On my dresser sits a small, gold and purple felt hat. I have no idea how old it is. It was a prized possession of my partner’s grandfather. Pinned to it are various accolades from the Lions Club of Barcelona, Venezuela—where my partner and his family are from. A perfect attendance pin from 1962, another from 1964, and so on.…
As teachers, we come into this vocation knowing we will love and part ways with many students throughout our career. At the start of the school year, we meet dozens of new shining faces, and like a parent, we love them all equally. But every year we also find a certain special bond with some students over others. This has nothing to do with favoritism, it is simply the human nature of finding common connection. When I meet certain students…
Drive down Houston’s I-10 highway, and you’ll see a newly erected billboard with a simple, yet powerful statement: Protect Black Trans Women. An effort by the Transgender Ally Collective (TAC), this billboard relays a crucial message in a time when Black trans women are being murdered at alarming rates.…
Marfa is a liminal space. It’s undeniable—the dusty roads, the streets that are somehow simultaneously vibrant and silent, and of course the infamous Marfa Mystery Lights. The small West Texas town exists on a plane that isn’t quite here nor there; a spot in the nether between Central Texas and the adobe settlements of New Mexico. If a film were to be made of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast and Marfa were chosen as the filming location, no one…
What does it mean “to know?” How do we confirm a belief, or distinguish between bias and truth? As children, we believe what we are told. Our parents, caregivers, communities, and teachers tell us how the world works. We are given plenty of answers but rarely feel empowered to question them. As queer people, many of us were told that we didn’t have the option to be who we are—either explicitly or through the omission of our identities in conversation.…
Dallas-based artist S Rodriguez sees “gender as a technology, both in a precolonial, colonial and postcolonial state. Gender plays a role in the way you operate in society. It is very much a tool, just like any technology, that you can choose or is chosen for you. And you can choose to continue working with that tool or change that tool.” While for some, the “goal” of gender as a tool might be “passing,” for Rodriguez and many others who…
I tend to play video games that are escapist—ones that let me play at being stronger, faster, or smarter. They let me be the hero but rarely do they hold up a mirror to my own life. The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories is a platform puzzle game about a 19-year-old trans girl’s pain—something that I myself remember all too well. The game takes a magic realist approach to how JJ (our protagonist) deals with this pain:…
If you would have told me at the beginning of 2020, “Jas, all of your trips will be cancelled this year,” I would have never believed you. Me? I’m going on vacation no matter what. Well, COVID-19 had other plans. Now, “vacation” looks like traveling from the bedroom, to the kitchen, to the couch.…
I was in the sixth grade at Buckeye Elementary School in Salem, Ohio, a small town of 12,000. There really were buckeye trees lining the street outside of the school. This was a conservative time in a conservative state. The year was 1959. Eisenhower was in his second term. The Edsel was still the attention-getting new car. On State Street (our Main Street), the two focal points were the Woolsworth Five and Dime and the State Theatre, only three doors…
Porn can be divisive—and, often, whether you view the erotic subject as good, bad, or neutral depends largely on the lens and framework of your gaze. On one side is the camp that sees almost all porn, as long as it's between consenting adults, as fun and fine. On the other side are the folks who equalize all types of porn and generalize them all as bad. This latter group is an interesting mix of liberal feminists, violence prevention advocates,…
