As we celebrate our newly launched DISABILITIES issue, we’re also taking the opportunity to look back on all of the brilliant pieces we’ve published this year. This was my first year as Archer Magazine’s Deputy Online Editor. As a long-time Archer volunteer and hanger-arounder of founder Amy Middleton, I was absolutely thrilled to come aboard. …

Content note: This article discusses domestic violence, assault, homophobia and suicide.   I met him in a gay bar about three months after my separation. I remember him standing there in a tuxedo and our eyes meeting. He came over to me, we chatted for about four hours, and then he left. It would be …

Play a high-G note on a piano and take a look around the room; you’ll see who the former emos are almost immediately. My Chemical Romance defined ‘emo’ as we know it. Prior to their astronomic rise in popularity, emo was loosely applied to almost any music that played on commercial radio or sat under …

“How do you have anything in common with younger people anyway?” I vividly remember a friend asking me this question with a tone of obvious disapproval.  Instantly, I felt ashamed. At 28 years old, I could see why they questioned it. According to society, you should aim to date someone one to three years either …

Content warning: This article discusses transmisogyny and eating disorders.    “If you can see it, you can be it.” It’s a beautiful phrase, expressing how strong role models can be vital for the confidence and self-esteem of people from diverse backgrounds. We all love seeing people who look like us being strong and successful in …

In early June, I was preparing myself for the rainbow marketing and pink washing that comes with the celebration of Pride Month each year.  During this month, brands and organisations often come up with new logos and various types of rainbow branding. They host talks, plan shows, and make a sudden effort to ensure conversations …

The following is an excerpt from Girl, Transcending: Becoming the woman I was born to be by AJ Clementine. When people ask how I came out to my parents, I tell them I didn’t have to. It was always known that I was a girl – it’s just that none of us knew how to put …

Content warning: this article discusses depression.    In 2015, I forgot who I was. Like a reverse Wizard of Oz, the world suddenly went from vibrant colour to black and white. I felt as though there was a storm cloud behind my shoulder. Joy was being sucked out of my every move.  Depression wasn’t a …

My hairdresser says there’s a different kind of freedom from living out of home, and I finally understand what he means. Since moving out, I’ve recognised a part of my identity that’s come as a surprise for me. Even though I’ve been attending queer book events at the library, and have two copies of Guidebook …

Without official support, education and wide-scale representation, where does asexuality and the asexual community stand on the road to full equality?

For a long time, I wondered if it was possible for me to reconcile the Korean part of myself with the Australian bisexual part.

In 2019, I managed to get myself out of a situation that was onerous but not uncommon. It involved a man who I thought was the love of my life. I knew many individuals to exhibit the traits he displayed throughout our relationship. However, I was unaware of just how typical my experience was for …

The thing is, yes, I really do want a label for my demisexuality. The finding of this word, and of the community that uses it, was life-changing.

Nevo Zisin is a Jewish, Queer, non-binary activist, public speaker and writer. In this Archer Asks, they discuss their new book ‘The Pronoun Lowdown’.

When I first came out to my parents, I couldn’t bring myself to use the term bisexual. There was something about it that felt so confirmed and definite. I knew that I had my own internalised stigma around the term that I hadn’t quite worked through yet. Labelling what I was feeling as anything legitimate …

Growing up in an Islamic household, I had no clue what sexuality entailed.  Love wasn’t really about love – it was about making your parents happy. My grandmother’s desire was for my mother to have an arranged marriage, and so my mother dutifully complied. All I knew about love was that it occurred within a …

Blends of blues and greens shimmered back up at me from the palm of my hand. Lightly brushing sand off little pearlescent jewels, I looked into what was very recently a home for a little saltwater friend, but was now lying in the company of many other colours and shapes. Every trip to the beach …

I am a graduate teacher just about to enter the workforce. I have my values and pedagogy set, I want to prioritise a creative English classroom with a focus on student agency and encouraging a safe environment. Many experienced teachers may groan at how idealistic I sound, but I feel as though it’s good to …

It’s been ten years since I finished school. A decade since I definitively declared “School’s out for summer, school’s out forever”. Between that day, the beginning of the rest of my life, and now, I came out. Returning to my Catholic high school in Sydney’s inner west to see what had changed, I expected better …

What does it mean to come out as asexual? What does it mean to identify as something that is essentially an absence? This is what I am thinking about, seven years into a happy straight-passing relationship with a cis-het man. It would be easy to continue in this relationship without coming out: just go on, …

Rae Perks on the difficulty of coming out and finding a label for yourself that feels entirely right.

Kris Kneen on bisexuality and coming out (again) and presumed heterosexuality.