Howdy! It’s Alex Creece, your online editor and dyke at large. This year at Archer has been bonkers – we celebrated our 10th birthday, and launched two incredible new print issues: INCARCERATION and PLEASURE.

The INCARCERATION issue quickly became our best-selling print mag of all time. It’s urgent and essential reading.

By stark thematic contrast, the PLEASURE issue is all about feeling good – but not necessarily in the ways you’d expect, and certainly not without a focus on the things that hinder and complicate our experiences of pleasure.

On our website, we’ve introduced a few new items to our regular programming, including queer fashion files and queer film and TV reviews. But our priority remains personal narratives, and we’ve been honoured to edit and publish so many phenomenal stories this year.

To get a taste of what our readers have been loving, check out these faves of the year! From Jessica Rabbit to trans music to trash television, here are Archer Magazine’s most read online pieces of 2023.

The Ultimatum: Queer Love recaps by Dani Leever

Image: Netflix

“Call it frivolous, call it trashy garbage, but it’s fucking magic. Name one other show that has boldly declared the line: ‘All I’m saying is that you ended up with your fingers inside of the person I came here with.’ Iconic.” Read more…

Queerplatonic relationships: Not friendship, not dating, but a secret third thing by Aries M. Gacutan

Image: Roland Deason

“Queerplatonic relationships shift the goalposts of what a relationship ought to be. Better yet, they tear down the game entirely, handing out Lego blocks and paint instead, and inviting you to do whatever the hell you want.” Read more…

Catching the light: Reclaiming opera as a trans Arab by Zeyn Joukhadar

Image: Saqi Books

“The heart of this story is a karaoke booth in LA’s Koreatown where four queer Arabs are belting Queen at the top of our lungs.” Read more…

COVID still exists: When is the queer party no longer the protest? by Liz Duck-Chong

Image: Sergi Dolcet Escrig

“As we dance in recognition of the victories won and the communities who put their bodies on the line to win them, what responsibility do we have to push further?” Read more…

A lesbian and a non-binary bisexual in love: On language and queer solidarity by Alex Creece & Amelia Newman

Image: Courtesy of the authors

“My lesbianism is inclusive; it celebrates gender diversity as much as it celebrates women; it celebrates different expressions of sapphic love and attraction; it celebrates camaraderie and a shared history with queer people of all genders. It celebrates its own queerness.” Read more…

Queer platonic intimacy: A love letter to my housemate by Kae Woodbury

Image: Courtesy of the author

“Queer platonic intimacy is thus the haunting spectre of a love that does nothing but simply exist. Our love for one another doesn’t do the work for capitalism. We’re not expending labour or perpetuating norms. We love one another for love’s sake only.” Read more…

Male bisexuality on television: From the ’90s to now by Josh Mckenzie

Image: CBC Television

“When you are so used to seeing male bisexuality portrayed as an unnamed and nefarious feature of a character, or as being gay-in-disguise, it’s too easy not to see bisexuality as an actual real-life orientation.” Read more…

Trans rage, metal and music: What is the trans ‘sound’? by Simone Anders

Image: Gallks

“The performers I listened to had an explicit rage that defined how they affirm their bodies, minds and voices. And yet, for every angry voice that expresses the inexpressible lives of trans folk, there is a soothing one, that celebrates and affirms our lives and our potential.” Read more…

Discovering aegosexuality through art: Neurodivergence, desire and Jessica Rabbit by Cynthia Spleen

Image: Jade Florence

“Reality is hella unreliable, with too many chaotic variables to ensure a perfect fantasy. I see drawing as similar to fan fiction and roleplay – exploring your sexuality and gender by means of make-believe over real life.” Read more…

The L Word: Gen Q recaps by Jess Ison

Image: Showtime

“When Fletcher says, ‘This is the type of sapphic drama I live for!’ I thought, really? The sapphic drama I live for has way more polycules and vegan nut loafs.” Read more…

Thank you to all of our contributors: by sharing your unique and invaluable talents, you make Archer what it is. And thank you to the broader Archer team, readers, and community – we love you.