Four seniors laughed around a cafeteria table, a mid-day ritual at one of Los Angeles’ few LGBTQ+ centered elder housing facilities. Jo Sun and Luis Zapata and two old friends ate lunch together daily in the bustling dining room of Ariadne Getty Foundation Senior Housing. It’s often quieter, but “hamburger day” had enticed an unusually…

When Daniel Gonzalez came to Los Angeles from Mexico, the challenges of being a gay man in a new country caused him to feel isolated, depressed and anxious.  He found community at Bienestar Human Services, an organization that provides a variety of services including support groups, which Gonzalez benefitted from.  “I’m really thankful to Bienestar…

Imagine a junior high, where you are free to be your true self.  A junior high where you can have hard conversations that are met with support, instead of judgment. A junior high that embraces the creativity and experiences of those in the QTBIPOC community. A junior high that has no room for judgment but…

Walking through Philadelphia on Labor Day As a first-time visitor to Philadelphia, I envisioned the Gayborhood as a vibrant community dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ+ individuals. Yet, the neighborhood, also known as Midtown Village, was surprisingly quiet on Labor Day. Even as I walked across the rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of 13th and…

Coming off the high of a one-night music festival hosted by my college radio station, I was itching to immerse myself in another city’s DIY scene. I assumed that a major city like Chicago–with tons of small venues and even smaller acts–is bound to have a huge underground scene—and it does.  But one has to…

When Sara Kaiser, a trans woman, saw her first derby game over a decade ago, she started crying. “I was just bawling because I didn’t have the right parts to play,” Kaiser said. But, she had caught the derby bug and joined her local men’s team, where she skated from 2011-2014. Kaiser said she was…

Clear backpacks lean against one another in a fallen domino formation. Inside each of the bags is a collection of curated books. Hallothon Patnott pulls out a large children’s book. Between a caring staff and 1,718 LGBTQIA+ books and resources, Chicago’s hometown Oak Park Library supplies its community with an abundance of queer education and…

Vicki White remembers a letter she once received from an incarcerated woman asking for help.  “She needed glasses, but she had to pay for them herself and couldn’t afford them,” White says.  The woman was asking for large-print books so she could still continue to read, even though the prison she was at wouldn’t provide…