Queerness

The Naked Eye

by | May 11, 2023

A gay man seeks community, and help finishing his homework, at a no-clothes-allowed party for queer men.

Four shirtless men at a pool party

Perreo

by | January 19, 2023

Columnist Alejandro Herredia meditates on the democratic power of perreo.

villano antillano, la sustancia x cd cover

We Watch the Galaxy from Our Porch: Dating While Trans

by | October 28, 2022

With sadness, humor, and wit, trans writer féi hernandez pens a love letter to herself.

image of saturn, uranus, and neptune

Tenderness

by | September 29, 2022

Tenderness teaches us that if we consider softness with enough rigor, if we consider ourselves with enough softness, a wound is a portal, not an end. 

illustration of a man touching his heart

Passion for Change: the Queer Rights Struggle in Nigeria

by | November 9, 2021

Queer Nigerians organize to fight anti-LGBTQIA+ oppression in their country.

nigerian pride wall

Notes on Imagined Places: From Tim’s Creek to Santo Domingo

by | September 3, 2021

This imagined town in North Carolina, where all of Kenan’s stories take place, is home to preachers, farmers, Black and white people, the rich and poor. In this town lives a queer Black boy, Horace Cross, whose life is being shrunk by the social boundaries delimiting his desire, the same machinations of shame and disregard that turn many young Black queer people into ghosts of themselves.

a visitation of spirits

Bargain Basement Queerness

by | June 8, 2021

What is gayness if it isn’t visible via purchases? What is safety if it isn’t sanctioned by the consumer state? Without Target gay gear, many celebrants would be left indistinguishable from the average heterosexual white dude.

Pride Family

For Better or Worse

by | May 13, 2021

When my uncle Claude eventually passes away, he'll leave behind an estate of remarkable wealth. He's the only one of my father's siblings that was able to retire before becoming eligible for AARP citizenship. It's remarkable for me to think that for most of my life I've known my uncle as a shady real estate investor rather than the cheerful supervisor at the Palo Alto Main Post Office.

wedding in oakland

A Good Top is Hard to Find: Revisiting the S&M Classic Leash 20 Years Later

by | April 20, 2021

In Leash transgressive sex functions less as a subject, or site of guaranteed liberation, and more as a framework to explore how power moves through us, trapping us even as it promises to liberate us. In the age of pink-washed internet activism, DeLynn’s writing is a prescient reminder that any radical transformation of our sex lives, much less society, will never be painless.

Leash book cover

Is Lil Nas X The Spiritual Heir of Little Richard?

by | April 13, 2021

If we stop to examine our family tree, it becomes obvious that Lil Nas X is the fulfillment of Little Richard’s dreams. In a world where neoliberal gayness has taught us that the best we can hope for is Lady Gaga belting out the national anthem while deportations mount, Lil Nas X charitably tossed us a Zyrtec.

Lil Nas X

“There Are No Pol(ICE) in the Future” and Other Prophetic Declarations from Alán Pelaez Lopez

by | March 2, 2021

"A queer Black future is a future that allows me to envision a better reality for Black people everywhere…it is also a future that reckons with all the violence and retaliation that we will experience to get to that future. I also think that the future is now"

Alán Pelaez Lopez & Ariana Brown

Dads Give Me Skateboarding Advice or How to Misgender an Essay

by | February 18, 2021

Do catcalls produce gender? Is skateboarding a gender? Arielle Burgdorf explores skateboarding, catcalls, masculinity, femininity, and the gender constellation.

skater girl

Fucking, and Not Fucking, in the Time of Coronavirus

by | January 29, 2021

Sex in the time of coronavirus: A gay man reflects on the dangers of touch past and the dangers of touch present.

two men holding hands

féi hernandez – Con Y Del Corazón

by | January 7, 2021

féi hernandez writes poetry con y del corazón. Their new collection, Hood Criatura, tells emotionally intimate stories crafted in imagistic Spanglish.

Féi Hernandez

The Mommy Issues Picture Show

by | December 24, 2020

It will entail secret rooms, padlocked trunks, maternal brutishness, and leather cuffs about the wrists and ankles. It will be psychotic. It is called love. A survey of films where women curiously love other women in lieu of their own mothers.

mommie issues