Sharing This Breath: What Sex Looks Like for Me As A Graydemisexual Ace December 23, 2020 by Grace B. Freedom Leave a Comment Hi! My name is Grace, and I am a graydemi ace. I'm what I've previously called an "IAMsexual" who has a lot of sex, just not likely the kind you're imagining. Re-imagining sex as acts that de-center the mainstream idea of sex feels important to understanding how I navigate my relational world. Let me provide you with a scene of what my "IAMsexual" world of sex looks like. We … [Read more...]
Rejecting Fetishization and Lack: Claiming the Fullness of My Black Demisexuality December 21, 2020 by Grace B. Freedom Leave a Comment By Grace B. Freedom My name is Grace and I am a gray demisexual ace. Rewind: gray doesn’t really suit me. It doesn’t feel vibrant enough. I can be a gray demisexual as it pertains to generic understandings of asexuality, but I want to formally declare that I want a new color. Perhaps I will be a gold-flecked cyan demisexual with rich metallic hints and deep blues … [Read more...]
How Do We Really See Each Other Across Identities?: Notes From A Queer Breakup December 10, 2019 by The Queer Insomniac Leave a Comment Almost a year after separating from my partner, we had a second breakup. Our first breakup, though incredibly painful, was what I can only describe now as tender. After trying to surmount the difficulty of a nearly ten-year age difference, our romantic relationship ended upon the realization that I was not yet ready to "settle down" and wanted more time to explore life as … [Read more...]
Hot Boi Summer?: Navigating the Pressure to Alter My Non-Binary Body November 2, 2019 by MicahHobbes_Frazier Leave a Comment Writer's note: i write in lower case; it's my small rebellion. i’m mad. i’m mad that gender rules dictating what is “appropriate dress” for female and male bodies have me thinking about surgically altering my body. i love my body. i love how it’s feminine and masculine at the same time. i love the curve of my belly and the muscle line when i flex my triceps. i love how my … [Read more...]
Thwarted Belonging and Reasons for Hope: Queer Black Trans Pain Matters September 6, 2019 by Regina Leslie Leave a Comment Content note: This article includes (non-graphic) discussion of a completed suicide. One of my closest friends died by suicide. The days after their death were jarring and bewildering. I carefully tried to drink water, only to involuntarily spit it up while sobbing. I tried to eat, only able to eat soup and beans. (To my horror, the hot Funyuns a friend offered made me … [Read more...]
Mixed-Race, Non-Binary, Queer Fat Femme: How I Fail and Succeed in Finding Liberation August 15, 2019 by Cicely Blain Leave a Comment I am a Black, mixed-race, fat, queer, non-binary person. Most saliently, I am femme. I have come to understand radical femmeness, femme magic, femme community, femme love, and femme power through my relationships with other womxn and femmes of color. While femme communities evoke safeness and security for me, they also often exist on the basis of trauma. Femininity leaves us … [Read more...]
El Amor Romantico Nos Mata: Quien Cuida De Nosotros Cuando Somos Solteros? August 11, 2019 by Caleb Luna and Ana Maroto Leave a Comment Soy una persona deprimida, pero deprimida es un verbo. Considero mi depresión como el resultado de una posición social y de la inevitable historia de colonización, racismo, del estigma de la gordura y de la discriminación. Estoy tomando antidepresivos, pero éstos solo pueden reprogramar la química de mi cerebro y no la realidad social y material en la que vivo. No puede … [Read more...]
3 Reasons We Need to Be Critical of Compulsory Sex Positivity in Queer Spaces August 2, 2019 by Caleb Luna 1 Comment Sex positivity often acts as an implicit — or sometimes explicit — foundation of leftist, feminist, and LGBTQ+ spaces for completely valid reasons. As women and queers, sex has been the driving force behind both our oppression and the spaces we create to separate, heal, and liberate us from our oppression. Sexualized spaces for socializing predate our modern understanding of … [Read more...]
5 Ways Mexican Queerness Is a Radical Act Against Colonialism and Machismo June 22, 2019 by Erika_Ruiz Leave a Comment I am a queer non-binary person. The labels I use to describe this queerness are always changing and hardly ever stay static, but I am undoubtedly queer. I also come from a Mexican household. Both of my parents were born in the state of Jalisco and migrated to the United States when they were a young newlywed couple. I exist in the intersection of these identities as a queer … [Read more...]
My Queer Sex-Positive Life: Unlearning the Gendered Sexual Shame That Kept Me Disempowered May 8, 2019 by Jamila Reddy Leave a Comment This article was originally published by Jamila Reddy under its original title "Sex-Positivity Means Unlearning Shame" and is republished with permission. When I was five years old, my parents gave my sister and me a book called Where Did I Come From. Published in 1973, the book featured illustrations and explanations of how babies are made. On the front and back covers … [Read more...]
10 Mujeres Queer y Personas No-Binarias de Color que usan los Medios de Comunicación y el Arte para liberarse May 5, 2019 by Ana Maroto and Taylor Steele Leave a Comment El arte, en cualquiera de sus géneros y variaciones, ha sido usado como herramienta no sólo de autoexpresión, sino también de activismo. Estamos observando la evolución del arte en espacios políticos: la poesía de la palabra hablada se abre paso desde los agujeros oscuros en la pared a los grandes medios de comunicación con poetas que son exhibidos en series de televisión y … [Read more...]
How White LGBT Spaces Erase Queer People of Colour April 5, 2019 by Mari Ramsawakh Leave a Comment This article has been republished from Xtra, and is reprinted here by permission. For as long as I could remember, I had always known I was queer in some way. In the way that my feelings for girls and women around me seemed to be more intense than they were supposed to, or the way that I would feel very strange if I happened to see a sexy scene of a woman in a … [Read more...]
10 Queer Women and Non-Binary People of Color Using Media and Art to Get Free August 20, 2018 by Taylor Steele Leave a Comment Art, in every of its genres and variations, has been used as a tool, not only of self-expression, but of activism. We’re watching the evolution of art in political spaces: spoken word poetry makes its way from dark holes in the wall into mainstream media with poets being showcased on television series and late night talk shows; visual artists creating installations calling … [Read more...]
Fat Black Queer Femmes Are the Fetishized Backbones of Our Communities — But Who Takes Care of Us? July 25, 2018 by Alexandra "Aly" Thomas Leave a Comment This article was originally published on Rest for Resistance as "Labor, Chaotic Desire & Belonging: On Blackness, Femininity, and Queerness" and is republished with permission. This is for the queer fat Black femmes. As children, we learn that we never occupy just one, but all, of our identities. Not a fat girl or a Black girl, but a fat Black girl. In elementary school, … [Read more...]
My Biracial Identity: Figuring Out Where is Home July 16, 2018 by Maya Gittelman Leave a Comment My ancestry manifests in me as the aftermath of an ongoing battle. My body is the convergence of bloodlines that span continents. My heritage is layered and not cleanly, textured with palimpsest and patina. I am dual, simultaneous. I encompass the oppressor and oppressed, the privileged and the disenfranchised. I am mixed. Specifically, I am mixed Filipinx and white. This … [Read more...]
