First and Last Easter by S. Severin
First Easter It was our first Easter together. I was in a good mood, springtime in Chicago can do that to a person. The Easter displays were up and I decided t...
Category: LGBTQ
Passenger Trains and Other Forbidden Loves by Jonathan Odell
People are quick to ask me when I discovered I was gay, like one day I got a registered letter in the mail. Or maybe they are fishing for a steamy sex story exp...
7 Minute Read/Childhood/Featured/Funny/Gender Non-conforming/Girls & Women/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/Literature/Love/nonfiction/Sexism/Society
Hearts Are Public By Lola Kelly
“People can have crushes just on boys or just on girls???… Why? How does it work? What’s wrong with-” “There is NOTHING wrong with them! Don’t say that!” ...
Trigger warning/3 Minute Read/Featured/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Memory/Regret/Relationships/Society/Suicide
Waiting on the Stair by Jonathan Odell
This was 1972 and gay sex was definitely taboo. Not only was it against the law, the president of the university, a rabid segregationist, also hated queers. He ...
5 Minute Read/Adversity/Being Body/Childhood/Featured/Gender Non-conforming/Girls & Women/Identity/LGBTQ/Memoir/nonfiction/Secrets/Society
Why Do People Kiss? by Ashley Burke
Our Spanish teacher is not allowed to teach us anymore. This is because she kissed a woman and in our tiny Catholic school, this is against our policy. Theresa ...
1 in 300 by Cephas Barbosa
Formally coming out at 19 in the mid-’80s was a catastrophe ruled by fear. Fear, fear, fear. Fear of HIV and AIDS. It was a panic that molded my life and ruled ...
10 Minute Read/Adversity/Being Body/Featured/Family/Fathers/Funny/Gender Non-conforming/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/Love/Man in The Mirror/nonfiction/Parenting
Morning Boy by Stephen Palgon
Before my wife and I got married, my mother told me that my father had expressed concern about my future brother in law’s gayness being passed along to our chil...
Adversity/Featured/Health/Identity/Inspirational/Justice/LGBTQ/Love/men/nonfiction/personal essay/Relationships/Society
In Sickness and in Health by Scott Bane
Right in the middle of some everyday activity, I’m overtaken by a sense of joy, peace, or contentment. The window often closes up just as quickly as it has ope...
5 Minute Read/Health/Identity/LGBTQ/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/nonfiction/personal essay/Society
T-Minus 20 by Will McMillan
His Grindr profile showed he was nearby; less than 1000 feet from where I was walking. He was in a hotel. Was visiting town. He was looking for now, and now wor...
10 Minute Read/Girls & Women/Identity/Institutions/Justice/LGBTQ/Literature/Memoir/nonfiction/Rape Culture/Sexism/Society
Three Women Walk into a Bar By Annie Krabbenschmidt
As a gay woman, I have acquired a quick bar banter that cuts men loose before they can get my name. In response to their drunken prattling, I cut to the chase. ...
2018 #MeToo Runner Up/10 Minute Read/Adversity/Girls & Women/Identity/LGBTQ/#MeToo/Mental Health/Rape Culture/Religion/#SAAM/Society
Discovering Electricity by Abby Cummings
I’d be lying if I said my interest in forensic psychology wasn’t partially fueled by a need to prove I no longer feared men like him, at least in the beginning,...