Avatar

GAYWRITES

@gaywrites / gaywrites.org

LGBTQ news, media, culture & more. An archive of daily posts, 2010-2018.

Welcome to GayWrites!

You may have reached this page through a Tumblr reblog, my website, or some other internet path. Either way, welcome!

Firs things first: visit the GayWrites homepage and browse the different tabs at the top to search the content archive by topic. 

After eight long years, GayWrites is no longer publishing daily content. This is for many reasons, particularly my need to focus on profitable work — this blog was always a labor of love — and my own wellbeing. I have loved every minute of blogging here, but considering recent changes to the platform and to my own career aspirations, it’s time for the next great adventure.

I want to offer enormous, sincere gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of you who have been on this journey with me. I’ve met good friends here, some of them IRL. I’ve learned a lot about myself, my community, and people who are nothing like me. My wife was my Tumblr follower before she was my girlfriend. All of this to say, the internet is sometimes good, and at times I believe I’ve witnessed the very best of it. For that and so much else, I’m grateful. 

Some business: This page and the GayWrites YouTube channel will remain up indefinitely. Other social media channels will be phased out over time. Thank you to everyone who has followed me on any platforms, purchased shirts or stickers, and generally been a part of this community; your generosity and kind words have never gone unnoticed, even if I haven’t always responded. 

If you’d like to follow me to hear about future writing projects, blogs, bisexuality puns, etc., you can find me on Twitter, Medium, and Goodreads. I won’t be checking messages consistently here anymore, but you can always reach out on any of those platforms or email me instead. 

I love you. It’s not goodbye, it’s see you somewhere else.

-Camille

Avatar

Like many of you, I am not thrilled with this Tumblr news!

Hey pals.

You’ve probably already noticed that I’m not here as much as I used to be. The recent announcement about Tumblr removing adult content is making me think more and more that it might be time to close up shop. The question now is whether and where to relocate.

I’d love to keep part of this blog alive on Instagram, though my audience there is real slim. If you’re up for that, would you consider following me over there? And if not, well, I’ll keep ya posted on what’s next.

Sending good thoughts to those who found some community and safety in Tumblr’s NSFW corners and those whose lives and livelihood will be affected the most by this change.

Like many of you, I am not thrilled with this Tumblr news!

Hey pals.

You've probably already noticed that I'm not here as much as I used to be. The recent announcement about Tumblr removing adult content is making me think more and more that it might be time to close up shop. The question now is whether and where to relocate.

I'd love to keep part of this blog alive on Instagram, though my audience there is real slim. If you're up for that, would you consider following me over there? And if not, well, I'll keep ya posted on what's next.

Sending good thoughts to those who found some community and safety in Tumblr's NSFW corners and those whose lives and livelihood will be affected the most by this change.

The cast of Broadway’s The Prom musical gave the LGBTQ community something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.
Actors, including leads Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla, burst out of the theater and into the streets for Macy’s big holiday parade Thursday. Closing out their performance of the big number, Kinnunen and McCalla shared a kiss on live television, which appears to be the first same-sex kiss in the parade’s history.

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed! 

Scotland made history recently by becoming the first nation in the world to mandate teaching about LGBTQ history and social movements in public school curriculum. 

State schools will be required to teach pupils about the history of LGBTI equalities and movements, as well as tackling homophobia and transphobia and exploring LGBTI identity, after ministers accepted in full the recommendations of a working group led by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign. There will be no exemptions or opt-outs to the policy, which will embed LGBTI inclusive education across the curriculum and across subjects and which the Scottish government believes is a world first.
Jordan Daly, the co-founder of TIE, said the “destructive legacy” of section 28 had come to an end. This legislation, introduced in 1988, banned local authorities in the UK from “promoting” homosexuality, until it was eventually repealed in Scotland 2001 and in the rest of the UK two years later.
Daly said: “This is a monumental victory for our campaign, and a historic moment for our country. The implementation of LGBTI inclusive education across all state schools is a world first. In a time of global uncertainty, this sends a strong and clear message to LGBTI young people that they are valued here in Scotland.”

Incredible. I can’t wait until the day when this is the standard around the world.

More openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were elected Tuesday night than in any previous election, signaling a shift in cultural attitudes even as the Trump administration has chipped away at L.G.B.T. rights.
The results are still rolling in, but at least 153 have won so far, said Elliot Imse, a spokesman for the Victory Fund, a nonpartisan political action committee devoted to electing L.G.B.T. candidates. The group endorsed 225 candidates in this election cycle, nearly all of whom were Democrats.

ICYMI! 

Cis allies need to understand that this is a struggle for our lives. It cannot be limited to voting or constrained by adherence to ‘civility.’ Our enemies do not respect our existence, and they deserve no such courtesy in return. To combat the assault on trans lives, we must proclaim that no person or government has any authority over our bodies and genders.
Being Jewish was my first identity, it feels as inextricable to my being as being queer and being trans. To me, being raised Jewish was about values, many that I still hold dear and prioritize: family, community, tradition, questioning, acts of kindness. Being raised Jewish was also about anti-assimilation. By that I mean that I learned about anti-semitism very early on (though I would not consciously experience it until my teens), and I also learned that because Christianity informs the dominant culture in the United States (much like heterosexuality), to move through this country as a Jew means to assert your identity if you want to be recognized. That is, culturally, I learned that I am a Jew first, that I cannot extricate myself from my Jewish identity. I learned that our community spaces and our synagogues are sacred and important places, and I still believe and experience that. Religiously, I don’t always agree with or practice everything, and politically, I know we don’t all agree with each other (because Jews are not a monolith), but there is actually something very Jewish about that.

ICYMI: During the fifth inning of a World Series game this weekend, activists unfurled a giant trans pride flag bearing the words “TRANS PEOPLE DESERVE TO LIVE” in the middle of the crowd. The group TransLatin@ Coalition was behind the flag, citing protests of Trump’s newest proposal to erase trans people; activists Maria Roman and Bamby Salcedo filmed themselves draping it in the stadium, where it stayed for several minutes. YES. (via PinkNews)