Christina Fonthes speaks to photographer Mikael Owunna about his project to celebrate queer African identities Read More
Flare Film Festival: are LGBT stories moving out of the margins?
by Winnie M Li In the wake of Moonlight’s Oscar triumph, what role do LGBT film festivals continue to play? This question lingered over the latest edition of BFI Flare, which ran 16-26 March at the British Film Institute (BFI) in London. In 2017, are LGBT stories finally moving out of the margins and into the… Read More
GLITCH: the film festival seizing space for queer people of colour
by Rosie Lewis From homophobic and state violence, to the relentless attacks of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy and questions of how these threats can be resolved; GLITCH is a film festival that addresses some of the most pressing issues in society. Returning to Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) this year, it promises to showcase an… Read More
Moonlight isn’t just a part of the conversation for film of the year, it is the conversation
by Shane Thomas Content note: this review contains spoilers It’s often said that a key facet of healthy relationships is open, honest, and clear communication. Perhaps less emphasised is that this applies to familial relationships as well as romantic ones. Eight years after his debut feature film, Medicine for Melancholy, Barry Jenkins has made a movie… Read More
A queer history: South Africa’s KhoiKhoi in Australia
by Karen Williams The last man executed for sodomy in Australia in 1863 was an indigenous black South African soldier. He was one of hundreds of mainly African and Asian indigenous and enslaved people transported from Africa’s south and its surrounding islands to the new settlement in New South Wales and Tasmania. Also in Australia… Read More
Refuge
by Keguro Macharia Republished here with the author’s permission At first, once a week, and then twice a week, and, eventually, four times a week, I’d head for the gay club in downtown Pittsburgh. It was small, located below street level, dark, leaning toward seedy, and, had I bothered to think about it, a death… Read More
Some of us just want to BE: the importance of trans visibility
by Khaleb Brooks I sat quietly in a large room at Chicago’s Gerber/Hart Library. Some sat nervous like me, wide-eyed and curious, fidgeting with their clothes, bags, nails and expressions. Others seemed like old friends, gallantly laughing, bending wrists, and gliding across the room in an array of both extravagant and dapperly conservative fashions. This… Read More
The Woman of Water Dreams
from Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul by Ryka Aoki 1. Consider that for every rational number, there exists an infinite array of values that do not resolve. The dead or frightened housecat. The slipshod dance of sun and moon. A Shanghai butterfly splits the baryons of a faraway nucleus… And you wonder… Read More
Visible Ordinariness: the journey towards protection, acceptance and equality for trans people
Or: Clear and Present Transgender by Suzy Wrong Visibility for many trans people is a conundrum. Unlike our genderqueer compatriots, we often work for ideas of gender that seem to be about, above all, conformity and normality, which in turn implies a certain ordinariness and social invisibility. In early stages of our individual transitions, we… Read More
Closure of Mental Health Services for LGBT+ People Due to Austerity Is Devastating
PACE’s Closure: The Loss of a Lifeline by Anonymous And just like that it was gone. After providing mental health support services to LGBT+ people for more than three decades, the charity PACE closed its doors on 29 January 2016 due to lack of funding. I heard the news a day after I’d sent an… Read More