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
My Pronouns
By Allan Hunter
They ask me what my pronouns are. It’s a respectful and appropriate question. I have no easy answers. I was born with a physical configuration that was assigned the value ‘male’, and I’ve always been one of the girls from as far back as I can remember. I was pressured to adopt and embrace masculinity, to become one of the boys, all throughout childhood, but I wasn’t so inclined. …
For Reasons Unknown
By Martina Reaves
When I hear about my friends’ children organizing their elaborate weddings and see all the time and effort they spend picking the perfect venue and micro-managing every minor detail, I’m quietly amused. When you’re grappling with cancer, details like these simply don’t matter. What matters is gathering the people you love and the people who love you into a room …
Honoring the Past
By Randy Fair
THE TRAJECTORY of my life was changed because of a book written by a gay activist. It was 1986, and I had just moved from Weaver, Alabama, to Atlanta. In that time period, LGBT life was almost exclusively centered on bar culture…
The Second Life of Jamie P
By Roger Sherman
WHEN JAMIE PEEBLES, a friend of more than forty years whom I met at Hampshire College, told me she was transitioning, I immediately put my foot in my mouth: I asked her if she was having a sex change. Graciously, she informed me…
On an Absence of Pornography
By J.M. Parker
“Do you need anything off my laptop?” he asked. It was a pointedly sardonic question. A year into our relationship, we’d attempted what no new couple wisely undertakes simultaneously: starting a new job (me), leaving one behind (him)…
Willem Arondeus and Me
By Brian Fehler
The 1990 Dutch documentary Na Het Feest, Zonder Afscheid Verdwenen tells the story of Willem Arondeus, artist, novelist, and Dutch Resistance worker in World War II. Arondeus lived his life as an openly gay man. He led an attack on a Nazi registry office to protect thousands of people hiding in the country.
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Recovering My Inner 3-year-old at 33
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.”
Fire Island’s Most Notorious Guest
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.
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