The Lavender South

If you had told 18-year-old me, born and raised in rural South Carolina, that six years later she would be living in her own apartment, as an unapologetic lesbian, she would’ve laughed. Laughed in utter …

When I was a kid my dad told me that If you swing all the way around the swingset Your gender changes. I didn’t understand why but I tried for hours.   When I got …

1: Compliment their shoes, their hair, anything. They need the confidence, being a queer teenager is not for the weak of heart. 2: Give them $20 for art supplies. 3: Hug them. 4: Wish that …

I can still see you sitting there late at night watching the Disney Channel. You sat there, watching those sitcom shows with a slight tinge of embarrassment. “Why am I watching a show for girls?” …

I met with my 6 year old self earlier this week. She’s too young for coffee so we sat at the swings at the school for a bit. I listened to her talk about how …

Young one, Your wings, already clipped by the voices of familiar dissent coming from the ground around you, like some flightless birds who’ve never seen the tree tops, but deem the view unworthy Young heart, …

This piece is titled Growing Like a Weed. It’s a reflection on the growth I have had over the last 5 years as I medically transition. It depicts me injecting my testosterone while various flowers …

I would like to thank my club advisor Alexis Shook for showing me this opportunity in the first place, and my GSA club members Damien, Colby, Remy, Kayden, Ember, Mint, Joshua, Ron, and Aiden for …

You were made of something,  Swishing in obscene things,   In dark alleyways,    Toiling away,   Black corridors,   Smoking in Scrupulous  Solid  Silence    Tonight has just fallen,  Sulfur streetlamps  Feel so foreign    And today, …

you slouch into the passenger seat of your dad’s station wagon and absorb the wisdom of a Baptist preacher. His words search for you across radiowaves; vibrations find your bony body in the back roads …