I spend the most time with myself, running my fingers over my stomach and agonising over the parts that are soft. I guess all queer and trans people feel the way I feel at some point, because our bodies become associated with a very specific type of failure. In Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, he …

As porn increasingly takes the place of traditional sex education, instead of looking inwards to create better public and school sexual health initiatives, legislators are scrambling to regulate and censor porn. This creates a culture which further demonises and stigmatises porn despite its widespread audiences, all the while continuing to leave young adults in the …

This is the first instalment of a four part series on the state of queer young adult fiction in Australia. I grew up in libraries. My mother was a librarian, so any time I wasn’t at school I was at the library. I’d pore over the shelves, set up camp in the corner behind of …

Last year, I marched the streets with my queer siblings, adorned in rainbow flags. I met inspirational transgender and cisgender teachers from around Victoria, who were united by a desire to educate their pupils and expand their minds. I heard the stories of Australian youth who, at such a young age, were already using their …

As Queer Screen’s 2017 Mardi Gras Film Festival draws near, choosing which events to attend can feel like a pretty daunting task. To offer a hand, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most inclusive, diverse and intersectional films at this year’s festival, to help you navigate the program, Archer style. CHECK IT Check It is one …

Hi friends! Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri and Bunurong people, and pay my respects to all elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. Now, I have a brief message. I’m seen as a leader in this community because I …

A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to indulge in the delightful collision between popular culture and minority politics at the Melbourne International Film Festival screening of Little Girl Blue. As the title may suggest to loyal fans, Amy Berg’s 2015 biopic presents a sprawling map of Janis Joplin’s life, her incomparable talent, …

Francesca is counting the months until they can move to Hobart, or, preferably the Mainland. They paint me a picture of their regional hometown in northern Tasmania as a repressive place, full of churches, with a gossipy, small town mentality. From passing cars, people offer up profanity just for wearing purple Doc Martens or having …

Rebecca Shaw (aka Brocklesnitch) is a writer, co-host of Bring A Plate podcast and creator of the parody Twitter account @NoToFeminism. She tweets hilarious responses to the sexist arguments about gender equality, complete with shoddy spelling and grammar. She just recently turned her famous Twitter account into a book, No To Feminism. Dani Leever asked her a few …

Ejaculating milk from my nipples during orgasm was not something I can say I expected, while I was expecting. It was a rainy afternoon during my third trimester and, without even aiming, I shot my partner straight in the eye. Fortunately, unlike semen, breast milk doesn’t sting and there was no burning or redness. In …

This is an excerpt from Pink Ink: The Golden Era for Gay and Lesbian Magazines by Bill Calder, out now.   The late 20th century was a golden era for Australian gay magazines and newspapers: more than five million copies of publications were printed annually at its peak, with revenues approaching eight million dollars a year.  Yet there …

As a child, I remember thinking about getting married. In my mind, I always pictured a woman by my side. I was socially conditioned to think this way from an early age because I never felt like I had any role models outside of the traditional representation of what it meant to be a man …

I recall blowing out four candles on my birthday cake and wishing that I’d wake up the next day as a girl. I can remember making that same wish with five candles, with six, with 16 and even with 32. There’s a lot that held me back from transition earlier in life – shame, guilt, …

Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars and Theology Before Stonewall explores lesbian community spaces in America in the mid 20th Century.

It’s the end of a big year for the queer community, scattered with ups and downs, wins and setbacks, progress and what can at times feel like regression. During the end-of-year celebrations, remember to look out for each other, and seek out hugs and friends when they feel necessary. At Archer Magazine HQ, we’ve had a …

It’s a horrific experience, editing print deadlines, and one of the lesser-known challenges of old-school journalism. I’ve just sent my seventh issue of Archer Magazine to the printers, and the bad news is, it doesn’t get any easier. The good news is there are coping mechanisms that might help you keep it together (or not). I’m …

The clouds are grey and heavy, compressing the ground and my mood with their weight. I’m sitting by an electric heater, drinking pale ale, in Eleanor Dark’s studio at Varuna, in Katoomba, where she herself sat and wrote, trying to find uninterrupted time to write amongst the demands of work and home. I’ve put aside …

Growing up, I was called mukhanath, or hermaphrodite, not because my class mates were certain that I had both a penis and a vagina, but because I was colored outside of the masculinity circle. They chose to assign me both organs because I didn’t have a rough voice, I wasn’t loud or violent, I liked …

Member of poetry duo Darkmatter, Alok Vaid-Menon, chats to us about performance, faggotry and being freakishly queer. This is an excerpt from Archer Magazine #7, the THEY/THEIRS issue. Q: How has your trip to Australia been so far? Politically and racially, everyone has a different idea of what’s going on here. US frameworks around race, …

Alex Lahey is a singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Australia who is having a pretty fantastic year. From winning the $7,500 Josh Pyke Partnership and playing on the stages of Splendour in the Grass festival to the release of a seriously successful debut EP, Lahey is getting a lot of love from the music industry. I meet …

Content warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault. One of the biggest stories this time last year was the accusations of sexual violence committed by porn performer James Deen, made by no less than ten women, including his former partner and fellow performer Stoya, Charlie Sheen’s ex Bree Olson, Teen Mom Farrah Abraham and …

In English, words describing sex and the body hold the highest level of taboo, amongst the various profanities.