Queer people spend a lot of time online. To be more exact, queer folks spend 35 percent more time online than their heterosexual counterparts, and according to a recently published study from Stanford, 65 percent of same-sex couples surveyed met online, compared with 39 percent of their straight peers.…
I love to tell people that if it wasn’t for Texas and the Air Force, I wouldn’t exist. My parents were both service members stationed in San Antonio when they met, fell in love, and decided to make the coolest baby ever—me. On both sides of my family, I’ve had relatives serve in every branch of the armed forces dating back to the Civil War. My grandfather served as an American Legion Chaplain until his death, and my mom followed…
At some point in your early childhood, a well-meaning parent or teacher probably sat you down and shared what they believed to be the simple facts of life—that the world was made of boys and girls. Boys have penises and girls have vaginas, they said, and they made you think it was really that simple. We see the same sentiment reiterated in political debates over “bathroom bills” and job protection acts being contested in state and local governments all across…
Attacks on transgender and gender expansive individuals stem directly from a lack of knowledge and understanding. This ignorance has found its way into places like state capitol buildings and schools, where it affects the most vulnerable individuals—children. Education is the key to combating this issue, and—with the release of their groundbreaking book, The Gender Affirmative Model: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Transgender and Gender Expansive Children—Dr. Colt Keo-Meier and Dr. Diane Ehrensaft aim to provide such education in a way…
Mike Webb simply could not get up. Two years of trauma had manifested into a mental and emotional breakdown. What followed was a short stay in a local behavioral hospital, three months of home care and outpatient recovery, and a healing journey that continues to this day.…
Six days into Hurricane Harvey, things hit me. I was living in a motel room provided by FEMA with only a few sets of clothes, the photos I could grab, and my laptop. The space was decent and clean, but my heart was cluttered with the fear of the unknown. Don’t get me wrong, I’m resilient. Like thousands of other queer-identified people, I have been homeless before, couchsurfed many times, and learned to do whatever it takes to survive. It is…
Happy holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Blessed Yule to all! With all of the hustle and bustle of these magical winter festivities, it seems impossible to feel alone. Yet, as queer folks, many of us often do. Sometime between Thanksgiving and the New Year, the feelings of loneliness and isolation begin to creep in. If we are single, have strained relationships with our families of origin, or are struggling with our identities, these feelings can be…
