photo of Kevin Atwater, a white man with short blonde hair and a blue short sleeve button up with the top few buttons unbuttoned
Community
Queer Next Up: Kevin Atwater

Kevin Atwater (he/him) is a singer-songwriter from a small town in Illinois called Downers Grove. He gained a significant following on TikTok, and is known for sharing his personal and confessional songwriting with the world.

coming out write our stories. progress pride flag
Community
Coming Out(Write): Our Stories – National Coming Out Day 2022

Welcome back to Coming Out(Write): Our Stories, a social media series started in 2021. This series occurs annually during the week following National Coming Out Day (October 11th), exploring our staff’s experiences with and opinions on coming out.

photo of Christopher, a white genderqueer man with short brown hair tucked under a light blue baseball cap, glasses, a black mask, a white Disabled Student Union shirt, and black pants speaking into a microphone and holding up a protest sign that reads "Accessibility Now! We Deserve Better."
Community
Inherently and Creatively Political with Christopher Ikonomou: Disability Pride (Month) Spotlight

For a special edition of the Disability Month Spotlight series, I was fortunate enough to interview our very own Editor-in-Chief, Christopher Ikonomou (xe/he).

two illustrations of ggggrimes, a Black nonbinary person with dark hair and matching gold glasses, septum ring, and earrings. On the left they present as Gabriela with long hair with tight waves, a black v-neck sweater, and a smile in front of a dark violet background with leaves. On the right they present as Theo with locs, a mustache, an orange durag, a dark shirt with blue flowers, and a neutral expression in front of an orange patterned background
Community
Queer Next Up: ggggrimes

ggggrimes (they/he/she) is a Black non-binary artist from the Bronx, NY. Their work portrays queer people of color living beautiful, colorful, and honest lives, with a focus on trans people.

pink and blue graphic with polka dots featuring several logos, including 2022 US Trans Survey, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, the TransLatin@ Coalition, and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance
Politics & News
National Center for Transgender Equality Announces Launch Date for 2022 U.S. Trans Survey

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) recently announced that the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey (also known as the USTS) is set to launch on October 19th.

illustration of a nonbinary Latine brown person with chin length black hair, glasses, and a deep blue cropped shirt. they have thick eyebrows and hairy arms.
Community
Hair: Chronicling My Journey to Queer Joy

The hardest part about being a Brown person who was socialized as a girl was enduring the constant jabs about my hair. I hit puberty at 9, which meant that there were years and years of constant insecurity about my hair. It was too much, too messy, and there was always hair in all the wrong places. The hair on my head was beautiful, thick, and long, but the hair on my body was ugly, thick, and wrong. As a Brown person, my facial and body hair were always under scrutiny, especially because my hair grew at faster rates (and was much thicker) than my other peers. I was tormented for my Frida Kahlo-like brows, for my arms that looked like a werewolf’s, for my body not being up to par with white, cishet beauty standards. One time, my aunt cruelly joked that she was going to gift me money for laser hair removal because the hair on my arms was too much for her.

illustration of a nonbinary south asian person wearing a bright green turtleneck sweater and purple pants. they swing on a swing set and smile up into the dusk sky, rainbow shapes emanating from their head into the night.
Community
A Revisit

In July 2021, I decided to revisit my childhood school, Eisenhower Elementary. I decided to go because I had felt so many emotions from the culmination of so many situations, relationships, experiences, and lessons, and I was left with this feeling like I was losing myself. I had recently discovered I was attending UCLA, and much of what was tying me back to the Bay Area was slowly dissipating. The days felt like a blur, like reading the pages in a book and realizing you’ve made it to the end of a chapter and you remember nothing. The sense of liminality and being in a transition plagued me. I was looking for definition from the abstract, something concrete from the abyss.

I'm an educator at our local aquarium, and a few weeks ago, I had a band of young girls come up to me and listen attentively as I taught them about whale vertebrae and feeding patterns. One question seemed to prompt the next, and they stayed with me until the end of my shift. After I said goodbye, a young girl chased after me and shouted down the hallway. hey! I turned around to answer any lingering whale questions, but to my surprise, she just gave me a big hug. And she told me, "i want to be just like you when i grow up." In my search for "queer joy." I usually find myself coming up short. Because it would be amazing if I felt pride and joy in my identity, but usually I just wish that I could be like everybody else. It's exhausting to feel so often like a square peg in a round hole, but sometimes all you need is a whale cart. Sometimes it's just one thing that makes all the rest okay, and if "queer joy" feels like a million miles away, "queer getting by" or "queer keeping-my-head- above-water" is just as important. My guess is you're reading this in search of queer joy and I'm sorry I can't make content to fit that bill. but you being here searching for it is really beautiful, too.
Art & Illustration
Whale Cart

Created by Zoë Collins (She/Her) This piece was originally published in our Spring 2022 print issue “Reflections of Radiance.“

compilation of nine album covers from MUNA, Troye Sivan, Remi Wolf, Kehlani, Janelle Monae, Kim Petras, Isaac Dunbar, Rina Sawayama, SOPHIE, and Lady Gaga.
Music
Queer Joy: A Soundtrack

Queer yearning and trauma are common themes through many of pop’s greatest hits from “Sofia” by Clairo to “TALK ME DOWN” by Troye Sivan. But, queerness is not just struggle, sacrifice, and heartbreak. Queerness is bold, vibrant, and exciting. And, while it may be cathartic to sob along to songs alone in bed, sometimes we need music to remind us that queer joy exists. Here are ten songs by queer artists about the queer experience that radiate sunshine and serotonin.

illustrated patchwork quilt with a different scene on each panel, including a sun tattoo, a map of california and texas, a pinky promise, a pitcher pouring out water, a paintbrush with red paint, and a skeleton with an exposed heart.
Poetry
patchwork

This poem was originally published in our Spring 2022 print issue “Reflections of Radiance.”

we are
building a new life
painting a new life
writing a new life

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