By Jordan Power
In my earliest memory, I’m three and hunched behind a blue exercise mat, masquerading as a stage curtain. My parents have paused dinner preparation for a sneak peek at my latest theatrical original, always here for one night only. I hit play on the boombox, click on the nightlight illuminating the side walls, and saunter from the back of the “curtain.”

By Charles Baran

I was an excellent houseboy at first. Mondays I’d do the laundry: sheets in the morning, towels in the afternoon. Tuesdays I’d vacuum and shake the sand out of the area rugs. Wednesdays I’d clean the three bathrooms. On Thursday I’d grocery shop for the weekend. By 4 p.m., I was done.

By Rafaelito V. Sy

I READ MY FIRST NOVEL at age fourteen. If my high school English teacher had not assigned a report on a book written for adults, then I would never have picked up Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel.

By Aila Boyd

I’m only 25, but I’ve been a high school theater and chorus teacher, a general assignment reporter, a college English instructor, and an editor of a small weekly newspaper. Luckily I have done quite well in both arenas. Perhaps that’s because I have a good work ethic and am resourceful.

By Brad Graber

Am I having trouble breathing? Is that cough an allergy or something more serious? These are the thoughts racing through my mind as I socially distance from everyone except my husband, Jeff. Am I afraid of coronavirus? You bet.

By Julia Wendell

His name was Stefan. No one called him my older brother’s lover. John hadn’t come out yet, even to me. The two men could have just been friends. I was twenty. It was 1977. I hadn’t been in love yet, but I had been wanted.

By E.M. Birmingham

My lesbian twin sister died in May of 2019 from Stage IV bone cancer, having delayed going to a doctor for almost a year as she limped around from the pain in her left hip. By the time Eleanor was diagnosed in May 2018, the cancer had spread throughout her body.

By George DeStefano

In July 2000, my partner Rob and I spent several weeks in Italy, beginning in Rome. We came to the Eternal City for World Pride Roma, a week of gay cultural and political activities culminating in a march.

By Tobias Maxwell

I’ve always wondered about bisexuality. Mine, primarily. Navigating any orientation as a prepubescent is not easy. When I was growing up in the sixties, being gay was generally more complicated. But, imagine raging hormones while having to handle the double-edged sword where every body you saw appealed to you.