Stephen Hemrick – Gay & Lesbian Review

by Andrew Sarewitz
I had no gay role models growing up—not in life or literature, on TV or in movies, so I didn’t know what I was supposed to do…
The post Before There Were Role Models appeared first on The Gay […]

by Jon King
Over the summer, I found a group of friends. None of them seemed to like each other much, but they were united in sleeping with me. I was a sure thing. If they asked me to sleep with them, the word no […]

  “CAN I HAVE a purse?” I asked Big Mama. I was five years old. After asking me why I wanted it, my big mama purchased me one. I wore my purse with confidence and pride—in the house. I was never instructed to wea […]

by Saachi D’Souza
Women: From Her to Here an ambitious exhibition curated by Hoi Leung is everything a contemporary queer narrative can be: joyful, tender, nonlinear, and unapologetic…
The post ‘Women: From H […]

by Ty Bo Yule
I hadn’t planned on transitioning at Harvard. No one would choose to invite puberty to graduate school, but I probably wouldn’t have finished my degree if I hadn’t…
The post Transitioning to (an […]

by Monika Estrella Negra
Portrait of a Lady on Fire explores an unexpected and forbidden romance between two women in the late 18th century. Set on the lush and grainy beaches of an island in France, this […]

by Phil Tarley
In 1970, I met Michael Feigh in San Francisco and he quickly became my pimp. My English boyfriend introduced us when we were hippies living near Haight-Ashbury. I was nineteen…
The post How I […]

by Terry Wolverton
It’s been said that a thing does not exist until you have a name for it. When I was growing up in Detroit in the ’60s, no one I knew was talking about lesbians…
The post When I Was a Young Lez […]

by Sara Century
The World To Come (2021) takes a contemplative look at a love affair between two women living in relative isolation in the mid-1800s. Directed by Mona Fastvold and adapted for the screen by Ron […]

by Walter Meyer
Suicide, rightly or wrongly, feels preventable. If I had listened better, been a better friend, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. Bill’s death by suicide haunted me so badly that I couldn’t bear […]

by Bradford McIntyre
On November 28, 1985, I was told by my doctor to go home, inform my family, and arrange my finances and funeral because I had six months to live…
The post Six Months to Live appeared first […]

by Chloe O. Davis
Ballroom vernacular has indelibly impacted the larger LGBT community. The ability to modify and explore the dynamics of language to enhance an inclusive culture—one that allows freedom of g […]

by Walter Holland
In 1996, I was on the beach at Fire Island Pines. It was an exquisite summer day, and the sea was dazzling. But the beauty of the day belied the reality underneath: The Pines had become one of […]

by Alia Boyd
Since forming, the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project has launched a regional archive of LGBT historical materials. The most recent digital exhibit, BLT: Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender […]

by Charlie Ceates
I technically have two coming out stories: coming out at school and coming out to my family. I’m grateful that I have more than one, because the former is a bitter memory…that I rarely r […]

by Monika Estrella Negra
The Center for Black Equity (CBE) recently released the 2020-21 Black LGBT Community survey, and the results demonstrate the destruction caused by COVID-19…Overall, the survey touches on […]

by Kambiz Shekdar
While the world is racing to inject vaccines to defeat coronavirus, Dr. Fauci has renewed the $200 million call to find a cure for HIV/AIDS…Starting this month the National Institute of […]

by Emily L. Quint Freeman
One May night in 1969, along with seventeen others, I broke into the Selective Service office in Chicago’s South Side. We stuffed over 40,000 draft records into sacks, dragged them to t […]

by Jennifer Perrine
The Ramblers’ square dance lessons began with a question that might have proved daunting in another environment: Boy or Girl? Despite being nonbinary, I almost always default to “girl” when […]

by Raphael Cormack
People in Cairo in the early 20th century could look to a rich queer tradition that was different from Berlin’s. It is a tradition that does not match European ones, with fundamentally different […]