The Lavender South

I want to say I’d offer her a glass of water, to show her the care she deserves. She wouldn’t want to accept it (feeling guilty for not getting it herself.) I’d make her take …

If I were to have a chat with my younger self — be it the timid kid in Miami, the awkward teenager trying to navigate “fitting in,” or the college freshman desperately holding on to …

My cheeks flush as everyone stares at me, nobody knowing how to break the silence. It’s February 2022 and I’m at a nature center with fellow graduate students, all of us in a Master of …

Max was born in The Netherlands, but moved to Texas before he started elementary school. Max is currently a junior in high school, and came out as transgender at a young age. Max works with …

Content Warning: Discussion of suicide There are moments when everything stops. Like a freeze frame in a movie, time fractures, suspended between past and future. That’s how it felt last October when I received the …

I grew up in the South, a preacher’s kid in a conservative Seventh-day Adventist household. In a world where queerness wasn’t just frowned upon—it was condemned. From an early age, I was taught that being …

I moved to Orlando in 2014 when I was 26 years old. I come from a humble family in Puerto Rico, and my rural roots have always been a fundamental part of my identity. I …

Just leave. These are the two words I am told by people all across the political spectrum, whether they hate me or love me. For them, it’s the only solution for my community. It is …

In times when queer histories, presents, and futures are targets of censorship, knowledge stands out as a critical tool of resistance.  When I was in college, I decided to pursue Gender and Sexuality Studies as …

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercifully, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon …