I’m writing this with fireworks exploding in the background. My neighbors like extended holiday celebrations. It’s been going on for days–just like the two weeks of fireworks around Christmas time. I suppose they’re celebrating independence. I am not feeling so much like celebrating independence right now. National Issues of Personal Independence Sure, there are all…
Author: Erika Grumet, MSW
Struggle (Sunday Summary)
This has been a challenging week. We’re still reeling from the US Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision, and feeling the addition of more bad news as the Court seems set on dismantling more and more of the United States. We wrapped up Pride Month this week, too. We spent this week in celebration, in…
From Pride 2022 to “Don’t Say Gay”
Yesterday marked the end of Pride 2022. All of the corporate rainbow logos will go back into the closet for another year and whatever rainbow capitalism items were in the stores will be marked down. Remember to stock up for next year, okay? Pride has been unusually challenging for me this year. I’ve been going…
Queer Pride and Self-Care
I’ve written a number of pieces for this website about my experiences as a rape survivor. I’ve written about how important it was for me to change my own language about my experience–to use the word “rape” instead of “sexual assault.” And I’ve written about consent and mental health, I’ve written about the way we…
Self-Knowledge (Sunday Summary)
There are weeks when it’s easy to find a common thread in the pieces we publish here. And then there are weeks like this one, where each piece stands out for what it says but it seems quite separate from the other pieces we’ve shared. Each piece this week shines a light on something important….
Coming Out: That Lightbulb Moment
A note on language. This story about coming out is being told through the prism of memory. So the scenes that take place in the late ’80s and early ’90s contain some language that implies a gender-binary. We have allowed that language to stand to reflect the author’s understanding of the world in that era,…
The Body (Sunday Summary)
We’ve asked questions. We’ve sought answers. And we’ve given instructions for “how-to.” This week it seems that most of our writers turned to poetry as a way to share what’s going on. And each of our writers finds a different way consider the human body through their words. As Jeanette Winterson said in Written on…
Learning to Take up Space
Pride started as a riot. And since then it’s been somewhere between a protest and a party. What if this year, for me, Pride Month is about figuring out how to take up space and find my seat at the table? In other words, about finding my Pride? These days, I take up space mainly…
How to… (Sunday Summary)
Two weeks ago we focused on “Real Questions.” Last week we focused on “Real Answers.” This week it seems that we’re focused on “how-to.” And the interesting thing about it is that these themes are coincidental. The 2 Rules team doesn’t often sit down to plan themes or related pieces unless we’re focused on observing special…
Disability and Queerness: Celebrate the Whole Person
Talking through Issues with my Writing Community I rely on my writing community a lot. For inspiration. Support. Feedback. They’re an important part of my life, and not just as a writer. So recently, when I was talking to Adam (mentor, 2 Rules of Writing co-founder, good friend) I mentioned that I’d been having a…