S.G. Goodman On The Continuous Process Of Coming Out
It’s not just a culmination for Roan, but a mainstream moment for a concept mostly known to queer theorists and Tumblr addicts up to this point. Compulsory heterosexuality, coined in 1980 by Adrienne Rich, is a term describing the societal imposition of heterosexuality on women. Online sapphics of a certain age might know the concept because a Goog... See more
Not Just ‘Luck’: Why Queer Pop Star Chappell Roan Broke Through to the Hot 100, And Why It Matters
Alex Burns added
When I allowed my language and my views to change—informed by wanting to be a better friend, colleague, partner, community member for the people around me—I could feel my heart start to change, too. I wondered (in typical white, neoliberal fashion) why it was so hard for people to embrace complexity rather than conforming to binary ways of thought.
Religiously Blonde • Is Religion Violent?
Keely Adler added
If your life feels peculiar, flamboyant, occasionally shameful, then those are the markings of that emerging authenticity.
Emergence Magazine • Navigating the Mysteries
Even so, I was also a teenager, making decisions based on the visibility that our culture teaches us to desire. I knew that my audience wanted to feel authenticity from me. To give that to them, I revealed pieces of myself that I might have been wiser to keep private.
New York Times • Opinion | YouTube Gave Me Everything. Then I Grew Up.
Dayna Carney added
How are you being you? Have you had to make adjustments? Are you keeping yourself together? Can you distinguish between what the world wants of you and what you want of yourself? The you that is a performer. The you that can come off-stage? Can you come off-stage? Are you OK with who you are when no-one is looking? Have you got any time to be who y
... See moreJeanette Winterson • SUMMER SOLSTICE 2022
sari added
In a paradoxical sense, once I accepted my position as different from the larger society as well as from any single sub-society—Black or gay—I felt I didn’t have to try so hard. To be accepted. To look femme. To be straight. To look straight. To be proper. To look “nice.” To be liked. To be loved. To be approved. What I didn’t realize was how much
... See moreEdmund White • The Stonewall Reader
As with trans people, the most socially acceptable way to be gay is for nothing, save the existence of your same-sex spouse, to betray your queerness.
Anne Helen Petersen • Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
As I was coming out to myself, it was comforting to construct a narrative of childhood Otherness. The fact that I had never felt normal made radical queer politics all the more appealing. The norm was deeply flawed, not only about sexuality but at its core; we were right, and righteous, in raging against it with all our will. Queer theory, activism
... See more