Browsing Tag

Austin

Return to the South: Photographer Ransom Ashley Chats Re-embracing Louisiana Roots

Posted on March 11, 2019
A photo by photographer Ransom Ashley.

Like so many southerners, photographer Ransom Ashley, 26, had to leave his hometown before fully embracing his roots. While growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana, he was bullied for being “different.” As a gay adolescent, he turned to art as a way to channel his isolation. “I started photography as an outlet to navigate my feelings about who I was,” remembers Ashley. “It became my version of a diary.”…

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OUTsider Fest to ‘Unlock the Cabinet of QUEERIOSITIES’ in Austin

Posted on February 15, 2019
A photo of Felix and the Future at OUTsider Fest.

Given the current state of our country, it is more important than ever that we embrace our queerness with ferocity. We must continue to challenge conformity and be as visible as possible. On February 20–24, OUTsider Fest, Austin’s annual queer transmedia festival, returns with this motive in mind. This year’s festival is appropriately themed “Unlock the Cabinet of QUEERIOSITIES,” and promises to be “a queer take on the cabinet of curiosities and its peculiar oddities.” Through this lens, OUTsider calls on…

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Working Out with Erica Nix: Making Fitness Queer Again

Posted on January 22, 2019
A photo of Erica Nix.

I’m an artist, and Workout! With Erica Nix started out as performance art. I used to dance for a punk rock band and, instead of go-go dancing or dancing in this cute, sexy way, I would do aerobics and act crazy on stage. I’d weigh myself afterwards, get pissed off, and throw a huge fit and hump food, spray Cheez Whiz on people, and throw donuts. It was a lot of fun! A lot of people would come for the…

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‘I’ Will Not Be Erased: Activist Alicia Roth Weigel Gets Intersexy in the Lone Star State

Posted on October 26, 2018
A photo of intersex activist Alicia Roth Weigel.

What is intersex? It’s the ‘I’ in LGBTQIA, but it’s still something that not many folks know about. Intersex is a condition in which individuals are born with reproductive and sexual anatomy that does not fit into the institutionalized “male” or “female” boxes. In honor of Intersex Awareness Day (October 26), we caught up with Alicia Roth Weigel, an “intersexy” “policy, advocacy, and campaign strategist for the progressive movement.”…

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Be Kind: The Kind Clinic Provides PrEP, Gender Care to Austin’s LGBTQ Community

Posted on October 10, 2018
A photo of the Kind Clinic CEO.

The Kind Clinic is a new force in Austin, Texas. I was informed of their existence and services when my general provider, a private practice MD who has some experience in gender care, mentioned them during our conversation on PrEP. I asked her how much the prescription would cost out-of-pocket, she pulled the information up on her laptop, and we both leaned over her desk in dismay.…

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Femme Fashionista: Stylist Miramar Dichoso On Body Positivity, QPOC Representation

Posted on September 30, 2018
A photo of fashion stylist Miramar Dichoso.

There’s a certain glow that surrounds Miramar Dichoso when she talks about fashion. Sporting velvet sandals and socks adorned with pearls, the Austin-based stylist and speaker excitedly contemplates what new shade (if any) will replace the millennial pink phenomenon. “People might find forward fashion a little odd because it hasn’t quite been embraced by the mainstream yet. I love wearing socks with open-toed sandals because I love whimsy in fashion,” she comments on her outfit choice. “I get a myriad…

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The Mysterious Nicholas Nguyen: Out Fashion Designer Talks Houston, Vietnam Success

Posted on September 24, 2018
A photo of fashion designer Nicholas Nguyen.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian. After that, I wanted to be a teacher. I even thought I might be a theatre dramaturg or production assistant for a while. But life didn’t pan out that way for me—I didn’t find my true passion of writing until adulthood. Others, like out fashion designer Nicholas Nguyen, have had their eyes on the prize from day one. “When I was a kid, I used to go into my…

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Full Spectrum: My Queer Evolution in Texas

Posted on June 14, 2018
A photo of queer Texan Kelly M. Marshall.

At first glance, my upbringing was unremarkable. I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, a Padre Island beach baby. I was firmly white upper-middle class. My mother was white collar, a second-wave feminist trial attorney who carried me in her womb during her last nine months of law school. My father was blue collar, a master electrician and a newly-recovering alcoholic who likes to constantly remind me that I am an eighth-generation Texan. Our ancestors settled here from the Czech…

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Top Four Queer Swimming Holes in the South

Posted on April 18, 2018
A photo of queer swimming hole Hippie Hollow.

As summer closes in, I’m struck by the overwhelming desire for a queer swimming experience, a place where we can all gather and connect with the water in a joyful way that simultaneously quenches the heat and the need for community. But I hesitated. Do places like that exist in the South?…

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