In this braided essay, Jazmine Hughes contemplates her resistance to both learning to swim and coming out, and the empowerment each experience offers her when she finally surrenders to them.
LBGTQ
Posted inBooks, Culture, Essays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
In Jo’s Image
Jeanna Kadlec considers the impact of Little Women’s matriarchy — and its heroine — on the formation of her own queer identity.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, History, Nonfiction, Story
Where are the Gay Ladies of Cambodia?
Honeymooning in Cambodia, Lindsey Danis and her wife seek refuge in queer spaces, but struggle to find the acceptance granted to male travelers.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
What’s Happening to My Body?
Devorah Heitner reflects on the ways she is reclaiming her relationship to her own body while grappling with the legacy of her mother’s poor body image and early death.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
When Running Toward Yourself Looks Like Running Away
Amber Leventry recalls how getting sober forced them to confront and reveal important truths about their identity.
Posted inNonfiction
Woodstock: My Queer Love Story
Kate Walter went to Woodstock in 1969 with her boyfriend. She went back in 1994 with her girlfriend. She’s not going back again.
Posted inNonfiction
The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes
Leigh Hopkins faces the hidden truth about the world’s most famous spiritual surgeon and the irresistible desire to find ‘the cure.’
Posted inNonfiction
The 19th Century Lesbian Made for 21st Century Consumption
Jeanna Kadlec considers Anne Lister, the historical figure at the center of HBO’s Gentleman Jack, and the influence of other queer women who preceded her.
Posted inNonfiction
At Transformation
On the cusp of a life-changing procedure, Jane Rideau Demuth makes peace with the paths that brought her here, and the obstacles she had to wrestle with along the way.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
The Problem With Nostalgia
Michael Musto argues that wearing rose-colored glasses always leads to an unfair distortion — looking back on the best of the past while comparing it to the worst of the present.