An illustration showing a pink and yellow cloud in the background with a medic's bag in the foreground.

The Day I Decided to Be Out and Proud as a Transgender Medic

I am almost running to keep up with the nurse and make sure I am hearing every word she says. When we get to the room, I look at the patient and see… me.

A pink and yellow shapeless object with a rainy cloud in the foreground that contains a question mark.

Gender Identity

Surprise, It’s Depression: Recovery from Gender-Affirming Surgery

After gender-affirming surgery, many trans people experience post-operative depression. Awareness and the knowledge that you aren’t alone can help.

A shapeless object that is pink and yellow in the background, with a pregnancy test in the foreground.

Gender Queer Pregnancy

I Wish I’d Medically Transitioned Before Giving Birth

Less than a year after giving birth, I decided to medically transition. I wish I’d done it sooner.

An illustration of a shapeless object in pink and yellow in the background, with a pair of binoculars in the foreground.

Gender

What Trans Visibility Could Mean for Trans People, and Everyone Else

Visibility can be a trap in many ways because we never got to set the terms by which we are viewed.

A frustrated young woman standing in front of her closet, hands on her head, looking at a bunch of outfits and not knowing which one to pick.

Coming Out

You Need Help: I Can’t Figure Out What I Should Wear and Who I Should Date

You don’t need to have one particular vibe, type, or style. You don’t have to have it all figured out now, next week, or next year.

A feminine South Asian person in a black and white dress holds the hem of their dress in one hand and a Pride flag wit measuring scales on the other hand.

Gender Politics + Activism

How a Trans-Inclusive Manual for School Teachers Turned Controversial in India

The backlash that ensued after a trans-inclusive education manual was released demonstrated that post-independence India still reckons with the legacy of British colonialism.

A fair-skinned person with a black long-sleeved top and black face mask stands amid green shrubbery.

Gender

My Gender Is Dyke

I wasn’t a woman, but a lesbian, an identity so powerful it’s the closest thing to a gender I have.

three images of CJ Kitten Miller, the author: in two she wears a long purple tulle skirt and is dancing in a studio alone, in the third she is dressed like Jem and the Holograms and playing a concert

First Person Gender

On Gender Fabrication and Femme Embodiment

There are so many things I may reach for to explain how I know I am a femme or an intersex non-binary woman but these words and concepts themselves are devised and constructed. Where do I anchor femmeness and how do I understand it?

The word "womxn" is spelled out in scrabble letters, against a green, pink, and blue background

Gender

Sex With An X: The Perils Of Performative Spelling

Inclusive spellings have a long, meaningful history, but the current usage, especially replacing certain vowels in words with an “x,” leaves much to be desired – and might actually be actively harmful.

young woman with curly hair leans against a city wall and looks up at the sky, deep in thought

Coming Out Dating

You Need Help: Will I Ever Grow Out Of The Messy Questioning Phase?

Accept the messy questioning phase. It’s the whole point of being alive.

Identity

The Letter I Wrote to Santa This Year

When I was five years old, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a boy. So I decided to write to Santa Claus and ask him to turn me into one for Christmas that year.

First Person Identity

I’m Tired of Apologizing for My Intersex Trans Body

Within a binary understanding of sex, a binary understanding of gender, or a binary separation between sex and gender, I am impossible.

A Black woman in a black leather jacket is surrounded by green leaves and a small blue flower

Identity Lesbian Sex

An Act of Service: Strapping My Dom As a Leatherdyke Bottom

I still love service, but strapping for the first time expanded my very definition of the word.

A collage of the author on various halloweens across the years

Gender Halloween

How To Choose A Halloween Costume

Halloween costumes are traditionally scary – ghosts, goblins, political figures. Look back at the last 20 years and realize … that you frequently went an entire year wearing a costume and only got a reprieve on that one glorious October day. Terrifying.

Two abstract, spacy shapes against a sunrise gradient background

Identity

Do You Know Where Your Straight People Are?: Interviews With Allies (Including Two Cats)

In honor of our biannual Straight People Day, we interviewed two heterosexual friends, two cishet cats, and one past self.

A south asian person with long her and a baggy jacket is frustrated with their hands on their head

Coming Out

You Need Help: I’m Closeted, How Do I Get Everyone to Stop Asking If “I’ve Found a Man”?

I am not of the belief that “everyone should come out in order to live their best lives,” but I do want to acknowledge how incredibly difficult it is to have so many areas in your life where coming out simply isn’t an option.

Hayley Kiyoko, a Disney Channel Star who came out as gay, guest stars on Wizards of Waverly Place, placed next to the photo an adult Kiyoko performs on a stage with rainbow smoke around her.

Celebrities (Vapid Fluff) Coming Out

Happy Coming Out Day! All Disney Stars Are Gay Now, We Don’t Make the Rules

It’s modern gay lore that if you were once a star on the Disney Channel, you’re gay now. And for this National Coming Out Day, we wanted to know the truth.

A hand that is backlit holds a magnifying glass up against a galaxy that is lit up in bisexual lighting.

Identity

Three Bisexuals in Their 30s on Coming Out While in Long Term, Monogomous Relationships

“I didn’t want a divorce, didn’t want to open our relationship, didn’t want to start dating other people — I just wanted to own this piece of myself that I’d spent a lifetime denying.”