First Person

Butch Please: Butch and Swag

It’s that tie-straightening and sunglass removal feeling.

First Person

Going Down (South): On Taking Your Sweet Time

Everything is slower in the South. I’m (slowly) realizing that this includes progress.

First Person

Butch Please: Butch Does Chivalry

“I’ve seen some queer people who insist on holding doors, and other queers who use their stilettos to step on the feet of the men who do the same. I love them both, but I’m not sure if I can call sides in a concept of gentlemanly behavior that’s much older than any of us.”

First Person

A Prairie Homo Companion: A Prairie Homo Sky at Night

As a prairie homo, I have a lot of feelings about the night sky.

First Person

Butch Please: Butchsolutions

12. Do your goddamned laundry.

First Person

A Prairie Homo Companion: Where The Sidewalk Ends

Maybe there are possibilities beyond the mortgage and the SUV and the Big Oil Company. Maybe you’ll walk along past where the sidewalk ends and discover those possibilities for yourself.

First Person

Going Down (South): The Sass Manifesto

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but good sassin’ will knock you out for a week.

First Person

Homeward Bound: Searching for the Secret Island of Black Queer Mixed Femmes

“I have always been a traveler, particularly as an immigrant and as a person with family hailing from Venezuela to Dominica to South India, ‘home’, ‘family’ and ‘belonging’ have always been complicated concepts.”

First Person

Butch Please: Butch Antiquated

“I just don’t see why a woman would want to aspire to masculinity when she doesn’t like men.”

First Person

Going Down (South): Strapping It On

Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is only an effective strategy if you have boots to begin with.

First Person

Butch Please: Broken-Hearted Butch

“That’s what you wish you could tell her when you’re staring at your shoes or finishing that drink or pretending there’s nothing else to say.”

First Person

It’s Your Gun Culture: The Autostraddle Roundtable

On growing up with (or without) guns.

First Person

Butch Please: Sticks and Stones

“So what do you do in bed, then?” they always ask, but what they mean is “I think I already know what you do in bed because you’re a butch who likes femmes, so I’ve made assumptions on your behalf.”

First Person

A Prairie Homo Companion: Snow is a Gender-Neutral Pronoun

I started feeling cold around the time I started feeling self-conscious.

someone please buy me the fisting sticker

First Person

Butch Please: Butch Works It

“I continued to make intense eye contact with my interviewer, concentrating to the point of not blinking. To her credit, she did sometimes look down, but it was usually to take in my tie, skipping my face altogether.”

First Person

Prairie Homo Companion: Conversations On Coming Home

“Me too,” I could so easily say to the teenagers on that Edmonton LRT train: “Me too.” I had also wanted to leave, and I did; but then I came home.

First Person

Butch Please: Butch Gets Emotional

“I get angry at myself for having feelings this big to begin with, and then I wrestle for a few hours with the unique mixture of self-loathing, rage, and sobbing.”