The Gift of Matthiessen and Cheney
By Scott Bane
My connection to Matthiessen and Cheney came through my sexuality, their relationship, Maine, and Matthiessen’s chosen field of study: history and literature.
Browsing: Here’s My Story
Blog Posts
Night Life
By Lucas Hilderbrand
Early on, strangers also often teased me, amused by the idea that going to gay bars was “research.” Almost imperceptibly, as the years went by, this shifted; people no longer thought historicizing gay bars seemed like a joke.
Courageousness, Queerness, & Activism
By Dan Glass
As a teenager my gay shame and toxic shame took each other hand-in-hand, got married and waltzed into the cauldron of fire.
Notes on Queerness in Quarantine
By Francesca Capossela
But, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, living with my then-boyfriend, I began to feel that I had lost my bisexuality, like a favorite sweater forgotten on some subway train.
A Season in Delhi
By Scott Alexander Hess
But what really inspired the idea and emotional heart of A Season in Delhi was how I felt being in Delhi as a recently-married gay man.
Through an Empty Mirror
By David R. Slayton
Genre fiction, and adult fantasy especially, has long been the territory of straight, white cisgender men. There are cracks in that wall now. It no longer seems an unassailable tower, but growing up how and when I did, I could not find myself there, in a genre I loved.
Minnie Bruce Pratt Changed My Life
By Risa Denenberg
Minnie Bruce Pratt—cherished poet, teacher, and activist in the LGBTQ+ community—died on July 2. I learned about it on Facebook, and found it devastating. I owe a lot to this courageous woman. She was important to so many, and will be tremendously missed.
Coming Out Queer & the Daughter of a Spy
By Leslie Absher
I knew intuitively not to talk about the fact that I preferred girls to boys. But when I was called a “lezzie” by a boy on the school bus, it was really clear: it was bad to be the way I was.
The First Kiss That Counted
By Ben Haynes
Nick and I were on friendly terms, but we never took the time to get to know each other. I dated an ex-girlfriend of his immediately after the two of them broke up, and within a month or so, I too pulled the plug. Neither of us ever mentioned it to the other, but we knew our attraction to each other was lurking somewhere under the surface.
Gay By Design
By Karen Raines
I was watching TV the other day someone in the show I was watching asked, “If you met your eighteen-year-old self and could only say three words, what would they be?” Immediately, I knew mine: “Yes, you are.”