The word fat is one steeped in stigma, but many fat people are reclaiming the word. Fat people are multivalent, sexy and fashionable, too.

There are several problems with being a writer: one is that you’re convinced everyone cares about what you have to say, and another is that even if your opinion or situation changes, your words are there on the internet, available for anyone to read or find when they Google your name. Around three years ago, …

At the moment, my partner and I are in the room not going out. We always live in fear. I studied engineering at university. I worked as an elevator technician until I left Iran. I really liked that job. I would like to start my own small business, that is my goal. When I was …

Television is America. America is sex. And sex, of course, is the biggest sin of them all. Those were the reasons my parents gave me for prohibiting the viewing of Sesame Street in our home. I was raised in the church by my ultra-Greek Orthodox parents, and I remember from a young age feeling at …

Ruby Mountford will speak about bisexuality and women’s health at the 2018 LGBTIQ Women’s Health Conference, July 12 & 13 at the Jasper Hotel, Melbourne. For more information and to register for the LGBTIQ Women’s Health Conference go to lbq.org.au   It started with a mention of The L Word. I was sitting at the …

If you’d told me at age 19, walking into my very first bear party at Sydney’s  Imperial Hotel basement that one day I’d be called the Queen of the Sydney bear community, I probably would’ve laughed at you. I didn’t want to go there that night, I’d had a terrible week. I was looking for …

It’s hard enough asking major studios for women-centred films (they only comprised 24% of protagonists in the top earning films of 2017) let alone films centred on queer women’s experiences. And as for queer women of colour? Unsurprisingly, even more so.

André Aciman is the critically acclaimed author of Call Me By Your Name and the sprawling Enigma Variations. Ava A spoke with André at the Sydney Writer’s Festival about the thematic elements he uses to produce his powerful prose and the novel-turned-movie that tugged the world’s heart strings. Ava: Can you speak to the significance of exploring queer, …

Hellfire’s producers have maintained their unfaltering commitment to cultivating a physical place for this community of societal outcasts, all looking to find equally freaky minded sexual fiends and perverts.

The black family is a contested and colonised concept; my own family has never been a fixed and permanent entity. We have always been ephemeral. Some people are added and some are cut out. I have one mum, but heaps of other mothers. Sometimes, my mum feels like a sister. I have two sisters, but many …

A straight person I was once very close with contacted me recently, telling me how fondly he remembers our past and that he missed me. It drew a smile to my face and got me thinking about the friendships with straight and/or white people that have faded from my life. These people have occasionally appeared …

Content warning: this article contains discussion of sexual assault, queerphobia and transphobia, and violence Living in this world as a queer person can be exhausting at times. The incessant and ever-present narratives of heteronormativity are everywhere. On billboards, movies, and even on fucking packets of chips. While this is frustrating, we usually build queer spaces …

Kids know. They really do. Long before the adults do. The stares, the pointing, the laughing, the mocking and jeering starts from your first class. Some primal part of the brain is triggered by the presence of something other, even if they cannot articulate what their own tribe is. It is something taught, something ingrained …

Clarence Chai is a gay Singapore-born Australian fashion designer and vintage clothing dealer. Clarence spoke to Angela Serrano about his work.

Having been brought up on a steady diet of the gay and lesbian section of Blockbuster Newtown, I can say that my movie taste is pretty low grade. In light of this, I can be forgiven for loving the new film Riot, which was released in time for this year’s Mardi Gras and dramatizes the …

“Sisters?” asks the dishevelled guy in the sweltering hot elevator. My girlfriend has gold flecked blue eyes, straight blonde hair and a small round tummy—she’s five months pregnant. I’m half a foot taller with wavy auburn hair, deep set eyes and a larger frame. We’re both sweating as we look at each other, then at …

Allan Clarke is a Muruwuri man and an investigative journalist with the ABC. He has previously reported for BuzzFeed, NITV and SBS. The Mardi Gras magazine recently published his article about the First Nations history of Mardi Gras, commemorating 40 years of black queer protest and celebration.   How important is the Sydney Mardi Gras …

This story was first published on Staying Negative, a website that aims to emotionally engage and inspire gay/bisexual men, including trans men, through the sharing of personal stories. Read more about how you can share your story here. Content note: this story discusses mental health and suicide.   I was born and raised in Melbourne. Even before …

Hair is one of the first markers of culture and queerness visible to the naked eye. For queer women of colour, reconciling these aesthetics can be hard.

My very first images of masculinity and femininity came from the pictures that hung in my family’s prayer area, inside a small hallway closet with doors that opened like an accordion. Inside I saw gods and goddesses, either balanced on one leg in a dance pose, or standing with their palms together in prayer. At six …

I’ve found myself in this middle ground through no fault of my own, so I may as well carve my own space within it, one day at a time.

As a sex worker and queer woman, Tilly Lawless doesn’t always find safety in traditional community spaces.