Rumpus Original Poetry: “Mewl” by Sarah Lyn Rogers
Still, something tells me God’s chosen // weren’t hate-mongering gropers (or worse). Just a hunch. A woman’s / intuition.
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Posts Tagged: LGBT
The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #21: Not Yesterday’s Demonstrations
1972: War was waging in Vietnam and kids were coming home in boxes. Hippes and yippies went clean for Gene McCarthy, but George McGovern won the democratic nomination. Tricky Dick Nixon was the one for the Republicans and the so-called Silent Majority. I was a sixteen-year-old runaway revolutionary of peace and love, living in a commune, […]
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On Self-Reliance: Frank Ocean as Emersonian Hero
As Emerson recognizes, someone who couldn’t care less about how they come across is all the more charismatic and convincing.
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The Rumpus Interview with Lucy Jane Bledsoe
Lucy Jane Bledsoe discusses her latest book, A Thin Bright Line, uncovering the remarkable story of her aunt, and illuminating history through the lens of imagination.
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Sound over Water
We tell the stories to fit the narrative we need. But within each story we must maintain the grain of truth that will provide the urgency.
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Fitting Characters and Scripts
Unwittingly, my mother teaches me in this conversation her generation’s word for gay: 同性恋. I look it up in an online dictionary, three characters in my mother’s tongue. Same, sex, and love.
...moreSaeed Jones Lights up Different Forms of Humanity
For Brooklyn Magazine, Molly McArdle profiles poet, essayist, and BuzzFeed Literary Editor Saeed Jones. McArdle solicits Jones’s thoughts on diversity in media and describes him as a “literary citizen” for his work with BuzzFeed’s Reader vertical and the Emerging Writers’ Fellowship program. Last but not least, Jones mentions one of his first published pieces was at The […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Corcoran
Jonathan Corcoran discusses his debut collection The Rope Swing, Appalachian writing communities, getting disowned by his family for coming out, and his father’s death.
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The Rumpus Interview with Saleem Haddad
Saleem Haddad discusses his debut novel Guapa, the Orlando shootings, the importance of queer spaces, and Arab literature.
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Podcatcher #5: #GoodMuslimBadMuslim
Podcatcher talks with Taz Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh of #GoodMuslimBadMuslim about the podcast format, finding humor in absurdity, and diversity within the Muslim identity.
...moreBisexuality in History, Reality
Women loving women is nothing new, and not a phase: in Hazel Newlevant’s comic at BuzzFeed, “Badass Bisexual Women In History You Should Know,” she walks through the personal lives of Josephine Baker, Virginia Woolf, and more as part of a conversation with her mother, who starts out with one opinion but seems open to another. For […]
...moreCalifornia Tales
San Francisco filmmaker Jenni Olson has just released her new film, a cinematic essay titled The Royal Road. Made up of historical research material and lyrical, personal monologues, the film is “a primer on Junipero Serra’s Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, the pursuit of unavailable women, […]
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
The world’s oldest gay bookstore is getting a new lease on life by adding a cafe and liquor license. Bookstores in small Japanese towns are closing down. In an age of unlimited choice, bookstores can help connect readers with the best books. The New York Times explores a Spanish-language bookstore in Queens.
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
If you want to work at The Strand, you first have to pass a literature test. But don’t worry, if you’re among the dozens of applicants that fail, you still can play Pokémon. Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest bookstore in Toronto, Canada and the longest-surviving LGBT bookstore in the world, needs some help. Hong Kong booksellers are […]
...moreThe Power of Zines
At The Establishment, Sara Century outlines the social and political power of zines throughout history, the state of the zine in the digital age, and the connection between zines and feminism today: Zines run the gamut in both quality and subject matter, but they all share a common and salient thread—they speak for their time, […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Garrard Conley
Garrard Conley, author of the new memoir Boy Erased, discusses growing up in the deep South, mothers, writing for change, and political delusions.
...moreIn Mourning
Over at Lit Hub, Christopher Soto (aka Loma) reflects on Orlando and writes movingly about the experience of holding an identity that is constantly targeted and executed in our world: He propped me up like the roof of a cathedral, in NYC / Before, we opened the news and read. And read about people who […]
...moreUnafraid and Proud
In the wake of the Orlando tragedy, questions have been raised about the ability of the gay dance scene to overcome the fear bred by such senseless, yet targeted, violence. A piece at THUMP by VICE argues the importance of dance culture in affirming the right to congregate, unafraid and proud: Will fear drive us back […]
...moreBringing Asexuality to YA Fiction
Asexuality is often left out from discussions around queer visibility in pop culture. At Bitch Media, Lucy Mihajlich shares how she was told by an agent that her young adult dystopian trilogy, Interface, could be the next Hunger Games—but that it needed romance: It’s particularly hard to find asexual characters in young adult fiction, which is […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Asali Solomon
Asali Solomon discusses her debut novel, Disgruntled, narrative structure, the mythology of memory and place, and returning to Philadelphia after years away.
...moreThe Cost of Gay Liberation
Jim Downs writes for Aeon on the radical socialist roots of the gay liberation movement in America, as well as the role of economics in allowing individuals to shape an openly gay identity.
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Different Love
Let me be clear: I’m not interested in changing. I’ve made my choice, and I’m happy.
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The Rumpus Interview with Janice Erlbaum
Janice Erlbaum talks about her new novel, I, Liar, how writing memoir compares to writing fiction, homelessness in America, and Munchausen syndrome and Borderline Personality Disorder.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Jennifer Baker
The more variation we see in life, the more it becomes less about seeing one type of book by marginalized people.
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The Rumpus Interview with Chinelo Okparanta
Chinelo Okparanta talks about her debut novel, Under the Udala Trees, her upcoming appearance at Portland’s Wordstock book festival, and LGBTQ rights in America and worldwide.
...moreReading Deemed Criminal for Chelsea Manning
The Federal Bureau of Prisons regulations, as investigated by The Atlantic, state their right to prohibit any publications found “to be detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the institution or if it might facilitate criminal activity.” Chelsea Manning is incarcerated for divulging state secrets to WikiLeaks. The fact that she used to be […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Growing Up Gaming
“Is this inclusive or exclusive?” he asked with a creased brow. “I don’t like the idea that we’re being treated as a joke.”
...moreDating Deviance
Between celebrating how far we’ve come and preparing for how far we have to go, now is a good time to brush up on your queer literature. Over at Lit Hub, Rebecca Brill looks at “the evolution of the Great Gay Novel.”
...moreMarriage Equality: A Rumpus Roundup
On June 26th, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must allow same-sex couples to marry and that they must recognize marriages performed in other states. The ruling ends the bans against same-sex marriage that existed in 14 states. This decision comes two years to the day since the Court’s decision in […]
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