A happy queer accident — The courtroom was empty and quiet when we arrived. It was 30 minutes before our 10:45am name change hearing. My wife considered us to be dangerously late. “But what if somebody before us no-shows and they call us early and we aren’t there?!” She went down the list of everything…

Less than 20 feet away, I was trapped and unable to see you. — Note from Logan: Last year, my wife lost the very special woman who originally raised them. They wrote this beautiful piece to help process this loss and welcomed me to share it here. CW: Child abuse mentioned without details. I heard your sneeze faintly under the white noise of the…

It felt like I’d stomped on my own grave. — I’m a trans man. When people who aren’t familiar with the LGBTQ+ community meet me for the first time, or meet me again from a very long time ago, they often express some anxiousness about what will happen if they misgender me. When old friends who knew me before transitioning…

For years, we danced together in the wrong roles — My wife and I used to take dance lessons together every Tuesday night like clockwork at one of our favorite places: a Cuban restaurant and dance club in North Carolina. After each lesson, there was a long dance social that always continued into the early morning for those able to…

But be careful walking on your frozen tears — I could be whoever you read in my eyes, for just this moment, to push the plot forward. My joy, pain, anger, fear, hope could be your redemption. We don’t have to dig further, lest we hit water or fire in your history, born in the moment we’re drinking together, but…

If you really want to grow as a writer, start by reading — As I begin to write this, I’m sitting in the sun with hot tea, enjoying balmy 7-degree Celsius (46-degree Fahrenheit) weather from the balcony of the B&B we’ve been living in alongside who knows how many roommates, thanks to the shortage of housing in this part of Colorado. I’m 1,700+…

Here’s why I don’t write everyday anymore… — My daily writing routine was born as a coping mechanism in response to trauma that I’m not going to tell you any details about here. I’m not sure exactly when it all started and ended, but I followed this routine almost every morning for about 15 years. Even before I…

It was also my first experience swimming outside in hot springs while it snowed! — I almost didn’t go to the hot springs that day. I nearly missed one of the most wonderful days of my life because I was exhausted from having had only a few hours of sleep crammed full of nightmares. How many mornings in a row had felt like this? It…

I hope I get it back eventually — Shortly before COVID-19 hit, SpanishRed recommended that I watch an absolutely horrific romantic movie called Perfect Sense. It was artistic, terrifying, and eerily prophetic of some of what we would soon experience. This movie followed an epidemiologist and her lover, a masterful cook, through a series of plagues that robbed…