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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

October 4, 2022

My Journey to Asylum in America

By Edafe Okporo

“Edafe Okporo, please rise,” the judge said upon returning. “Thank you for your bravery and courage. I am granting you permission to live in America.”

September 27, 2022

An Organization Man Has an Epiphany

By Richard Gartner

The next thing I knew, my body was trembling from the inside out. I was paralyzed and yet in vibratory motion at the same time.

September 22, 2022

A Memorable Love Affair

By Felice Cohen

What makes a love affair memorable? If it’s your first? Being caught in bed by your lover’s partner? Your first love dying? In my experience, it was all the above.

September 16, 2022

Our Surrogacy Journey

By Stephen Hanna and Bret Schuford

Our journey was full of surprises at every turn, but it was worth it.

September 13, 2022

What’s In A Name? One Lesbian’s Search for Identity

By Ann McMan

So does that mean I can still claim my identity as a lesbian? And if so, should I be afraid to say it out loud?

August 24, 2022

How My Grandmother’s Photos Uncovered a Secret Lesbian Society

By Gayla Turner

The groom standing next to my grandmother in those photos was not my grandfather, but a woman dressed in men’s clothing.

August 18, 2022

Parenting My Genderfluid Child

By Caitlin Billings

I’ve learned it’s important to grieve, not because someone has died but because they have gone away and returned from a new direction.

August 11, 2022

Rejection Made Me Stronger

By Byron Kennard

My parents didn’t kick me out, but they did kick me out of their hearts. And I mourn the loss of their love to this day.

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March-April 2023
Features From Current Issue

Essays

Jean Lorrain, Ambassador from Sodom

By Laurence Senelick: “As unctuous as a frosted pastry,” Lorrain became known, in the words of Philippe Jullian, as “the Petronius of the decadence ... the best observer of a milieu of which he was also the worst ornament” (Figure 3).

Art

The Inscrutable John Singer Sargent

By Andrew Holleran: When people would knock on his door asking for work, Sargent, if interested, would invite them in and ask them to remove their clothes “so I can see your figure.” One of these was Nicola D’Inverno, an amateur boxer who became not only Sargent’s model but his studio manager and valet for 25 years

Art

Joining the Rosa Bonheur Revival

By Emily L. Quint Freeman: Bonheur painted herself into The Horse Fair as a participant, dressed in the standard attire of the other (all male) riders.

Essays

Gustave Courtois in the Paris Salon

By Eduardo A. Febles: One journalist accused Courtois of bad taste for showing the athlete bare-chested, while another speculated on the artist’s experience of pleasure while executing the work: “What intense pleasure M. Gustave Courtois must have felt while giving shape to the triumphant torso of the athlete Maurice de Riaz! How he has caressed its sinuous contours!”
Blog
1. March 22, 2023 Manuel Muñoz on the Power of LGBTQ Characters
2. March 15, 2023 Review of the Exhibit, Queer Maximalism
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