In this month’s episode of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire chats with Bonnie Violet, a trans genderqueer chaplain, spiritual drag artist living with HIV, and recovering addict, about her experiences with queerness, religion, sobriety, HIV, and being "a chaplain of another sort."…
Four years ago this month, Houstonian Verniss McFarland III saw a personal dream realized—the founding of the Mahogany Project. The fledgling non-profit organization set out with a powerful mission—to bridge the gap between empowerment and education in Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ communities.…
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.…
For myself and many trans people, figuring out how we wish to present can be very vexing. Luckily, there is a one-size-fits-all approach to gender expression: steel. Where the broad spectrums of gender and sexuality come into play, however, is in what type of armor one wishes to wear. The foul TERFs may say that there are only two genders: chain mail, and plate armor. This is, of course, rank madness! What about the wonderful world of combination chain-and-plate? Not…
By Jayce Tyler Inspired by parent organization Save Our Sisters United, Save Our Sons and Brothers, or SOSB, is a new Houston-based organization and social network open to trans men and transmasculine people of color. “SOSB looks at the survival and empowerment of our sons and brothers with a holistic view,” the group says. “Thus, we strive to address the social, emotional, financial, physical, and medical needs of the transmasculine people of color within our community.” SOSB aims to create…
On Monday, October 5, 2020, Monica Roberts passed away at age 58. Like myself, many on Spectrum South’s staff were impacted by Monica, her life’s work, her energy, and the legacy she leaves. To honor this irreplaceable powerhouse, below we share our collective memories of Monica. Rest in Power.…
A political war is being waged against transgender Americans, and young trans athletes are caught in the crossfire. Mack Beggs is one of four transgender athletes featured in Changing the Game, a documentary that profiles the lives of young trans athletes in an effort to raise awareness about the complexity surrounding the transphobic policies that transgender high school athletes are forced to navigate just to compete. “I think it’s many things at once,” Alex Schmider, associate director of transgender representation at…
Drive down Houston’s I-10 highway, and you’ll see a newly erected billboard with a simple, yet powerful statement: Protect Black Trans Women. An effort by the Transgender Ally Collective (TAC), this billboard relays a crucial message in a time when Black trans women are being murdered at alarming rates.…
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:…
In the Season 5 finale of Veer Queer, interviewer Verniss McFarland III sits down with Diamond Stylz of the podcast Marsha's Plate to discuss trans inclusion in the Black Lives Matter movement, the violence Black trans women continue to face daily, and sustainable trans allyship.…
