The first time I “came out,” it was more of being pulled out. My parents had just discovered I was gay and the world turned upside down. My father was angry with me, but I couldn’t understand why because he has a lesbian sister and a gay brother. My mother simply ignored me. I spent the next few years silencing the things about myself that I knew my parents would never understand. …
I must have been around 13 years old the first time my mom showed me the film Fried Green Tomatoes. She said it was a film about fierce southern women working together to beat the odds and succeeding—something she knew a lot about. While my mom is a Yankee through and through, she married a southerner and lived in Tennessee for several years. She fell in love with the land and its history, an admiration reflected in her connection to…
Houston-based plus-size model and entrepreneur Tiffany Page-Pratt learned the definition of hustle from her mother. A hardworking woman, her mom sold Avon and Tupperware on top of her full-time job at the post office. “Watching [my mother] was what built my ambitions,” Page-Pratt says. “For starters, it takes a lot to be a single mother, but to also juggle two and three jobs—I commend my mom for that.”…
Black History Month has always been about telling the stories that have gone untold—the triumphant stories of the societal impact and progress made by those who were not always accepted as members of society themselves. In school, we often learn of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, Malcolm X, and Madame CJ Walker. As the years go on, we hear these same stories over, and over, and over again. And while these stories are important to celebrate and…
I have always loved birth. As a teen and young adult, I would spend hours glued to TLC’s A Birth Story and other ER shows that depicted live births with a twist of trauma and terror. I found every unique birth story endlessly fascinating. What was this family’s journey? How would this birth be different? What would the baby look like? As I observed birth after birth, I came away with one clear conclusion by the age of 14: I…
National Coming Out Day gives the Veer Queer team some feelings, so they dish it out with their very first Portland guest, Kris.…
The way Houston freestyle poet Tiffany Scales, a.k.a The Wordmatician, lights up when she talks about the power of poetry can only be compared to the way a hopeless romantic glows when they gush about the love of their life. Poetry is the way she learned how to read, the space she feels safest in, and the tool she uses to build a brighter tomorrow. On October 19, Scales’ first album, WRDMTCN, will be released into the world. This project is…
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…
From the moment you step into artist Stephanie Gonzalez’s Houston studio, your eyes are drawn in every direction: from her in-progress project made from thrown-away papers, to her latest sculpture, “The Scissor Sisters,” a statement on how men often view lesbian sex as exaggerated entertainment for their own pleasure.…
I believe in education more than anything on Earth. I believe that the answer to almost every problem facing us as individuals, communities, countries, and as a planet is based in education. I believe in it so much that I got my doctorate in education, with a focus on inclusive sex education.…
