Latest Stories

Most recently published stories in Pride.

How I told my husband I am gay
In mid 2021, pride month was approaching and, at this point, Joel and I had been talking a lot about my queerness. Mostly, the conversation went to more vague and open-ended ideas. For the most part, I was pretty content with being “queer”. Not having to put a label on what I am or what I like. And even though I appreciated not having to dust off the old label maker, I still wanted to feel seen and known for my queerness. I shared with Joel one day how a small gesture from him would feel huge to me. I wasn’t expecting much. And actually, I don’t know exactly what I was expecting. But something in me longed to have my partner say, “I see you and I love you just the way you are.” The gesture Joel made was anything but simple or intimate. He is a go big or go home-r so he bought an ally shirt, posted pansexual colored posters in our front window and made a Tik Tok about his support for his pansexual wife. All of this was a surprise. When I drove home and noticed the colors in the window, I had a mild panic attack. I kept thinking about how exposed I suddenly felt. Then I got inside and was shown the Tik Tok. I instantly went into freeze mode. Sure, I appreciative of the attempt at honoring my request. I knew I could expect some discomfort with the announcement. Some backlash from people we know who don’t approve. And even some celebrations. What I didn’t expect was the blindsided feeling that I had. Why was that the case? Joel had done what I asked for. I definitely felt “seen” just not in the way I needed to be seen. It was like all eyes were on me and my super sweet, supportive husband. He was the hero who bravely stood before my dragons and slayed every single one of them on my behalf. But something was eating at me. Pretty soon it consumed me. One night I laid awake and thought, “but what if I’m not pansexual?” And the other thought, the one that I couldn’t dig down deep enough into the dragon’s layer to rescue… “What if I’m a lesbian?”
By Sam Hawk4 years ago in Pride
Better Together: A Model for Women and LGBTQ Equality in the Workplace
This debate is enhanced by combining available data on the origins and effects of HBD on women and LGBTQ people in the workplace. Opportunities for collaboration when HRM collectively addresses the needs of women and people in the LGBTQ community, especially in promoting gender equality and combating discrimination and sexual harassment. While much emphasis is placed on women and people of color, employers and their HR professionals are also intensifying their efforts to create jobs that include the LGBT community. For example, approaches to gender equality, gender management, and gender mainstreaming ignore many of the problems faced by LGBTQ people and women of color by defining their target actors as white, cisgender, and heterosexual (see Tomic, 2011; Hanappi-Egger, 2013 Klein).
By Joy kafle4 years ago in Pride
Being Gay in a Straight Relationship
Have you ever felt like part of your life was covered up in a mask and was simply hidden away from you just by living your everyday life?
By Elise L. Blake4 years ago in Pride
WHY WE WALK
SHE PLEDGED ALONG WITH HER SISTERS DECADES AGO and now asks me "Why do we walk?" Of course I would need to look at her with some level of serious curiosity. She pledged, I didn't. She would need to know her own secrets. Here I sit as in days of old, looking to help my aunt through her complexities of life. Short of researching the world spilled to me, I couldn't know. Several inquiries and offers to pledge to a unit in and of myself, brought no consistent resolve other than that I should need to be a man... so I approached a "brother" and "B"d him. I be'd a man. DONE. That was in response to the high ranking message brought out by that brother from his "master?" in answer to my joining the A.N.S.A.R. SHRINE and my grandfather... a free mason, was long gone. He didn't take me to the Masons.. he took me to the Elks Lodge and then to the library. The next assembly time, he went to the ELKS and dropped me off at the library. I was 8 or 9 years of age. I couldn't join either organization and said I was on hold and unless I was a son or grandson, I could not join his organization. There are women's fraternal organizations that work toward the same or similar goals.
By CarmenJimersonCross4 years ago in Pride
A Brief Conversation on My Aromanticism
About four years ago I came to the realization that I was aromantic. It took me a while because, well, it's not a largely well known romantic orientation. The fact that there can even be orientations for romance related things is hardly well known!
By Delise Fantome4 years ago in Pride
About a Girl
I have never kissed a girl. I want to, of course, but I've never really kissed anyone. At least not anyone that makes it feel like I think it should.
By Joanna Lynne4 years ago in Pride
Metamorphosis
I just started packing for next week's trip. This one's a hard trip to prepare for - not just because there's a pandemic going on and I'm in the extreme high-risk category, but because I'm worried about what I've packed. Did I get everything I need? What did I forget? Did I buy too much? What if I got the sizes wrong, the colors wrong, the styles all wrong? What if I didn't get the right food in the right flavors?
By Meredith Harmon4 years ago in Pride
I Want To Be Obviously Queer
When I first came out, I wanted to hide. I had a partner and that was great, but I wanted that to be where my queerness stopped. I just wanted to blend in with the crowd. I disapproved of Pride parades, I was confused by queer fashion, and I generally wanted to keep the whole thing as quiet and unintrusive as possible.
By Sean Bennett4 years ago in Pride
Ace Representation: Canon, Coding, and... Assigning?
In preparation for this series on asexual representation on the screen, I launched a question for the community: What canonically asexual or ace-spec characters do you know from TV and Film?
By Angie Loveday4 years ago in Pride
After 15 Years of LGBTQ Living, I Forget I am Queer Sometimes
Many of us are aware society likes to label things. Being able to slap a label onto someone usually puts them into a neat box that others can process easier. I find that labels are necessary for certain situations. I like to know if someone is Democrat or Republican. I can’t imagine not labeling street signs or freeway exits. Restaurants deserve a good label so we all know the food we are putting into our bodies.
By Meagon Nolasco4 years ago in Pride
You Say Sir/Mam, I Say Gender-Neutral Language
It is no secret that many of us were raised to use terms like sir and mam when addressing someone whom we may not know, who may be our elder, or in a professional setting.
By Meagon Nolasco4 years ago in Pride
Dyking Out: Reclamation of LGBTQ Slang
I have had the word dyke hurled at me for as long as I have been out of the closet. As a masculine-presenting lesbian woman, I hold a certain disdain for the usage of the word dyke in any context. When you have a word constantly used to degrade and harass you it is hard to see it in any other context. I am not even a fan when this term is used amongst other queer women in the community.
By Meagon Nolasco4 years ago in Pride