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 …

Imagine this: It’s sometime in the 2010s. I’m a loner in my early twenties. I have no friends, so I start attending game nights – board and video. I become somewhat acquainted in these male-dominated spaces, and end up forging a few connections. We text, we game, we have a few outings. Normal people stuff! …

“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 …

  Never anything other than summer   I didn’t get into trouble much at school. In truth, I can recall only a few occasions when my actions were brought into question. Maybe there were more. Maybe they just don’t burn as hot as the time I planted my nine-year-old lips on another boy’s nine-year-old cheek. …

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 …

Sheilas documents the ultimate girl gang, exploring the culture and community within numerous all-female motorcycle clubs in Victoria, Australia. The series follows these clubs as they meet at festivals, take rides together, and gather for catchups and other general shenanigans. Taken over the course of several months, Sheilas candidly captures the reality of being a …

It’s Bisexual Visibility Day! Also known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day, today is a day to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful bisexual+ folks in our LGBTQIA+ community. Image: adrirodrigar   It’s a day where we can celebrate our bi+ pals, consider how we can smash biphobia and enthusiastically wave that (aesthetically pleasing) bisexual flag. It’s also 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?

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 …

During my formative years, my self-esteem and social skills were damaged by pathetically inadequate sex education.

The first time I became cognisant of the importance others placed on romance was when I transitioned from the children’s section of my local library to the teen section. Suddenly, all of the books were about falling in or out of love. Nobody, it seemed, was all that concerned with friendships anymore. Until that point, …

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.

When queer friendships can quite literally be a lifeline, it’s hard to resist the urge to attempt to reconfigure and recontextualise relationships that were once exclusively sexual or romantic.

Some humiliations are delivered by people with good intentions. They warn you your fly is open or that the bottle of red wine you drank has turned your teeth grey. But, statistically, most humiliations are delivered for no good reason at all – and by my mother. “You completely lost yourself with that first boyfriend,” …

Viewed in the most literal way, the internet is dreadfully mundane. It is a series of interconnected networks comprising many computers and servers, all using standardised communication protocols to exchange information. What makes this web of cables and computers a technological spectacle is that it allows people to invent new worlds and reside in them. …

Caroline Newcomb lived and worked with Anne Drysdale on the Bellarine Peninsula for thirteen years, until the latter’s death. In her diary, Caroline described “my dearest and much-beloved Anne” as “the desire of mine eyes”. Upon her own death twenty years later, Caroline was buried beside Anne’s remains in their former residence of Coriyule. Historian …

‘Love in the Time of Coronavirus’ has been a source of entertainment and commentary during the pandemic. Playing on the title of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, the hashtag has been attached to everything from questions about how to maintain healthy relationships during lockdown to stories about people ending up …

Most people don’t know exactly what their life will look like, or what they definitively want. We all have ideas about such things, but like burning incense, these ideas swirl and transform, twisting and augmenting over time. This can become more complicated amongst sexual minorities like myself. Sometimes other LGBT+ people find it problematic if …

I became single in the midst of a pandemic. Everything feels different, and not just because the process of uncoupling and change is unconventional in its slowness. I have felt a shift in the way I view all of my relationships, the ebbs and flows of connection and distance, valuing time I get with my …

Taking a break from kink gave me the time and space to work through some heavy stuff, learn to stand on my own two feet and come back a stronger individual.