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Identity

All Black Lives Matter: The Erasure of Black Trans Lives from the BLM Movement

Posted on June 16, 2020

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded on July 13, 2013, by Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, and Patrisse Cullors, in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter has since developed into an international human rights organization that aims to end systemic racism. Garza (who identifies as queer) initially helped to bring an intersectional lens to the movement—intentionally addressing how race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity impact oppression. Yet, as Black Lives Matter has grown into…

The Realities of Being a Queer Black Mother Raising Black Sons in America

Posted on June 9, 2020

A photo of black queer mother Genét Delagrange.

As a Black, queer, single mother of two young Black boys, I am struggling to have faith in society, our justice system, and humanity. When I was a young girl, I had a knack for sniffing out injustice. I had an innate fire in my belly that drove me to stand against anything I considered to be inequitable or wrong. I would relentlessly debate my mother and grandfather on issues of racial injustice, always seeking to understand why things were the…

The Gay Nineties: The Sapphic Love of Adele & Ruth

Posted on May 20, 2020

A photo of LGBTQ history couple Adele Densmore, 21, and Ruth Latham, 18.

The article describes two women, Adele Densmore, 21, and Ruth Latham, 18, the former of whom presented masculine (in her brother’s clothing). The two of them lived in nearby St. Joseph, Missouri and, per the article, were a romantic couple for all intents and purposes. There is some confusion, though. For example, the piece describes Densmore as the one who preferred to dress in men’s clothing, while the accompanying sketches label Latham as the one wearing a top hat with…

Queers Who Cover: Finding Pride and Healing as a Queer, Disabled Quaker

Posted on May 7, 2020

A photo of Bailey Gammon, a disabled, lesbian, Quaker who chooses to wear a head covering.

I have always loved God. Yes, at times, I couldn’t stand to be around organized religion. And yes, at times, I even wanted to embrace Agnosticism or Atheism, simply because of the pain I felt from having religion weaponized against me. But even still, I could not escape the joy and validity of my relationship with the divine. As I have made peace with my queerness, I have also begun to re-embrace those aspects of religion and the church that…

Teresita La Campesina: Queering Ranchera Music, Performance, and Memory

Posted on April 29, 2020

A photo of trans Latinx performer Teresita La Campesina.

In 1996, in a Washington DC queer bar called Escandalo (which translates to “scandal” in English), the transgender ranchera artist Teresita La Campesina gave a performance of the Lola Beltrán song “Puñalada Trapera.” A heart-wrenching ballad that rebukes an ex-lover for stabbing the narrator in the back (so to speak), it is one of the few remaining recordings of Teresita’s live performances. She was never given the opportunity to record an album of her own. The rendition is pretty classical…

Mi cuerpo es un mundo: Translating My Lineage, Language, and Body

Posted on January 24, 2020

At some point in time, somewhere in Guadalajara, Mexico, this picture was taken. My Abuelita Guadalupe, my mother’s mother, sits between her sons David and Moises. In 1973, she would take my mother, Patricia, and her son Carlos with her across the border here to Houston. Some of her other children were already in Texas, while some never crossed. Abuelita would be diagnosed with Leukemia just four years later and, as such, decided that she wanted to die in her…

Free to Be: Navigating My Queer, Non-Binary Identity as a Child of the Southern Suburbs

Posted on January 14, 2020

A photo of Spectrum South writer Addie Tsai.

For the last month, I’ve been on tour for my first book, Dear Twin, a queer Asian young adult novel about twins and childhood trauma. The book centers a queer Asian romance between Poppy, a half-Chinese, half-Japanese queer teen and her girlfriend, Juniper, a self-identified butch Korean girl. When audiences ask me about the characters’ relationship, I say that, when writing this book, instead of envisioning a queer future, I instead envisioned a queer past—one in which I could have…

YA Author Addie Tsai on Bi-Racial Twinning, Bearing Witness to Trauma, and Queer Representation in H-Town

Posted on October 22, 2019

On a stiff hotel sofa in Waco, Texas, I took out my phone and braced myself to begin reading Dear Twin, author Addie Tsai’s first semi-autobiographical queer, young adult novel. It was October, and I was in Waco for a work event, when I realized I had down time to fill before I had to leave. Her book had been sitting in my inbox since September, and I had failed to start reading it sooner because, 1) I procrastinate, and…

5 Queer Latinx Icons to Celebrate This Hispanic Heritage Month

Posted on September 13, 2019

A photo of Latinx activist Sylvia Rivera.

It’s time to give credit where credit is due. The modern-day LGBTQ-rights movement would be nowhere without the tireless efforts of the powerful and resilient queer Latinx activists who fought—and continue to fight—for LGBTQ people’s freedom to exist. Throughout history, these movers and shakers have made extraordinary strides to improve the state of trans rights, criminal justice, HIV advocacy, gender equality, and more.…

An Ode to Butch Women

Posted on August 9, 2019

Sometimes I stare at my wife’s hands and am overcome with appreciation. My wife’s hands are usually dry and smell of cigarettes and whatever she last ate—take that as you will. Her hands are strong and remind me of safety and security. When we first started dating, I used to watch her hands on the steering wheel. I would stare, mesmerized, at the hands that were quite literally holding my life and driving me forward; gently and carefully at times,…

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