p1nkstar, Austin’s favorite queer pop icon, has partnered with Hotel Free TV to present “Girls Like Us,” a 50-minute live music video experience released last Thursday that celebrates Austin-based trans artists.…
Mycah Angelou Taylor's podcast, One Gay at a Time, feels like listening to a good friend talk about anything and everything. Every other Wednesday evening marks the launch of a new episode, in which Taylor dives into topics ranging from their own coming out tale, to the “lavender tax,” to the intersection of Blackness and queerness. Whatever the discussion of the week may be, Taylor both educates and entertains their audience.…
I tend to play video games that are escapist—ones that let me play at being stronger, faster, or smarter. They let me be the hero but rarely do they hold up a mirror to my own life. The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories is a platform puzzle game about a 19-year-old trans girl’s pain—something that I myself remember all too well. The game takes a magic realist approach to how JJ (our protagonist) deals with this pain:…
From vlogging, to making viral memes, to using social media to promote their art, the creativity of Millennials and Gen Z is undeniable. And now, as we’re all “bored in the house, and in the house bored,” these two generations have turned to a new social platform to creatively express themselves—Tik Tok.…
With COVID-19 cases surging in Texas following Governor Abbott’s bungling of the economic reopening and his overreach into local mask-order enforcement, many Prides are trying to figure out the safest way to celebrate. Some are rescheduling to later in the year, while others are going virtual. When Houston’s own Space Kiddettes (Trent Lira and Devin Will) learned of a virtual Pride being planned in Austin, the musical duo—already planning a similar event in Houston—offered to join forces and help to…
While hip-hop artists have changed over time, the message behind the music has, for better or worse, stayed relatively consistent. It’s the same narrative told over and over to a new beat: a man raps about his abilities to get a woman (often in degrading ways), or a woman raps about getting herself a “good man.” Plain and simple, hip-hop remains predominantly heteronormative.…
In 1996, in a Washington DC queer bar called Escandalo (which translates to “scandal” in English), the transgender ranchera artist Teresita La Campesina gave a performance of the Lola Beltrán song “Puñalada Trapera.” A heart-wrenching ballad that rebukes an ex-lover for stabbing the narrator in the back (so to speak), it is one of the few remaining recordings of Teresita’s live performances. She was never given the opportunity to record an album of her own. The rendition is pretty classical…
Every once in a great while, a television show will come out that truly reflects our lived realities, our silent thoughts, and our hidden truths and, suddenly—just like that—we know that we are not alone. For me, Showtime’s Work in Progress is that show.…
Given the current state of the world, you’re probably spending a lot of time at home right now. With restaurants and bars closed, sporting events and concerts cancelled, and the world at large on pause, we’ve entered an unprecedented state of stillness. On the bright side (if there is such a thing), this is an excellent opportunity to catch up on any books, shows, or movies that you’ve been longing to experience. Whatever your social distancing mood is, we’ve got…
There is no doubt that the events of George Orwell’s magnum opus 1984 speak volumes in today’s political climate. The trouble is that both sides of the aisle will claim that the other is Big Brother and that they, the people on either side, are poor Winston. It is for this reason that out actor Todd Waite, who plays one of the party members in the Alley Theatre’s stage adaptation, offers a coy societal explanation. “For the LGBTQ community, there…
