Queer Lives Revealed in the UK and US, ‘Boots’ Reviews, and Elder Gay Magic Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 26 October 2025

This week in Prism & Pen, we feature 3 different #LGBTQ lives. Meet a “stealth” #transgender woman in conservative America, a younger #gay man in Scotland struggling to connect to love, and get angry with a #queer woman in England who wants corporate money out of #Pride.

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Celebrating Queer Books, Authors, and Lives Amid Ongoing Assault Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 19 October 2025

Meet an angry #gay Pulse survivor. Meet an author presenting her #LGBTQ YA novel at the Miami Book Fair. Meet a #queer elder who's published a funny memoir about childhood in Coconut Grove. And so much more about Florida, books, censorship, and global #transgender lives!

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In a World That Doesn’t Always See Us, LGBTQ Books & Movies Help Us Relate E. Lynn Harris was a Black gay author whose books deserve to be read, not banned.

Fictitious or not, I discovered people I could relate to in books. My feelings, taboo at the time, were finally being normalized, through imaginary characters. I wasn’t alone. I felt seen.
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#LGBTQ #Books #QueerBooks #Representation

Drawing Trans Lines, Celebrating Queer Family, Sharing Love Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 12 October 2025

Hey, #gay men, think throwing #trangender people under the bus will save you? Here's a gay psychotherapist who'd like to have a word. And dive deep with a gay trans man into Ezra Klein's support for #CharlieKirk. Also, share some #LGBTQ, #Queer family love with us!

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What Are Queer People Saying About Charlie Kirk? Unlock These Stories! Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 21 September 2025

If there’s been a more frightening time to be a U.S. #queer person, I’ve not experienced it during my 63 years, not even during the AIDS era, when we could count on at least a semblance of democratic norms.This week in Prism & Pen, we speak our minds!

#LGBTQ #transgender

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Why Aren’t Trans People More Empathetic About Charlie Kirk’s Death? Inflation is raising the cost of my thoughts and prayers

The rent in my brain is expensive, and the inflation of carnage is raising the price of my thoughts and prayers every month.
My wife and I are both trans, & believe me, I’d rather not write about Charlie Kirk’s death.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #CharlieKirk #GunViolence #Empathy

How to Thrive When You’re Under the Bus, and Other Cool Queer Tales Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 31 August 2025

Our top #queer, #LGBTQ stories this week!

A #gay man says stop stereotyping

Not passing empowers a #transgender woman

A trans woman keeps cool under the bus

Solid data about mass shooters (not trans!)

Solid data about trans women's fertility

Poetry in glory holes

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Gay Sailors Meet the US South, a Trans Jedi Knight, & Joyful Gay Spectacle Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 17 August 2025

This week’s top Prism & Pen stories!

🏳️‍🌈A Jedi Knight #transgender parent shares New Hope

🏳️‍🌈A #gay couple circling the globe in a sailboat discover truths about the US South.

🏳️‍🌈In #politics, is Pete Buttigieg transphobic?

🏳️‍🌈Should #LGBTQ folks make spectacles of ourselves?

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On LGB Minus T, Outing Trans People, and a Queer Poet Laureate Passing Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 27 July 2025

If you’re an #LGB person who thinks dropping the T is a safe choice, please read our analysis of the GOP’s authoritarian end game. And shiver! Also, please read an important reminder that outing #transgender people is dangerous.

And so many real #queer, #LGBTQ stories! 👇

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Easily Offended Queer People, an Exiled Queer Kid, and Queer Farmers Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 20 July 2025

This week in Prism & Pen, we bring you Barbara Walters and Harvey Fierstein, a #gay kid booted from summer camp, women’s sports bars as a trend, a Muslim #lesbian ’s joyful #Pride, and a #transgender woman's superhero childhood. Plus more #LGBTQ, #queer #storytelling!

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This Gay Teen Kicked Out of Summer Camp Should Scare Americans to Death Christian nationalism vs pluralism. I’ve lived this SCOTUS nightmare already.

As a kid, I wanted to join the #BoyScouts, but I joined the Awanas instead, because the Scouts weren't #Christian "enough." This #gay kid just got rejected from his summer camp after an anti- #LGBTQ Awana leader outed him. And that's just the beginning of this scary story!
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An Angry Trans Woman, Freedom for Sex Workers, and Trans Sexuality Science Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 13 July 2025

Lots going on this week in Prism & Pen! My title doesn’t scratch the surface, but I hope it piqued your interest. Personal stories, #politics, rants, and lots of #love. From #transgender, #gay, #bisexual and other #queer, #LGBTQ people. With fiction and poetry too!

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Trans People are Humans, Not ‘Issues’, and Pride is for All Queer Humans Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 6 July 2025

Hungary just tried to ban #Pride, then Budapest rocked the most defiant #LGBTQ party ever! Still, right-wingers (like Andrew Sullivan in the NY Times) WON'T stop justifying bigotry against #transgender people. All this and much more in this week's #queer P&P storytelling.

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Rewiring Queer Brains, Celebrating Queer Pride, Telling Queer Stories Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 22 June 2025

Did you know respectability politics could literally damage your #queer, #gay, #transgender brain? It’s #LGBTQ #Pride month, and 'respectability' is hotter than ever this year, so we’ve brought in an expert. We’ve also got #PrideMonth reports from all over the globe!

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Some People Are Trans, Get Over It! And Lots of Inspiring Pride Stories. Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 15 June 2025

It’s #Pride Month, and Prism & Pen has awesome #queer history for you this week, plus inspiring reports and photos from #Pride, infuriating #LGBTQ political stories, sweet #love stories, #parenting stories, moving #poetry, and a joyful dose of real #transgender lives.

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Sign the petition: Canada must update travel guidance and create clear, accessible pathways for trans refugees Sign the petition: Sign the petition: Canada must update travel guidance and create clear, accessible pathways for trans refugees

Tell the Immigration Minister to update travel guidelines to the US, currently suffering under the Trump regime, and to open accessible pathways to asylum in #Canada for #2SLGBTQIA+ refugees: www.momentumcanada.net/pathways

Video from Instagram of #NationalGuard shooting a #journalist — from behind her — who was in no way whatsoever doing anything the least bit threatening…
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Bearing Witness for Pride, a Needed Reminder of AIDS, & Queer Art in China Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 8 June 2025

So, #queer storytelling China broke new ground in the 70s,as Prism & Pen writer Eki learned as a young teen. Read his review, and I bet you’ll want to watch!

For this second week of #LGBTQ #Pride, Ezra Kidowski writes of bearing witness. Like so many of our stories do!
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This is beautifully written.

So many amazing stories this week! Happy Pride! 🌈🌈🌈🎉🎉🎉🎉

Pearl Hart, Lesbian Lawyer: a Lifetime of Service to the Marginalized Know your queer history

Pearl Hart’s life story reads like a legal thriller crossed with a civil rights manifesto. This petite Jewish #lesbian from Chicago spent six decades defending society’s most vulnerable members.
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#LGBTQ #Law #QueerHistory

My Pride Is Not Your Weapon (Poetry) This rainbow wasn’t built for target practice.

I will not wear a borrowed flame
To sanctify a state’s deceit
No banner draped across the smoke
Can wash the blood from burning streets

They raise our flag above the ash
As children drink the sky for bread...
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#LGBTQ #Pride #RainbowWashing #War #Israel #Palestine #Genocide

Pride Month in the World’s Largest Democracy — For whom?

For #queer people in #India — especially queer people who are Dalit, #Muslim, or from the Northeast — #Pride isn’t just a party. It’s protest. And in today’s India, #protest is a dangerous thing.
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#LGBTQ #Politics #Religion #Democracy

Ditching Trans People Will Not Save Liberals The case for fighting for trans rights

The people who do try and sell out trans people in an effort to court right-wing votes genuinely seem to believe that this is going to win them political capital, when, if anything, it’s only going to harm them.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #Politics #Liberals #HumanRights

The Loneliness That Follows Pride: When Visibility Isn’t Enough Why the aftermath of Pride Month reveals deeper truths about connection and community

This post-#Pride crash isn’t talked about nearly enough. Many of us feel a peculiar ache — the dissonance between being publicly celebrated and privately unknown.
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#LGBTQ #MentalHealth #Queer

Can Homophobic People Change? My former “work wife” made a homophobic joke, then became one of my best allies

I’ll admit that I called her my “work wife” just to make her uncomfortable. She was one person I couldn’t afford to distance myself from in the office. If we did have a work marriage, it was an arranged one.
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#LGBTQ #Homophobia #Coworkers #Friends #Allies

If ‘Trans’ Is a New Label, How Can You Do Trans History? You can do it by caring

When we say that people in the past can’t be called trans, are we demonstrating care for anyone, past or present?
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #History #QueerHistory #Study #Gender

Will Pride 2025 in Canada Be Different This Year? I worry that it won’t be, and I worry that it will be

2025 feels different as a queer Canadian.
It might feel like we’re sticking our heads in the sand if everything is the same as usual. I don’t want to see any anti-queer protesters , but I also don’t want to pretend that everything is okay.
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#LGBTQ #Canada #Pride #Pride2025

The First Time I Said “I Am a Lesbian” (Even to Myself) That word wasn’t safe, that word was a target.

Even before I could name it, I already knew the word felt wrong, a label I wasn’t sure I was ready to claim…
#Lesbian!
It wasn’t said with softness. It wasn’t said with pride.
It was thrown like a stone.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Labels #Words #Identity

Why Are There Hardly Any LGBTQ+ Adults on TV and in the Movies? Fast-forwarding to find yourself, even when Netflix knows you’re gay.

I feel such a hunger for stories about #queer adults, for whom coming out is firmly in the rearview mirror and bullying is no longer an issue… but who still deal with the innumerable other conflicts any human being can face.
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#LGBTQ #Television #Film #Representation