Here’s My Story
HERE’S MY STORY is a feature on The G&LR‘s website, where you can share some part of your life story with other readers. We receive a lot of submissions of personal memoirs, but the magazine doesn’t publish first-person narratives as a general rule. “Here’s My Story” is a space that allows our readers (and others) to talk about their experiences as members of the LGBT+ community. There are no restrictions on subject matter, but some broad areas might include:
- Coming-out stories
- Memorable love affairs
- An epiphany (e.g. a work of art)
Here's My Story View all
Taking the Secret Out of ‘Open Secret’
By Terry Boyle
My father, a very pious Catholic, never suspected that one of his five sons might be gay. The closest we came to having a discussion on the subject happened quite accidentally. We were driving downtown, when all of a sudden, he pointed at a man walking down the street and said, “See him? He’s a wee bit gay.” When I later told this story to my partner, he said: “You should have asked him, which bit of the man was gay?”
Upstate New York Meets Puerto Rico
By Ted Simonin
It’s more important than ever to appreciate and embrace people’s differences. Forget skin color and birthday parties. If your family is as strong as an army, that’s a unit I want to be a part of, and I truly wouldn’t change a thing.
They Asked, and I Told
By Kenneth Stiger
As I approached graduation, I decided to apply to the Peace Corps and was accepted for a contingent of volunteers to go to Colombia, South America, to work in educational television.
Supreme Job Blow to Jesse Helms
By James Patterson
U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, (R-NC), maintained a political hold on employment protections for LGBT federal employees for over 25 years. The “Helms hold” was broken on June 15, 2020, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred employment discrimination against LGBT workers. …
Talking To Our Kids About Their Family
By Robin Hopkins and Jaimie Kelton
Jaimie and I are lesbian podcasters and business partners who each have wives and kids of our own. And despite talking regularly about LGBT families on air, we’ve both struggled with having “the talk” with our kids. Will we do it right? Will they want to talk about it? Will they be proud of their family or ashamed of our differences?
Aaron Foxman and the Postmodern Torah Holders
By Marc Weiner
Ron Foxman was just making casual conversation when he pointed at the Torah holder on the right and said to my father: “Well, if that doesn’t look like an erect penis jutting out from a pair of thighs, then I don’t know what does.”
In Praise of Brigid Brophy: Novelist and Activist
By D.R. Michael
Imagine the common enough scenario of an adolescent boy turning into a young man and realizing that he is attracted to members of his own sex. Add the geographic context: a small village in the remote countryside many miles from the nearest town, and even further from a city—it does not even matter in which country, the preconditions are the same—resulting in isolation.
All the Life I’ve Known
By William McMillan
The shower in my motel room heats quickly, so I don’t have to be cold, wet, and naked for long. There’s excellent pressure, the water blasting out as if from a hydrant, creating a racket that muffles the noise roaring out from my chest. …