It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We’re a week into Pride Month, and while cities across the globe prepare for their festivals and parades, Pride Houston is looking back on the last 40 years, gearing up for their Ruby Anniversary.…
Pride season is upon us, which means it’s the perfect time to rejoice in our identities, commemorate our forequeers, and reflect on the progress that’s still to be made. To kick off our month-long celebration, we’ve compiled a list of our top five LGBTQ southern reads for the summer. Whether you’re kicking back at a Pride pool party or beating the heat inside, these recommendations are sure to satisfy your need to queerly read.…
Miss Eaves’ 2017 hit song “Thunder Thighs”—which became a summer anthem for thick girls everywhere—reverberates through the speakers. Five plus-size models, dressed head-to-toe in vintage ‘80s fashion, strike poses that shamelessly show off the self-love they hold for their bodies (and give Olivia Newton John a run for her money).…
In his newest novel, Southernmost, Silas House confronts a changing Appalachia where even Asher Sharp—a fundamentalist preacher in Tennessee—questions his rigid moral beliefs, years after his brother comes out as gay and flees to Key West. And while House has a canon of work that candidly depicts Appalachian people (including the New York Times’ best-selling Clay’s Quilt), this is his first novel to tackle openly gay characters.…
During my sophomore year at the University of Houston, I discovered two life-changing things about myself: my love for dance and my love for women. I was an English major at the time, and dating a guy who was majoring in music. He awakened an appreciation of the arts in me that I had never known was there, and I decided I wanted to become an artist of some kind as well. So, I took a semester off to take…
Within the canon of southern literature, it is rare to find queer authors who died within 200 miles of where they were born. It is even rarer is to find a queer author who did so and lived freely. Most made their exodus from the South and sought refuge in queer urban hubs, such as New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. One of the most famous amongst those who journeyed away from his roots, but whose plays kept his…
There’s just something about a bold geometric windbreaker that attracts the eye of Trent Lira, one half of Houston’s New Wave duo the Space Kiddettes. Devin Will, the equally eclectic other half, is like a Marie Fredriksson dream circa Roxette 1992. The pair just celebrated the release of “Process Ü,” the first single since their freshman EP Livingspace // Headspace dropped last year.…
We all need a voice—whether it’s our own or that of another—to lift us up, to comfort our hearts, and to bring us together. Through her incredible music and inspiring personal journey, Stephanie Rice is that voice for many LGBTQ millennials. Her singing chops aren’t that bad either. In May 2017, she finished in the top 11 of The Voice Season 12 and has since gone on to further her career as a professional singer-songwriter and musician.…
Equal parts social justice and rock ‘n’ roll, TOMBOi is not your average indie electronic band. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, bandmates Paige McMullen (guitar), Alex E. (vocals/beats), and Summer Wood (drums) use music to share their personal experiences as queer women in the South, promote social equality, and to give back to their community through volunteerism. …
Walking into a Fear the Queer (FTQ) show is like being transported into a world of queer fantasy and fiction. The music is loud, the lights are dimmed, and the boundaries of drag and art are being pushed and pulled in every direction. Self-described as “a perfectly peculiar posse of performers,” “an incubator of talent,” and “a safe haven for the alternative subculture, within a subculture,” FTQ came out swinging when they launched last August.…
