More history made at the DNC, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, voter ID laws, new data on gay-straight alliances and more.

I started the 31st week of my pregnancy crying over the kitchen sink as I crammed my gestational diabetes breakfast into my mouth. It wasn’t the pregnancy hormones this time. It was the overwhelming grief and the sudden realization of what it means to be a parent.

“If I saw my writing career through the eyes of a mediocre white man I’d be, like, that dude would be fucking high on himself constantly.”

“Do you think Putin is upset that we did not include “Vladimir” in this list? It is a pretty lesbian name.”

Kitten Summer Games, saving money, losing all your friends, staying goth, Pride in a small town, what mass killers have in common, Samira Wiley is wearing your t-shirt, art as activism, and so much more!

“It really was an honor to be able to stand on that stage and, hopefully, help educate the country a little bit more about transgender equality. More than anything else, I wanted to reinforce the simple fact that transgender people are people, who hurt when they are mocked, who hurt when they are discriminated against, and who want to be treated with dignity and fairness.”

“…it’s still completely acceptable for disabled people to hate ourselves.”

Here’s how a 33-year-old queer, polyamorous, white, trans woman living in Chicago who’s married and has a long-term girlfriend does poly.

Who wants to join Cameron Esposito, Rhea Butcher, Brittani Nichols, Julia Nunes, Jenny Owen Youngs, Dannielle Owens-Reid and 300 other weirdos on a mountain in Southern California? YOU DO!

“I was unstable and grieving and more suited for a patient friendship than the dramas of new love. But I loved her and in thirst, I acted unlovingly by climbing into a lap in which I wasn’t welcome. My behavior is the definition of obscene.”

When the world isn’t built for you, you build something for yourself. We know how to adapt and generate new ideas because we’ve been doing it out of necessity for our entire lives. So sorry, tech bros – “entrepreneurial spirit” doesn’t exclusively belong to you.

141 arrests were made at Standing Rock on Thursday, police in Washington fatally shot a pregnant Native woman during a welfare check, a new lawsuit filed in Utah challenges the state’s “no promo homo” law, two proposed anti-abortion laws in Alabama were blocked by a judge and more news.

This week we have adorable prom stories, comment poetry, arts and crafts, Game of hotness and so much more!

If they are feeling hurt by people who don’t want to use their pronouns or just by a long day of having to gender in the world, listen to them and ask how you can help ease the stress.

Topics include Black Lives Matter, catching up with the prisoners whose sentences were commuted by Obama, OJ Simpson circa 2001, Marie Kondo, Bill Cosby, Miami Beach and moar!

“Sometimes I turn to Waffle and randomly exclaim, ‘This is happening!’ I should probably stop doing that as we get closer to, like, the possibility of me going into actual labor.”

AfterEllen is a part of a legacy of brilliant publications created by passionate lesbian, queer and bisexual women that unfortunately no longer exist, but were cool for a while.

Lindsay Amer is the cool Queer Big Sister you wish you had when you were a wee tot and she’s changing the landscape of kid-friendly content for ages 3-7.

“I wasn’t in denial, I had just become extremely successful at compartmentalizing difficult emotions that I had no idea what to do with.”

This playlist accompanies all of the feelings I have being queer in suburbia: gay, lonely, bored, and confused by my neighbors’ dedications to their lawns.