Advocacy

Resist the Regression. Top Story - March 2025. Content Warning.
No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us. - Marsha P. Johnson Too often, the act of gendering is a danger to people. All people, even if they don’t identify as trans or non-binary. The fact of the matter is that the sex and gender binary is deadly and intentionally so. If it’s not killing you physically, it is killing you spiritually. It is killing your humanity, killing your self-love and expression, and killing your self-discovery and potential. It leaves little to the imagination, trapping our minds with only certain tools: stereotypes and assumptions. Fear is bred here.
By kp10 months ago in Pride
I Can Be Both
Greetings, Vocal readers. It's been a while since I've written a story. The following story may ruffle a few feathers and raise a few eyebrows. However, I want everyone to hear me out for a few minutes. Religion is a taboo and touchy subject for most people. Growing up in Texas, I attended church with my family almost every Sunday. When I left home for college years later, I attended a local church, and I loved the people there. Just to remind everyone that this was around 2010: two years before officially coming out as a gay man. At the time, I was still hiding my true self from everyone. When I finally came out in 2012, I repeatedly asked myself this question to myself: "Now that I've come out as gay, will God love me as I am?" Even after I stopped going to that church and then I moved to a new area after I graduated from college, I was still seeking a church that was gay friendly. In the spring of 2013, I found a church in my area that wasn't far from where I was living at the time...or so I thought. I attended that church for a month before leaving it for good. The reason? They were regurgitating anti-gay rhetoric. It broke my heart that people always assume the worst about us when they don't even know us personally. Christians would tell everyone to love one another but would waste no time degrading and dehumanizing gay people at every opportunity. Some, not all, Christians are walking hypocrites. I wouldn't say that I was an Atheist, per se, but I want to be able to accept myself and believe in God at the same time.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 10 months ago in Pride
Gender Affirming Care Isn't Just For Trans People
What is gender affirming care? Upon hearing these words, most people think of the transgender community. It's a phrase most commonly used to refer to the hormones or surgeries taken by trans and non binary people. In the media, this is all it means. Gender affirming care is a range of social, psychological, and medical interventions designed to confirm and support a person's gender identity. In simpler terms, gender affirming care can be anything that makes a person feel more confident in their identity - whether they're trans or not.
By choreomania10 months ago in Pride
prosodies
when i "was a woman," i garnered considerable attention – some unwanted, some critical, some obsessive, some violent, some worshipful, and some oppressive –
By kp10 months ago in Pride
An Intersex Story and Sport
As a child, my earliest memories were being taken to the "sick kids" hospital in Edinburgh. I wasn't dying, but I was and still am, a peculiarity, I'm intersex, or to be more specific I have an Intersex condition called Klinefelter's syndrome. I was a peculiarity in the Endocrinology department of the Hospital, but I was also a peculiarity because I was in the hospital for the condition in the first place. You see, most people with Klinefelter's don't find out until they're in their 30's or 40's, when they're trying to have kids. There I was, a kid, in the hospital, being poked and prodded, fully aware of what I was in the wide scheme of things.
By Ashyr H.10 months ago in Pride
A Gay Guy Knows When a Simple Look is Hiding Hate
Sometimes, all it takes is a look — a sideways glance, a roll of the eyes, or a slow turn of the head. A person may even literally look down their nose at you.
By Brandon Ellrich11 months ago in Pride
My Sexuality Is Not An Apology
Now that you know who is back in the White House, his hateful and dangerous policies targeting us once again has gotten even worse. He lacks empathy and compassion towards certain groups of people. This manchild has no soul. I refuse to mention him by name, because I've always seen him for who he was: a childish, petty, out of touch individual who hasn't had a dose of reality and refuses to take any responsibility for his actions. It's always everyone else's fault and refuses to do some self reflection. The next four years will be hell and his right-wing policies are becoming more extreme.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 11 months ago in Pride
More Thoughts About Clayton Kershaw
The 2025 MLB regular season is only a month away and we're eager for it to get underway. About a month ago, I wrote a story about Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw. In that story, which I will post a link to it down below, I called him out for his bigoted rhetoric. In a 2023 interview, he got in his feelings over Dodger Stadium inviting The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during Pride Month. He stated in that interview that they, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, were mocking Christianity. To him, it was a personal attack towards him because he's a Christian, when it really wasn't. I've also called him out on other things, but in this story, I have even more to say about Clayton.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 11 months ago in Pride
Transitioning Saves Lives
February 27, 2025: Today, I have been on testosterone for three years. It's wild that time has passed so quickly. It doesn't feel like that ago that I was on the phone with a gender specialist, asking about being prescribed hormones. I look back on pre-transition photos of myself - I'm so young, so oblivious to what life had in store for me. The image of myself in old photographs is like some distant relative: a younger sister or a cousin I used to know. I still know her, of course, on a superficial level. I wish she had gotten the chance to know me, too.
By choreomania11 months ago in Pride
Brewing T. Honorable Mention in Pride Under Pressure Challenge.
A while ago, I wrote about the Medicaid unwinding during the Biden administration that left me without my prescriptions. The thing I didn't mention, quite intentionally, was the fact that this unfortunate change also ensured I wouldn't be able to afford my weekly dose of testosterone. I didn't frame it as an attack on my rights as a queer person. I didn't even point to my queerness as one of the reasons I was removed from coverage. It was two weeks after my top surgery, but I understood this as coincidence, and knew millions of people were impacted by the loss of COVID protections, not just queer people.
By kp11 months ago in Pride
The Thirteenth Year
The number 13: there are two reasons why this number holds dear and near to me. The first being that I was born on the 13th of November and the second is today, I celebrate my 13th coming out anniversary. February 20, 2012, was a scary, yet joyous moment in my life. While many people have since stopped being friends with me because of me coming out as a gay man, there are others who love and accept me for who I am. I knew that I liked guys at a very young age, but my now estranged parents, made it difficult for me to fully express myself. I had to act and look a certain way around them. To them, being yourself is wrong and they think something is wrong with you. I had to hide my true self for about the next 20 years, because I grew up in the 90s, at a time when being gay was a taboo topic and not accepted by society.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 11 months ago in Pride
Inside a Cloud
My face is hit by thousands drops My eyes are burning So moist and heavy my breathing stops I hear sounds for ever returning
By Henrik Hageland12 months ago in Pride