No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would …

I am trans. I started hormone therapy four months ago, so I am still in the early days of my transition. This means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me, it means I’m trying my hardest to live an open, proud and authentic life. To some people, it means …

Amy Middleton is the founding editor of Archer Magazine. One of the beautiful things about Archer Magazine is how many diverse groups and individuals it brings together through its content. I’m not only talking about the different identities and communities that make up our readership, but also the gap this publication bridges between identity politics …

The queer community has developed a tendency to enforce certain notions of sex positivity to the detriment of the true personal and sexual liberation of some of its members. This mimics the oppressive elements of the world of heteronormative dating that queer sexual politics is apparently different from. Manifestations of sex positivity, along with an …

Constance and Eric are a US based photography duo who take intimate portraits of couples, groups, and individuals.

In 2004, then-prime minister John Howard introduced the Marriage Amendment Bill, which incorporated the common law definition of marriage – “the union of a man and a woman to exclusion of all others” – into both the Marriage Act and the Family Law Act. It thereby gave Australia’s same-sex marriage movement its impetus. Australia now …

They’re called Sex on Premises Venues, or SOPVs. As a homogenous idea of ‘gay culture’ is slowly digitised into app-based cruising, and nightclubs struggle to attract the next generation of gay men, can the SOPV endure? And if so, for how long?

This article contains Orange is the New Black Season Three Spoilers. The first time I can remember seeing a trans person on TV was Silence of the Lambs. It was at a movie night with friends and we gasped and laughed and hid behind our hands as Buffalo Bill sneered “it puts the lotion in …

For all its downfalls and erasures, the coming out of Caitlyn Jenner did bring the discussion between the language of medicine and transgender people into my lab. A colleague recently approached me, I’m guessing because of my gay aura, to ask some questions about transgender issues. They didn’t have any opinions or judgements. They just …

How would we feel, Nietzsche wondered, if a demon visited us in our darkest hour to deliver the message that this moment, and every other from birth to death, would be lived again and again for eternity? Would the knowledge of a life that echoed throughout time lend it a crushing weight? Or would we be able to affirm each moment’s eternal recurrence? …

Rather than retaining the gendered default with all its risk of offence and irrelevance, what if the norm were a gender-neutral pronoun?

I’m just going to say this now: Fred Nile had no place on the queer episode of ABC’s Q&A. We held our first ever In Conversation with Archer event in Sydney last week. The topic was diverse identities, and how they are shaped by our age and the society around us as we grew up. …

“When you’re gay, it means you’ve gotta rebuild the rules you were taught that don’t apply.” – Paulmac, Archer Magazine #4 EVENT: In Conversation with Archer, Wednesday 10 June 2015 VENUE: 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney HOST: Amy Middleton, founding editor of Archer Magazine PANEL: Paul Mac, Sydney-based DJ and music-maker; Teresa Savage, founder of 55upitty.com; …

I was born a blank canvas, a little grub writhing around on a bed of expectations. I grew up in a world attempting to socialise me to be a woman – to match the junk I had between my legs and that later grew upon my chest. Instead I grew up completely confused by what I was and wanted to be – I …

It’s taken me quite a while to get to the point where I’m comfortable writing and being open about something like this. For a long time, I had tricked myself into believing I wasn’t really bisexual, because there’s so much literature out there that reinforces the notion that it’s ‘just a phase’ or ‘just hormones’ …

Over the past year, I’ve found my party second wind. After a few years of being horrified at the thought of going out two or three times a week, suddenly I won’t consider anything less. As a result, I go to a lot of different parties. Gay parties, lesbian parties, queer parties. Parties in warehouses, …

BDSM does not equal abuse.  It’s OK to be curious about your own sexuality and to venture into some of its more nuanced spaces.

The first burlesque show I ever saw widened my perspective and peripheral vision all at once.

The circumstances and specificities of sex work are different from one city to the next and from one worker to the next, belying the sensationalised generalisations that burden mainstream accounts of sex work. However, there are rough continuities in the industry and one of them is the mainstream desire to wring it out of the …

Theatre is often renowned for pushing boundaries and challenging societal norms. There is even a common term for it – “breaking the fourth wall” – or in other words, when actors invade your space and actively acknowledge you as an audience member. This intriguing aesthetic of theatre makes it not only a unique art form, …

I remember the day I found the porn magazine in the park. I was around seven years old and I sat high up in a tree, a warm feeling growing at the bottom of my belly as I flicked through the pictures of naked women. I wondered why there were naked women in a magazine …

Being queer defines me about as much as my enthusiasm for burritos, passion for gardening and disdain for spiders do. Much like how a vegetarian doesn’t think about not eating meat until an alpha carnivore interrogates them at a barbecue, I hadn’t thought a great deal about my sexuality until I became a comedian. Performing …