Note: A lot of language surrounding gender is new. These words/ideas have been around for years but it’s only in the last decade or so that the singular “they” and the idea of gender as a spectrum have entered the public consciousness. You’ll see a lot of the outdated style of language in this piece,…
Tag: coming out
Coming out versus Letting In
It’s the end of Pride Month. Usually I’m overflowing with words about queer topics, especially in June. I had a year of queer rage in 2022. And 2023 has me filled with even more rage. And yet this month, when I should have been able to say something I’ve had trouble saying anything. Every time I…
Pride is for… ?
I began June not with celebration, but with tears. “Happy” Pride, right? Who the fuck thought I would be watching a TV show with a character who was wearing overalls and I would absolutely breakdown in tears? And now, I’m alternating between writing and ugly crying. And the makeup I put on earlier today is a mess…
It’s not Gay Christmas without Rocky Horror
The Gay Christmas Equivalent of the Peanuts Movie Perhaps my love for “Gay Christmas” should have been an early clue about my queerness. I love a good Christmas movie, but Halloween just isn’t Halloween without Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are lots of reasons why the film would never be okay if it were made…
After “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop Woke”
It’s October. We’re celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. Two weeks ago we celebrated National Coming Out Day. We’re finally starting to feel as though autumn isn’t too far off. And kids have been back in school for a month or two already. They’re well on the way to thinking about their grades–report cards, tests, essays. Everything…
National Coming Out Day: Advice to my Younger Self
October 11 is National Coming Out Day. (We’ve also got World Mental Health Day on October 10 and, on October 14, the forty fifth anniversary of Anita Bryant, singer and notorious homophobe, getting hit in the face with a pie.) National Coming Out Day is sort of contemporary take on second wave feminism’s mantra “the…
Bi+ Visibility is Cause for Celebration
Pride Month in June celebrates the entire LGBTQ+ community including bi+ people. There are some struggles unique to the bi+ community though, and September has been set aside to honor them. The month of September is Bi Visibility Month., which includes Bisexual Awareness Week is celebrated from September 16-23, and concludes with “Celebrate Bisexuality Day” on…
PrEP Under Threat
A judge in Texas recently ruled that a company with a religious founder does not have to pay (through its choice of insurance plans) for its employees to use Truvada or Descovy as PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis against HIV). This is obviously part of a long list of recent legislative and judicial attacks on the rights…
Not Just a Phase?
I’ve written about the first time I kissed a girl. I’ve written about how much it would have meant to me to have queer role models. And I’ve written about why it was really important for me to have access to queer books as a teenager. I’ve never really talked about the “not just a…
Comfortable Dancing: The Importance of Sex Ed
I grew up in a suburb of New York City, which is widely known as a bastion of tolerance and liberality. But as far as I knew, there was only one queer kid in my grade. Out of a class of some 250. Which is to say the others did not feel welcome. This of…