Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Pride.
Looking
His profile picture drew me in. He was ruggedly good-looking, wearing an old camo hat. He had beautiful blue eyes and a scruffy beard, and His plain t-shirt highlighted his broad shoulders and toned chest. His jeans fit just right and looked dingy as if he had been working outside in a dirt pile. His work boots were well used. You could see the veins on his hairy arms, and it was evident from his picture that he was a blue-collar guy.
By J. Delaney-Howe5 years ago in Pride
Understanding Faith
I would like to give a small disclaimer at the beginning of this article for those of different faiths. I am not Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish, I would more closely associate with Paganism or other forms of polytheism, but I was raised in a Christian tradition. This article is to express some of my specific experiences as a young gay man in my faith tradition, as well as some of the preconceptions I was raised on towards other religions. This has been what I have found in my own exploration of other faiths, not a "catch-all" of what others believe. If you disagree with any of my thoughts or finding, I totally accept that and accept you and you right to pursue your own path.
By Rhett Martens5 years ago in Pride
Minimum Effort
SPOILERS FOR THE LOKI SERIES UP TO EPISODE 4! Just a few weeks ago, I wrote an article about searching for queer representation while I was growing up and how difficult it was to find LGBTQA+ characters to look up to. I added some examples, both good and bad, but there was someone that didn’t make the cut because their story was too complex to be restricted to a passing mention. Now, with the Loki series only two episodes from ending, I think it’s time to talk about them.
By Amanda Fernandes5 years ago in Pride
Despite Creating Entire Fantasy World in Her Head, Author Cannot Wrap her Mind around the Idea that Trans Women Are Women
J.K. Rowling, known primarily for her authorship of the wildly popular Harry Potter series, is reportedly continuing to defend trans-exclusionary feminist perspectives in recent posts and interviews. Despite backlash from various organizations and individuals citing concerns for trans youth who might be impacted by her commentary, the author (ironically also sometimes known as Robert Galbraith), has decided to stick to her guns.
By Katie Alafdal5 years ago in Pride
“We Are All Born Naked and the Rest is Drag” in Tony Kushner’s "Angels in America"
Katya Zamolodchikova, colloquially known as Katya, is a fabulous drag queen and RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars II runner up, declares in a “reading is fundamental” challenge: “Miss Fame, you are such a talented makeup artist. I have never met anybody who’s able to shove their own head so far up their own ass without smudging their eyeliner” (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”). Now, in this specific reading, Miss Fame did laugh, finding humor in Katya’s comment, however, that is not always the case. The technique “reading,” performed in this anecdote by Katya, is the art of ritual insult, used by drag queens in RuPaul’s drag race, however, it also dates back to the ‘80s, which is shown in films like Paris is Burning. “Reading” is one form of empowerment for queer individuals and drag performers, allowing them to speak their minds quickly and confidently. In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, we see the characters Belize and Prior using techniques like “reading” as well as their interpretation of drag. Throughout the play, they are able to overcome hardships and tragedies. Drag empowers the queer individuals in Angels in America, pointing to the ways all sexual identities are wrapped in performance, this is true of both Prior and Belize in the play, though most powerfully illustrated by Belize as a queer individual of color.
By Kaitlyn Cope5 years ago in Pride
As X
“I’m not cut out for friends,” they thought to themself as they pulled out a loose cigarette. They’d bought it for a few dollars from a haggard old man. Smoking wasn’t something they did. They weren’t really themself anymore, though. Reckless had become almost a coping mechanism.
By Kelsey Apperson5 years ago in Pride
All Lights Coming At Us from the Sound!
And there is the wedding tonight on the beach, all the guests dressed up and it rains and I’m there to film, given a camera older than myself to hold and thank god it’s a short ceremony because I almost drop it it’s so heavy. Everyone looks up and the bride comes down from the big winding stairs in the reception hall, where the ceremony relocates during the storm. And she walks to where her husband stands, where I stand with my arms shaking under that heavy thing, recording this moment in sharp black and white. The camera drifts to Erin, her standing in the corner, pinned up, her blue dress, her face soft in all the light coming in through the windows—it’s still sunny even though outside it thunders. The bride begins to speak and I focus back on her, and she says I do and she’s kissed, and she and the groom have their first dance and they eat; Erin and I sneak out to the beach when we notice it stops raining. Now it’s dark, two hours of wedding gone by the same way all weddings do. We take off our shoes and run out to the water, the sound lit up with the skyline of the city and all those apartments on the water.
By Bobby Crossroads5 years ago in Pride
My Gender is Crab
On Twitter and in casual conversation I have described my gender as the following: crab-person, one of the creatures from “Behemoth’s World” by 70’s sci-fi painter Richard Clifton-Day, a bird demon with a funny hat, the Pokemon Gengar, and “a lady, I guess, but…you know…not on purpose.” The non-binary experience is, by its nature, weird as hell in the context of a system that, at its best, describes itself as a spectrum between set points, and, at its worst, demands you fall into a discreet category of only two options. Are you neither? Are you both? Are you sat somewhere squat in the middle? And the answer is just sort of…yes? My relationship with my own non-binaryness is informed by a patchwork of neurodivergences. At its core, though, it stems from a pervasive intellectual disconnect from existence as a human as we, collectively, understand it. Sci-fi and fantasy is both an instigating factor, and, as a writer, an exploration of that thought process.
By Ashe Thurman5 years ago in Pride
