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Hyphen Boutique: Empowering Community Through Gender-Inclusive Threads

Posted on September 11, 2019

A photo of clothes from Hyphen Boutique.

Boutiques around the world are full of sounds—of swiping credit cards, clacking cash registers, and excited murmurs of customers. This consumer concerto is more than transactional, however. Each exchange, each experience, contributes to the overall relationship being built between a shop and its patrons. “There’s no reason why we can’t connect with people through our clothing,” says Blake Mudd, founder of Hyphen Boutique, a Houston-based gender-inclusive and size-inclusive clothing brand. “I think a lot of people look at shopping as…

Beyond Happily Ever After: LGBTQ Fave Steven Universe Returns as Full-Length Movie

Posted on September 9, 2019

A photo from Steven Universe: The Movie.

After an eight-month hiatus at the end of season five, the LGBTQ cartoon favorite Steven Universe is back in action, now as a feature-length musical movie. Written, directed, and produced by series creator Rebecca Sugar (she/her and they/them), the movie marks not an end to the show, but rather a fresh look at this era of children’s programming. Steven Universe has provided great queer-positive family programming since 2013, and the new movie is no exception.…

Transgender Lives in Ancient Rome: The Case of Empress Elagabalus

Posted on September 6, 2019

While history often seems bereft of queer lives, nothing could be further from the truth. Transgender people have always been around in one form or another, though the terminology that we’ve used to describe ourselves has changed over time. Much of our history has either been purposefully destroyed, as in the case of Nazis burning queer books, or is reinterpreted through a modern cishet lens. Because of this, it is important to reclaim queer figures in history, such as the…

The Problem with Gender-Neutral Fashion

Posted on September 4, 2019

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “clothing” as “garments in general.” While the word “clothing” is not inherently a gendered noun, we as a society have declared different types of clothing to be specific to one of two genders/sexes. Clothing such as skirts and dresses have traditionally been associated with women/feminine persons; meanwhile, loose clothing and suiting have been linked to men/masculine persons. Throughout the history of Western civilization, ingrained and rigid gender roles—coupled with sexism—have helped to maintain this status quo.…

Out Musician Eli Prier Uses Quiet Power as an Instrument of Change

Posted on August 28, 2019

Singer and songwriter Eli Prier sees themself and their music as an instrument of change. “My message is that you can be powerful and change the world,” Prier says. “To do that, you must find the power inside yourself, focus it, and use it to create change. I see music and performance as a platform for change and I try to get my messages across through the songs I write and the performances I give.” …

Last Woman Standing: Where Have All The Lesbian Bars Gone? And Are They Coming Back?

Posted on August 23, 2019

A photo of Julie Mabry, owner of Pearl Bar in Houston.

There is an obvious lack of safe lesbian bars and queer nightlife spots for femmes and lesbians in Houston. This is not just a regional issue, but a ubiquitous, nationwide setback. After scouring the Internet, I could only confidently identify 10 bars in the entire United States (now don’t crucify me if I’ve missed one) that were demarcated as lesbian bars. You read me right: Su Ellen’s in Dallas; Henrietta Hudson in New York; League of Her Own in D.C.;…

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The Best Queer Cartoon Around

Posted on August 16, 2019

There’s a new superhero in town, and her name is She-Ra. Well, she’s not exactly new. She-Ra originally appeared in the 1980’s as a feminine answer to He-Man, and it was widely acclaimed as being…well, campy at best. When I told one of my coworkers that I was watching She-Ra, he verbatim asked, “You mean the old toy commercial?” Sometimes delightful, sometimes cringe-worthy, always cheesy, the She-Ra of the last century was a cult favorite that faded into the fabric…

Photo Recap: QFest 2019 Opening Night Presented By Spectrum South

Posted on August 14, 2019

The Opening Night of QFest Houston 2019, presented by Spectrum South, was held on Wednesday, July 24 at Rice Cinema. The evening included a screening of Jennie Livingston’s revolutionary film Paris is Burning (1990), and an after party of drinks, dancing, mixing and mingling, and performances by Stoo (feat. Luis Cerda and Ricky Lethridge) and emcee Roxanne Collins.…

The Wave

Posted on August 12, 2019

It sounded like a wave breaking. When you’re watching Hamilton and a gun goes off, you expect a bit of audience commotion. You anticipate some sort of reaction to an emotional climax of a two-and-a-half-hour story—a murmur; a shifting in seats; the rustling of fabric on theater upholstery, a breeze through leaves. What sparked the red flag is when it didn’t stop.…

The 2019 Houston Mayoral Race: Where Candidates Stand on LGBTQ Issues

Posted on August 2, 2019

A photo of the Pride Forum with Houston mayoral candidates.

On August 1, the Pride Forum, a non-partisan collaboration between several LGBTQ organizations in Houston, took the stage at Texas Southern University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Business. Though it was balmy outside, the heat of the mayoral race was nowhere to be found—yet. Seven hopefuls met with moderators Emmett Schelling and LaKeia Ferreira-Spady to discuss the issues most important to the LGBTQ community.…

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