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Mental Health, Identity, and the Quiet Pain of Being Different

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5h

It’s World Mental Health Day, and as I write this I hope to remind us all that behind every smile, every post, every carefully filtered story, there are people quietly holding things together, often by a thread.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Identity #MentalHealth

A reflection on the quiet weight of identity, the ache of belonging, and the courage to stay when the world feels too heavy.

Gay Parents Adopting in the Midwest: How It Started.

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5h

Sometimes a family’s messiness is on full display. And sometimes the messiness of a family exists only in the secrets and sobbing behind a pantry door in a beautifully beige Stepford home on a cul-de-sac.
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#LGBTQ #Gay #Family #Parenting #Adoption

Life can be messy. Families are messy. But it’s a beautiful thing to create both a family and a life your own way.

The David Bowie Album that Opened the Door to My Future

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

I guess I was somewhat of a contrarian. Perhaps I still am. When the junior-high crowd was going gaga for The Beatles, I championed The Dave Clark Five. I also foolishly placed Donovan over Dylan and Brooke Benton over Ray Charles.
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#LGBTQ #Gender #Nonbinary #DavidBowie

I remain grateful to Bowie for inviting me into a nonbinary world.

I Know It’s Over: Queer Love Withers On The Bloom

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

It’s been this way a lot, the last couple of years. One of my biggest fears about coming out as #transgender was that nobody would ever love me. Foolish me, to now realise that coming out to myself was the first step in finally loving myself.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Love

When we can’t be who we are, how can we truly be with others?

Arcane Season 2: Queer Love as Resistance

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

Vi and Caitlyn have moved from uneasy allies to an openly queer partnership — partners in purpose and in the field, committed to protecting each other and their city.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Arcane #wlw #QueerLove

Arcane S2: In a city built on control, Vi & Caitlyn’s queer love becomes the method — not the ornament — of survival and change.

The Cost of Hubris: A Retelling of the Greek Myth of Athena and Myrmex

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 1d

Eventually, her lust for wisdom caught the attention of Athena; impressed by her quest for sagacity, she found herself drawn to the mortal whose soul hungered with a primal ache for erudition. All but her equal in intellect.
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#LGBTQ #wlw #Mythology #GreekMyth

A story of pride, envy, and rage, explaining how Athena, after decades of suppression, handed her lover, Myrmex, the fate she was due.

Yelling at My Therapist Taught Me What Queer Anger Really Sounds Like

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

Therapy isn’t easy for most. I knew that before my wife and I even started couples counseling. What I hadn’t predicted was the growing pain I would experience every single session.
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#LGBTQ #Therapy #Anger

Learning that rage can be honest, human, and healing.

Charlie & Rachel: The “G” in LGBTQ

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

This is the second in a series of informal chats on what each letter of #LGBTQ means to Charlie Ray, a trans man, and Rachel Addison, a trans woman.
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#Interview #Conversation #Transgender #Gay

Charlie Ray and Rachel Addison Talk Letters.

A Trans Woman Waves a Flag for Those Less Ambitious

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

Before I became a trans woman, back when I thought I knew it all, I would offer up the benefits of ambition to help family and friends recognize their untapped potential.
‘If only you could see what you could be’, I would exclaim.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #Ambition

A personal view of the alternatives to blindly chasing success.

Who Does the Monster Represent if the “Final Girl” is a Gay Boy?

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 2d

While queer people abhor demonization in our real lives, many of us have come to identify with these disruptive outsiders and fiendish alter egos, especially if their cruelty is seasoned with flamboyance and “camp”.
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#LGBTQ #October #LGBTHistoryMonth #SpookySeason #HorrroMovies

The enduring queer legacy of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2”

Two Amazing Queer Books Everyone Should Read

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

We all know about the efforts in the US to ban books and go after art that is queer-themed, and this is obviously as good a time as any to celebrate such brilliant art.
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#LGBTQ #QueerBooks #Books #BookRecs

A celebration of queer art and joy

As Summer Fades, So Does My Libido

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

It’s the bright light of summer I live for. If I lived in a more northerly latitude, there would be even more light. I recall summer nights in western Michigan when it stayed light until 10:00 p.m.
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#LGBTQ #Gay #Summer #Autumn #Seasons #Change

What I hate most about autumn

Look out! Powers That Be Warn that Trans People Will Take Your Stuff!

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 3d

Autocrats have long used fear effectively to manipulate the masses into subservience and compliance. When others seem different and odd, it’s easy to make up stories about them for the purpose of fomenting fear and distrust.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #USPolitics #Fear

Powerful people know that fear of lack is a major motivator.

Transgender ‘Why Nots’ and ‘Maybes’

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

That's a very good question.

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

We, as transgender people, overthink everything, from self-doubt to a sense of shame, to the fear of rejection, and then everything in between.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #Self #Identity

Never surrender the joy of the possibility

A Solo Transgender Road Trip in 2025

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

I’d been planning and putting off a visit to friends and family in the Pacific Northwest for at least 10 years. My last trip had been somewhat fraught as it turned out to be the last time for my wife to see the ocean.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #RoadTrip #Travel #Grief

Finding my path toward peace near the ocean, and in the trees.

A Queer Night of Bhangra, Drag, and Hidden Asian Love in London

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 4d

I didn’t know what I was stepping into the first time I went to a gay Asian night in London. My friend, an incredible #gay South Asian man and drag queen, had begged me to come.
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#LGBTQ #GayBar #London #Queer

A South Asian queer night taught me more about love, longing, and visibility than I was ready for.

As Library Shelves Empty, Let’s Shout Out Queer Books & Other Art!

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

What books helped influence and shape YOU? How? Got a story?
What books do you want to recommend? Let’s see your reading list!
What about toxic effects of book bans?
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#LGBTQ #QueerWriters #WritingPrompts #BookBanning #Books

A Prism & Pen writers prompt

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Ghanian Homophobes Rage Over a Kiss Between Gay Activists

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

The citizens were outraged, which is no shocker for a bunch of homophobes. But even we, the queer community in Ghana, were outraged. Why, you ask?
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#LGBTQ #Gay #Ghana #Outrage

A cry from Ghana

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

You smoked a pack of cigarettes
outside the club every weekend
I took one pull from each
while talking about
lung cancer statistics
and you said...
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#LGBTQ #Poetry #QueerPoetry #Loneliness

A PACK A DAY — a poem

it hasn’t got to us

No More Conversion Therapy, I’m a Lesbian: An Apology to My First Love

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

Dear Ines,
You were not someone I had planned for, but instead, were the person my story sorely needed.
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#LGBTQ #Lesbian #ConversionTherapy #FirstLove #LoveLetter

I wish I could say more to you, Ines

When Your Identity Is Treated Like a Phase

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 5d

Bisexuality isn’t confusion, it’s clarity — but the world still insists on erasing it.
In my case, it looks like invisibility. Most of my friends just treat me as another straight woman.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Bisexual #Invisibility #BiErasure #Identity

Being bisexual means living in the in-between — and fighting to be seen as whole.

Imagine You’re 19 on the European After-Hours Gay Scene

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Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 6d

From the moment you walk through the door, you’re in the middle of it. I’m sure you know some people whose living rooms are bigger than this space. In the corner of the dance floor, behind a small bar, there’s a corridor.
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#LGBTQ #Queer #Gay #Memoir #Identity

You’ve just finished work. Something inside you is screaming to be heard.

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Is Hasan Piker Right About Kamala Harris and Trans Rights?

Prism & Pen @prismnpen.bsky.social · 6d

Hasan said that although he voted for Kamala Harris, he sees her as surrendering trans rights, and he maintains that trans people would face problems under Democratic leadership similar to what they’re facing under Trump.
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#LGBTQ #Transgender #USPolitics

Standing up for trans people when nobody else will

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