I know who I am. I know what inspires me, what ticks me off, and what I love. I know why I believe the things I do, who I want to be, and how I navigate the world. My ears are pierced (twice), I wear cool shoes, and I have never felt more myself than I do now.
To the queer youth, to my younger self
Coming out is hard in so many ways. I came out to myself when I was 18 years old — well, I didn’t “come out,” rather I abruptly clarified it to myself that I like women. Big deal. I hate categorizations and boxes and lists, yet it also relaxes me to put things and ideas into categories, boxes, and lists. The LGBTQ+ spectrum is mindblowingly expansive and, as I’m sure you already know, it is so beautiful.
Clothes and Deconstructing the Gender Binary
Illustrated by Nick Griffin (He/Him) CONTENT WARNING: transphobia, internal transphobia, enbyphobia, transmedicalism You never really liked looking at yourself in the mirror. Dressing rooms always made you uncomfortable. Bathroom mirrors were the worst. To be fair, self-confidence wasn’t exactly your…
Beyond Male & Female
Photo via Creative Commons “We need to move beyond male and female.” So argued my cisgender Sociology/Gender Studies professor in my Gender and Work course last week when we were discussing occupational segregation (the trend of men and women tending…
UCLA Spotlight: Amadeus Leopold at Royce Hall
My Thursday night was queerer than yours; I watched a Korean-American protégé play his violin in a leather thong and a pair of high heels. Last Thursday the violinist Amadeus Leopold, formerly known by his Korean name Hahn-Bin, performed at…
My Struggle for Identification
Photo by ToastyKen/Creative Commons I’ve identified as queer for about five years. After a process of reckoning much the same as many other coming out stories of the kind—though in my own fortunate case, my own terror was a far…
