4/1/2024 0 Comments UndefinedLucas Fuller The child breathes deeply, gripping clothes that, despite being the perfect size, do not fit. They stand outside a circle of mushrooms, deep in the forest, far from home. Doubts fill a tiny mind, clamoring for attention. Turn back. You know what is expected of you. They all told you not to. You know you’re not supposed to. It’s unseemly. It’s dangerous. It’s disgusting. It’s wrong it’s wrong its wrong it’s wrong IT’S WRO–
They take a sudden step forward, past the edge of what is known and into the danger and wonder of the untrodden path. The chill autumn air gusts past, stirring hair that someone else grew and cut to their own liking. It swirls and dances and lifts the leaves which frolick to a tune just on the very edge of hearing. The leaves twist and blur in a kaleidoscope of color until they are gone, and in their place stands a creature not of this world. Tall, impossibly slender, and possessing an eerie and ethereal beauty, the Faerie gives a deep and courteous bow in greeting. “It has been quite some time since a human has come to our woods. Frankly, I thought you had all forgotten us. What, pray tell, brings you here?” “I’ve come to join you,” says a voice that comes from the child, but does not belong to it. “There’s no place for me here.” The Faerie’s eyes light up as they unfold from their bow. “Not an uncommon request, though typically one needs to see what our land offers before they ask. And you, a mere child who has never once peered past the veil of worlds, asks for this without knowledge of what it entails. Are you sure this is what you wish?” “I have made my choice.” They shrug, grinning wolfishly. “Then all you must do in return is giv–” “–You need my name. Take it. It means nothing to me.” The Faerie pauses, collecting itself. It takes much to catch one of the fair folk off guard. “Very well, then. You must speak it.” “They call me ____.” The pair wait, but nothing happens. “Come now child, you needn’t be cagey. Are you really having second thoughts now, after you’ve come all this way?” The Faerie gives a chittering laugh. “Just tell me your name and this will all be over.” The child blinks, confused. “I did. It’s ____.” The Faerie shakes their head. “That’s what they call you, but it’s not your name, is it? You do have a name, don’t you?” The child looks down, scuffing the dirt with a booted foot. “I guess I don’t know.” “Oh, I see.” The Creature leans against a tree that caves in like a feather mattress, forming an arboreal throne that sifts to cup their body. “You haven’t chosen yet.” The child looks up, surprised. “I get to choose?” “You do.” “But I don’t know what to choose. What did you pick?” “I didn’t.” “But you said people could choose.” “Don’t put words in my mouth, dear. I said you could choose. I never said a thing about myself.” “So you can’t choose, then?” "That's the issue with being eternal. You can never change. Free will..." the Faerie laughs ruefully. "Free will, which so many take for granted, is not given to us. I will always do what I have always done, but you... you can change. Grow. Become someone or something different. Yet you humans place restrictions on yourselves. What you can and can't wear, where you may or may not go, what you can say in one place but not in another–” “–Who I get to love?” The child interrupts. There is a pause. The Faerie nods and stands, beginning to pace like a cornered animal. “Your greatest gift, squandered for the illusion of homogeneity, of order in a fundamentally order-less world. Clade and phylum and taxon and words words WORDS seeking to make limitless potential become finite and measurable and understandable to tiny brains that should know better, that should know their place, that should know they cannot possibly organize and categorize and put the universe in neat little boxes," they spit words dripping with venom and– The Faerie looks at their hand, seeing that they have driven nails into skin, deep enough to draw blood. The muscles in their fingers relax, and they breathe again. The Faerie faces the child. "Be different, little one. Not because someone tells you to, not because you think others will approve. Do it for you." They smile again, this time with real mirth. "You are limitless potential,” explains the Faerie. “What will you turn out to be?" The child thinks. They close their eyes, putting aside the nagging voices of those that have always wanted to control them. For once, they listen to their Heart. “I am Skye.” The wind picks up, the earth shakes, the wild things of woods long forgotten stir in burrows and dens and nests. The child– no, Skye, thrums with power untold. They both smile then, human and faerie. “Skye,” the Faerie says, testing the word on their tongue. “Keep your name. Never let anyone take it from you, for a name is a powerful thing. It holds within it all that you are, but never all you can be. Remember that.” They extend a hand in invitation, and Skye smiles as she has never smiled before. “Come then, Skye… and welcome home.”❧
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Padma Danturty (she/her)Last year, I wrote an article called “10 Gay Watches” highlighting my favorite queer representation in Western media. I stand by what I said when I mentioned that media is so much more interesting to me when characters are from a wide range of backgrounds, whether it’s a diversity in sexuality, gender identity, race, or socioeconomic status. It’s not only important for me to learn about different identities, but also having representation of myself on screen, normalizing my existence and opening up my experience to a wider audience. Being a minority meant this was challenging to find; however, I’ve compiled another “Masterlist of Media” of well done South Asian queer representation!
3/1/2024 0 Comments lovesickmorena (she/her) I had hoped this feeling would get better with time. Unfortunately for me, I was still awake at 3am, waiting for a phone call that would never actually come. Just waiting for someone to need me again. No, not need. But want me again. Someone who would willingly choose to be with me.
God, I miss having someone to hold this late. Someone to hold me, rather. It’s the silence that always gets to me. This apartment is so goddamn quiet. 2/7/2024 0 Comments Badhaai Do and Gay MasculinityPadma (she/her)One evening during winter break, I came downstairs, and was met with a familiar sight: my mom relaxing after work by watching something on the TV. Seeing the screen and hearing the Hindi language, I assumed it was another Hindi drama series that she likes, and almost left without saying anything. Luckily, she told me she was watching Badhaai Do (translation: “Congratulations”), a 2022 movie that had just begun. I decided to watch it with her, possibly the best decision I made over break.
12/10/2023 0 Comments of MemoryAngel White I remember being born my senior year of high school. It was February, and I was headed to the library for my final period of the day. The teacher never seemed to check attendance for the class, so most of my classmates would skip the period and go home early. On this particular day, I was completely alone and wasn’t very interested in doing homework so I decided to look around the library. After a while, I found a queer fiction section. This wasn’t the first time I had come to this part of the library (I did so almost every week since I figured out I was queer). On this particular trip, I noticed a book: Jeff Garvin’s Symptoms of Being Human. I looked it up, and found out it starred a genderfluid protagonist, something I had never seen before. When classes ended that day I checked out my new find and went home. By the end of day (well, technically, by like 3 AM the next morning) I had read all 352 pages of that book and was in the middle of a serious identity crisis.
Elessar Younglove (they/fae) If I have learned anything as a communications major it’s that visibility matters. Seeing someone who looks like you, and seeing someone seeing someone who doesn’t, on screen impacts how audiences think about and interact with others. LGBTQ+ representation is on the rise, but it has a long way to go, especially for queer people of color. Lack of representation has various consequences. It can promote prejudices, particularly unfavorable ones, about particular ethnic or cultural groups. Shining a light on white queer people denies the lives and experiences of queer people of color. If Arabic people are shown to only be cishet, then viewers assume that all members of this group must take this route because they only perceive negative stereotypes or a lack of representation in these groups.
5/1/2023 0 Comments the dishesFranklin Lasseni think about my gender
when i'm washing the dishes my favorite chore when i was a kid the only one i ever did 5/1/2023 0 Comments 10 Gay Watches (TV Shows)Padma Danturty (she/her)For me, starting a television show is a big deal. If I’m going to commit my time and energy to caring about characters and reflecting on their decisions, I need it to be good. I also cannot watch shows that show no diversity, and I often get bored very easily. I don’t mean to say that I can’t care about characters that are different from me, but I find that it adds another interesting layer of depth and reality when shows include characters that are POC and/or queer. It’s even better when these characters aren’t pushed off into a B story, with such little screen time that their presence almost doesn’t matter. So, here is a masterlist of TV shows that include main characters who are queer!
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