Identity
on maps & queerness. Top Story - June 2021.
Every Wednesday afternoon, my sweet therapist reminds me there’s not a roadmap for my life, and every Wednesday afternoon, I nod along reluctantly while I spend the rest of the week still secretly seeking. I've spent most of my life thus far desperately searching for a model, a checklist, a map that even with all its winding roads and detours still ends at a fixed destination, a summit with a panoramic view of all the trails that led me to this accomplished endpoint.
By Emily Long (she/they)5 years ago in Pride
Coming Out as Single
I’m just 1 person who does a lot of coming out. In today’s society, it isn’t just those in the LGBTQ+ community who find themselves in the position of deciding whether to come out or not. When we meet new people, those people make certain assumptions about us partly based on context and partly based on society’s norms and expectations.
By Kate McDevitt5 years ago in Pride
Being Unapologetically Me. Top Story - June 2021.
Growing up, I was never confident in myself or my sexuality. I was always chasing people around, desperate to be accepted which got me in some pretty messed up situations. I always put my faith in the wrong people and got let down every single time. When I got out of my hometown, I realised that the world is so much more accepting than I realised. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t have to be afraid to be myself and I started being unapologetically, me.
By YesItsMocha5 years ago in Pride
Being Gay in 2008
It all started with pure innocence. It all ended with trauma. I spent the past 5 years coping with surviving life in secondary school. It was hard and there were times where I thought I was so close to seeing the light. Yet here I am. Still hopeful that I will be able to move on. Since I am finally transferring, I know that there is still an exit at the end of the tunnel where I can start afresh. Forget all that is behind me and move forward. I can finally leave that hell hole of a school. I honestly can’t wait!
By Cai and Denz5 years ago in Pride
At Home with Self-Advocacy
For most people, going away to college is a life event that exists in the liminal space between exhilaration and terror. The myriad fears that rear their anxious heads come to taunt us all, in some form or another: will I make friends? Will people like me? Will I embarrass myself? Will I fit in? As I prepared to go away to college in 2013, similar anxieties haunted me, but one question loomed larger than the rest: will I be able to room with other girls, or will I be forced to room with guys?
By Chloe Crawford La Vada5 years ago in Pride
Biology Says There Are More Than Two Sexes, More Than Two Genders.
Let’s start with what makes me qualified. Aside from living my best genderqueer life, I am a pharmacologist with both a bachelors and a masters in the field. Across both of my degrees, I studied a whole range of different biology based modules, not just pharmacology. One such module included the biology of sex and gender, and how that affects medicine. I nailed that module. So with that out of the way, let’s jump in to debunking some myths about sex and gender.
By Max Fisher5 years ago in Pride
Sarah's Journey out of the box
I’m Sarah, I was born a male, and for the first part of my life, nothing was amiss. However, fast forward to my teenage years, and being socially awkward, add having a life-threatening peanut allergy at a time when it was not common, and parents who were learning how to act because any camp or sleepover could be fatal to their only son. Were they loving? Yes. Were they supportive? Yes. But, being a loaner, I spent a lot of time either with them or by myself. On one of one those days, I started to ask myself questions. I was 13 at the time. I was being naughty and started to snoop through my parent's drawers to see what I could find. Finding clothing from my mom that she never wore, it was a bodysuit, halter top, and panties. I tried them on, and it felt amazing, weird for a boy to be wearing something girly, but it felt right, wasn't sexual in any way.
By Sarah Gravel5 years ago in Pride
Trans-gressing in the World of Men
Before I transitioned, before I even knew I was trans, I found male spaces a real challenge to navigate. I have never understood the ins and outs, the appeals, the hooks of being ‘one of the boys.’ Something about the very phrase sends shivers through my spine. Indeed, it makes me cringe to think that I was ever even close to those circles. Hopefully, few, if any, people have ever really thought of me in those terms – I never was a ‘man’s man’ anyway and my list of close male friends can probably be counted on one hand (two at a stretch – sorry gents!) – but I’ll come back to that in a moment.
By Aisla Houghton-Foster5 years ago in Pride
