sex – OutWrite

A digital illustration of a light-skinned masc person in a black cap, black leather harness, and black pants. They have a beard and short hair. They face away from the audience in a dimly lit abandoned gay bar called "Rock Bottom." The only visible light is from their phone open to an ambiguous social media. The room is lit with a deep pinkish purple.

The Destruction of Queer Public Spaces Has Forced Us Online

This January closed with police raids on Seattle gay bars. In a scene reminiscent of 20th-century police raids of queer bars, officials with flashlights entered a bar unannounced, took pictures of patrons, and cited a bartender for having an exposed nipple. It’s no secret that queer bars have been heavily policed throughout American history, or that nowadays, lesbian bars are practically nonexistent in the U.S. Queer spaces still exist, but we have lost the thriving queer sex culture of the 1980s largely because of the American political response to the AIDS crisis.

illustrations of intertwined trans bodies in pink monochrome

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(Fifty) Shades of Pink

For many of us, sex is a process of trial and error. Sex, like gender, is subjective, something that requires nuance and space to be explored. Also like gender, sex is confusing, a process of trial and error that many assume is automatic. More often than not, sex as a form of intimacy and euphoria is policed by cisgender, heterosexual social norms which in turn leaves a lot of pressure on us to have sex that isn’t necessarily fun or comfortable. But how do we know what we like when it comes to sex, especially in an era where it feels like we must constantly conform to others’ notions of sex?