I took a queer studies course in the spring of 1999, my second semester in college. My brother and I had recently both come out to our parents as gay. I was starting to date other queers. I went to drag shows. I wore a rainbow necklace I had...

“So you just moved here from Tucson?” Stan asked me. “Yes, we moved so Dan could see this doctor at Penn for his back surgery.” I had just attended my first trans guy support group at the William Way Center in Philadelphia. At the conclusion of the meeting, Dan,...

Last July, Basil and I brought my grandparents down to visit my Uncle Richard and Aunt Cindy in South Carolina. Basil and I packed plenty of fresh ingredients for Basil to cook when we arrived there, as we always do when we travel. My Uncle Richard had inspired me...

One day when I was growing up, my mother put a litter of kittens in a pillowcase. She submerged the pillow case in our swimming pool until all of the kittens had drowned. I felt physically ill when I typed that sentence just now. The same kind of mild...

My dad is balancing a full mug of coffee on top of the cup holder in his 1996 white Toyota Camry. It is balancing because it is a regular coffee mug, like one we would sit down at our kitchen island with. The cup holder, of course, is designed...

March 1997-Mesa, Arizona “Your mom tells me you have been trying to eat better and exercise.” I nodded. It was my last semester of high school prior to graduation. I had been getting into aerobics and was becoming more rigorous and committed in my visits to the gym. In...

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of the bread. It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to...

Today I went to write a Yelp review for the tattoo artist we went to in Buffalo last weekend. I saw my review writing counter at over 80 reviews. I decided to take a spin through my old reviews (how had I written that many?) and came across gems...

“Can I please have the organic arugula salad, with no chicken, no cheese, and a side of hummus?” I was working with an audit team in Michigan this winter. The most junior member of the audit team was taking lunch orders and I was giving him my request. The...

“What would you like to try to accomplish in your sessions?” the counselor asked me. I was sitting in the counselor’s small office in Tucson, AZ. The space was packed with books, filing cabinets, and bags of psychiatric drug samples. I had qualified for two months of free counseling...