There’s a lot to say about religion and queerness and how the two can (or cannot) interact, which is why we put together this roundtable with 12 different perspectives. We hope you share your own thoughts and beliefs in the comment section.

Is there a space within sex positivity for those of us who feel uncomfortable doing what sex positivism seems to ask of us?

“I paid a dude to knock me unconscious, peel back my face, and cut out chunks of my skull and jaw.”

I like to think all of this travelling has taught me a few things, or else what would be the point? Here’s a list of 10 things I’ve learned as a prairie homo in the great wide world.

“You’re marching gallantly to your grave Laneia. We all are. We’re all spinning spinning spinning just grazing fingertips on things in hopes we’ll leave a mark. Anyway you should stop opening your mouth so wide when you brush your teeth. Keep those wrinkles down.”

If you present in a traditionally feminine way, you’re just being a misogynistic parody of a woman, and if you fail to present in a traditionally feminine way, well ha! There’s the proof that you’re not really a woman right there.

“This past year of my transition, 2012, has been one of road travel with many miles revisited across numerous American states… Not the least of my concerns was driving my friend Xene’s unfamiliar Prius. Yet, my larger concern was driving solo as a woman.”

“Isn’t this what Valentine’s Day had always been to me? A pageant? An opportunity to try on the idea of being in love, being traditional, being a couple you could fit into a envelope.”

“It’s on my twenty-fourth birthday that I realize something is wrong. I wake up crying and I don’t stop.”

Hey there, Autostraddlers. I’m Claudia, and I’m intersex.

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

“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.”

The exploitation of love, anxiety and poverty are the driving force behind another made up moneymaking holiday. ‘Merica!

“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.

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

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

“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.”

On growing up with (or without) guns.

“Coming out never ends, and for some of you it hasn’t even begun.”

“There is no better feeling than knowing you can’t do something, just knowing it to the core, and then surprising yourself because you can.”