Queer Voices: How to tell if you are nonbinary? Sometimes, With A Trail Name
How to tell if you are nonbinary? For this outdoor lover, it started with a hike – and a new trail name.
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Out of the Shadows and Into the Sky: A Trans Traveler Story
Sarah and I were newly married and trying to fundraise for two HUGE barriers I carried with me daily, and those HUGE barriers would also mean that the new cutting edge FULL BODY SCANNERS that our local Texas TSA operated would be serving full T when I tried to pass through security in my first ever international flight over the pond.
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Queer Voices: Abroad
Gay writer Brian Watson shares a personal essay about a memorable vacation air a gay-owned hotel in Phuket, Thailand.
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Queer Voices: My First Love Lived in the Country
LGBTQ writer ErinMcCann shares her story of a country road trip with her first love in this moving essay.
“As we rode our bikes down that beautiful country lane, I was so happy to be with you that I reached out my hand to take yours. Our bikes’ wheels whizzed beneath us, but we stayed steady steering with our free hands. The gapping space between us showed the whole road that we were more than just friends.”
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Queer Voices: A Lifeline
Madeline Ewing’s story of a road trip through Roosevelt National Forest, and finding acceptance in nature, which the longlist in our LGBTQ essay contest: Walking into a clothing store, my body splits in two. Or at least, it would if it were possible. Instead, I take my time wading through the women’s section before making my way to the men’s. Something for “both,” because to exist as myself, society tells me I am two different, contradictory things. And even “both” isn’t complete. But here, in groves upon groves of Douglas firs and Ponderosa pines, I am myself without a need to separate into pieces. My blood runs like the Colorado River, my thoughts whisper like Aspen leaves in the wind. My sense of self evolves and changes, like limestone eroded by the wind and water, taking shape over and over again each millennium. People might chop down my trees or ravage my body with wildfires in the name of industrialization. But I grow back surer and stronger, fuller and more fragrant.
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Queer Voices: Open Waters
Necessity drove my decision to swim across the Hawaiian ‘Au‘au Channel. Six months into the pandemic, I craved a sanity break from hunker-in-the-bunker mode. The prolonged isolation had induced an existential quandary: was the enormous time spent on my writing worth the effort?
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Queer Voices: My First Swimming Lesson
When my father inquired about my plans for the free time I had gained due to the Nigerian university strike of 2010, I surprised both him and myself. Instead of expressing a desire to enroll in a coding program at one of the city’s computer centers, I found myself uttering the words, “I want to take swimming lessons.”
If you’ve ever seen Baywatch starring David Hasselhoff, you might have a glimpse of why this decision seemed unexpected.
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Unengendered Terrain – LGBTQ Essay Contest Winner
Caro Tyner shares their first bike packing trip in this story, which took first place in our LGBTQ essay contest, themed on firsts.
Before my first bikepacking trip, I impulsively grabbed the razor in my childhood bathroom, which had probably sat idle for years, and took it to my pits. I’d been fixating on the damp, sweaty hair under my arms when I woke up, and I didn’t want to deal with it on the road.
As I dried off, the bare skin in the mirror left me a little queasy. I hadn’t shaved in years, and the sudden loss made me worry… Do I look less queer?
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Queer Adventurers LGBTQ Essay Contest Longlist
The longlist for the 2022 LGBTQ essay contest is officially here! Meet the lucky writers who made it to the longlist and see contest demographic data.
