[Image description: close photograph of sequins inside a kaleidoscope; overlapping circles of blurry, brightly-coloured light.]
I devoured Arabic books, one after another, with a certain pride and a sense a victory. For me, reading Arabic books was another way of saying, “nah, you’re not going to kill my identity and force me to adopt your stupid European one!”
Read MoreFrom narrative arc to real life, a personal essay on finding and exploring one’s own character over role playing games.
Read More[Image Description: A Lego figure in a molded unicorn onesie stands solitary against a white background, shadows falling to the left.]
In snapshots rich with details, Jenna Swisher chronicles the daily microaggressions and misunderstanding of bisexuality, inhabiting the liminal space of sexuality that most don’t think exists. The Art of Being a Unicorn leaves you with more questions than answers, and hungry for what could have been, in the best way possible.
Read MoreThe subterfuge is tiresome - my septum ring flipped up every time I come home, hiding the undercuts in my hair with the long hair falling over and my nails trimmed short short short. I’m tired of waiting to tell them.
Read MoreMy father had a daughter once, and now he does not anymore. I killed her first when I began to grow, and was no longer the child he could carry on his shoulders, and I killed her again when I began to think, and was no longer the child he could overrule, and most recently I killed her when I told my father that he had never had a daughter in the first place, but he could have a son, if he was willing.
Read MoreMy own belly, held in my hands, soft touches and apologies, trying to make up for decades of misplaced anger, as it grows shrinks stretches aches wakes listens revels lies content.
Read MoreI want to feel as though I am surrounded by people working towards a more perfect world again and again and again.
Read MoreQueer Muslims are sometimes disavowed and shunned by other Muslims, whilst being simultaneously denied by the very LGBT+ communities they turn to for safety. To these individuals, religion and queerness cannot intersect.
Read MoreI wanted to be seen as a woman by everyone else, and a beautiful one at that, but referring to the aforementioned requirements, I was eventually ordered to “get the fuck out.”
Read More“It goes deeper than that real life safe space; the game itself provides a world where the obstacles that I as a queer person face daily simply don’t exist. Fictional though the world in which we play may be, the power that it holds is real. Once a week, we get to exist in a space where our identities are as commonplace as the cobbles on the street…”
Read MoreI was an angry kid because I already knew everything was bullshit, and I knew it didn’t have to be that way. While knowing it wasn’t my fault didn’t stop me from being wounded by it, it also doesn’t diminish my responsibility to heal those wounds myself, and to not pass them along.
Read MoreThe woman on the telephone gave me a 9pm appointment for an interview — I guessed that meant to see if I was pretty enough. I found the hour strange, but then again, many call girls probably worked at night.
Read MoreThe first time I introduced myself as Katrina was while volunteering at an event run by the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Surrounded by trans, non-binary, and queer people, all of us united to run a food festival, I felt unconditional love and a friendship that I hadn’t realized I had been longing for.
Read MoreThere was so much guilt in all the possessions I held onto. The potential of what I could be, who I would be held in the promise of smaller sized clothing, clothes I made for myself that ended up being unwearable, and the things my mother purchased for me, forming me into her ideal image of a daughter.
Read MoreAnd what does fake vs real even mean in a world of drag anyway? What the fuck does it matter?
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