lgbtq
Non-nuclear is the new normal; millions of children belong to happy families with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents.
To Be An Ally is to Love
Love It’s such a simple word. Love. We all want it. We all give it. But do we all give it unconditionally? It sounds pretty altruistic when we say we do. But what does it really mean in our everyday life? Unconditional. Without condition. When we throw that adjective out there, we are setting the bar pretty high. Way, way, up there. So why do we make such a point to talk about unconditional love?
By Teresa Kuhl5 years ago in Families
Brownstone Birthday
Every single year, I have to hear about her, my famous grandmother. I’m a senior now, so close to the end. Maybe this time, maybe this last time, the teachers finally said to one another, “Gee Myrtle, you’re right. Maybe we shouldn’t all ask him the same stupid-ass question.” But they ask anyway, like right now, in this second floor classroom that overlooks the concrete plaza where my dad says kids used to smoke before class.
By Jim Gardner5 years ago in Families
Auntie Bea's Little Black Book
My Auntie Bea and my mother were never close. For the longest time, I thought it was because Auntie Bea lived in the Garden District and we lived out here in the swamp. I’m not saying Momma was jealous, but I’m also not not saying that, ya know?
By LUCINDA M GUNNIN5 years ago in Families
Are You Ready to Go From Anonymous to Ally?
--- Becoming an LGBTQ ally is the best way to keep your family together without losing who you are. For many families, when a beloved family member shares their true sexual identity with you, the result hits some of us like a locomotive.
By Teresa Kuhl5 years ago in Families
Wild Orchids
I couldn't understand why she chose me, of all her grandchildren, to leave anything to. Let alone what she left me. According to my father's side of the family, I was the least responsible, the most traumatized, and, frankly, the one who knew her least.
By Nel Cestero5 years ago in Families
Once Upon a Friday
"The sight of you in the kitchen in the morning is the only thing better than the way this place smells! Mmmm!" Jayne exclaimed, burying her face in the crook of Lindsay's neck, and wrapping her waist in a big hug from behind. "Having a single set of stairs be our commute, is another thing I do love!"
By Skipper Knudson5 years ago in Families
Hijra Dreams
Ratnagiri, India, 1967 Hands are spaces of relation, undeterminable from the present reality. Fingers are digits of imagination, capable of creating realities of possibility. What happens when I tell my story of forsaken worlds that were a breath away from being?
By Rishi Guné5 years ago in Families
Being Transgender and Wanting a Child
Disclaimer - These are my views and opinions and do not reflect anyone else's. So a bit of a backstory about me, I'm 18, and I'm a man. A transgender man. This means that I was assigned female at birth. Around the age of nine, I realised I wasn't female and I was actually male. I didn't come out until I was 14, but that is a completely different story.
By Alec Blackwater5 years ago in Families
The Outcast Path
My sweating palms told me that I was making a big mistake. The thick letter-headed paper with the address on shook in my hand. I was at the correct location. My phone in the other hand also shook, it’s screen still displaying details of the type of establishment I’d been sent to. I had been expecting an office, a house, anything but this.
By Laura-Jo McCarthy5 years ago in Families
Packaged Women
Staring in her bedroom mirror, Babe grabbed her stomach with the left hand, and with the right one she smacked the roll several times: this image seared on my psyche at age five. She was convinced her stomach had fattened itself and for its defiance she would publicly humiliate it. Chastising it in the car after strapping her belt and especially when trying on new clothes. As our grandmother, she’d take us clothing shopping at one of those stores that sell groceries, tires, and furniture. All the women in our family are indistinct, but with a bit of flare added through differing hairstyles. Uniform and humdrum—like fortune cookies—uninteresting until cracked open.
By Hali Kimball5 years ago in Families
