scale contributes to a stronger global fight against injustice.
Rabbit Hour
By the time I got out of the pool, I had five messages. Waiting at the light, the slivers of passing headlights passed over the hood of my car like sparks. You’re hot. You have a pretty face. So you’re bi? You could have a three-way with us. What are you up to tonight? You should put up more pictures.
Boyshorts and Girltrunks 101: Your Queer Underwear Guide
Boyshorts/Girltrunks 101: Including 78 boyshorts, girltrunks and boxer-brief suggestions for weirdos.
Hurtling at Full Speed Toward the Present
Screams are often ripped from us, either through fear or fervor, but rarely does one think, soberly and with intention, “ I would like to indulge in a scream,” and then do it. This is a mistake.
I Grew Up In A House That Was Haunted
In finding out that the legacy of redlining was so connected to my childhood home, I started to wonder what else I harbored that no one had ever thought to explain to me. I wanted to understand how my family and I became this way: so oblivious to our direct complicity in white supremacy
Cutting Out the Middle
I would spend many hours trying to diagnose the emptiness Amanda left in her wake. I had lost something, but didn’t know what. Surely there’s a queer space on the page for stories that lack a middle?
The Poet’s Choice
It takes effort to choose an ending. It’s a lot easier to get back together, to catch a flight, to miss a flight, to fuck someone else. It’s easier to be with someone until you hate them than to walk away with love.
The Public Education System Sucks (Especially for Queer Black Femmes)
If the Dean positions are largely dominated by men, guess who the most punished group in school is.
We Deserve To Be Selfish
I was ready to declare myself and to bring everyone else who was ready along for the ride. I thought, “I’m going to put as many women as I can into one publication, and they’re gonna get to say whatever the f*ck they want.” And Selfish, the magazine, was born.
Fire In The Belly: Letter From The Editor
“I’m a passionate person” I might write in a dating profile, which sounds harmless and doesn’t touch the deep smolder I experience daily. We’re bringing you stories in this issue from people who are also deeply moved and motivated by their feelings — about desire, about truth-seeking, about fighting for change, about fighting the body.
For Queers, by Queers, in Strait-Laced Boston
There’s a staunch Puritanical and traditionalist bent that persists in New England, now resulting less in atrocities like the perennially invoked Salem Witch Trials and more in people being doggedly polite: here, that means ignoring each other in public, not making small talk when you can be direct, and extreme propriety around personal questions to the extent of depersonalization. It can leave a queer kid uninspired, and in communities where, for better or worse, coding is still a vital method of communication, it can make the world feel small.
Enduring “Straight Time” to Build Our Own Radical Queer Utopia
The world tells us that we should not want anything beyond what is here and now, right in front of us, but what’s in front of us is violent and harmful. What’s in front of us is killing us. Wanting for more is such a queer project.
A Better World: Transformative Justice and the Apocalypse
As COVID-19 brings the world as we know it to and end, queer, trans and marginalized communities need to transformative justice more than ever. But what does it mean to believe in a world without punishment in the apocalypse?