We asked you what the best parts of being queer were, and here’s what you had for us. Don’t forget to love yourself, tell your pet you love them, write to your local member about the plebiscite and treat yourself to something nice. Celebrate you.
As I’ve started dressing more androgynously and come out to myself as non-binary, what’s made me the happiest is my friends and even strangers picking up on the androgyny. The first time a stranger (kindly) asked about my gender made my day, and the second time a girl I’d known for all of ten minutes looked at me and said, “You don’t identify as female, do you?” (I mean, yeah, stereotyping isn’t good, but not being misgendered is A+.) – Ruby
My girlfriend and I were walking through Central Station one evening, holding hands and being generally adorable, when we were approached by an older man in a suit. We were cautious at first, but soon learnt that he just wanted to say thank you – as a gay man, he was too scared to hold hands with his partner at night. He was pleased and proud to see young happy queer couples, unencumbered by his fearful experiences. It made me realise how lucky I was to have such an incredible girlfriend and be able to share my love with her without shame. – Katie
When some of my clients tell me how much they love women and females and wax lyrical about their heterosexuality, and then drool over me/cum from the uninspiring handjob I provide I laugh a lot inside because I am transgender and not a woman and they are a bit gay. I don’t get dysphoria at work because I have a different work name/partial persona and because of the protection of privacy in the industry staff recognise that who I am at work is not a full picture of my personality. Whereas at other jobs I really felt defined by fellow staff by how fast I could cashier and take orders in drive thru simultaneously. Macking my multi gendered babes and friends on a night out after work, with a fat wad in my bra, is enjoyable. I, earn off the backs [+ trust funds] of rich cis white ‘straight’ men and I LOVE it. One time I put on a corset and docs and rolled around in like 3k of $50’s eating chicken fingers to BBHMM and selfie videoed it – D
I was about 14 years old, and I’d cracked open the hair bleaching kit during a late Sunday night movie. I’d gone through the instructions, and felt like I knew what I was doing. I was getting ready to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and I’d just finished putting the bleach through my finger-length hair. I cheekily thought, why not my eyebrows as well, and (stupidly) covered them thoroughly. I sat to watch the movie, and unfortunately must have nodded off. Next thing I remember, I was waking up to “Miller comes from the Greek word Milo, which means apple” which is the very end of the movie. As a result, my eyebrows were burnt off, and my hair was a platinum blonde. What was exciting for me, was drawing on my eyebrows for the next 6 weeks. I got to choose my look, it was the first time I got to use make up and control how I looked in the world. It was the first time I felt in control of my femininity. – Andrea Z
I gave a Lib a blowjob at NatCon last year – Anon
Just knowing that I have people who support me no matter what, and who care for me, is enough to help me get through the day. Be it help in the form of advice (shoutout to anyone who helped me with assignments!), banter (Light Side always!), or simply a conversation (Have you seen this series?), the acceptance of who I am is something that I will always cherish. I came out to my parents with the help of diagrams because I had no idea how to translate ‘demiromantic’ and ‘asexual’ 😛 – Aliza
The first person I ever came out to was my best friend. I was 16 at the time, and it had been a sort of unspoken fact in our friendship until I finally decided clear the air and tell him. His reaction was one of mild indifference – he came from a very progressive family. “Oh, is that it?”, he asked in an almost bored tone. As an inherently anxious person, it made me feel fantastic. It was no big deal! Last year, after 18 years of friendship, he came out to me over the phone while discussing a big night out at Mooseheads during ANU’s uni night. My response was a dry: “oh, is that it?” He laughed whole-heartedly at that. We’ve always shared everything; xbox games, a Sims God complex, and an absurdist sense of humour – now we share an attraction to men. The only thing we don’t share, alas, is a pants size. Makes wardrobe coordinating impossible to be honest. – Cameron Gooley
My first kiss with a boy was in a bathtub that three of us were attempting to sleep in, much to the chagrin of the third person. I remember at the time enjoying it not just cos it was my first kiss but because it’s a ridiculous fucking story. – Danny
I started becoming closer friends with a girl at uni who was in a few of my classes and the topic of crushes/dating came up. I mentioned that I wasn’t interested in finding anyone to date really. She said, “Oh so like, you’re asexual? That’s cool, I’m demi,” and changed the subject. And I felt suddenly so weightless, like everything made sense? I’d never thought about that label for me but it felt /right/ and I was (am) so happy feeling more at home in my own skin. – Anon
My partner not only fully accepting my gender identity, but supporting me in front of his mother – R
On my first date with my current girlfriend, we went to see the Jurassic World Exhibition at the Melbourne Museum and had a fantastic time, and stayed in there watching the T-Rex segment until the museum was meant to close – which we didn’t realise until we walked out and found all the staff waiting for us to leave before they came in to close up. They let us stay in late because they “didn’t want to interrupt our cute date” which was very sweet and we were very embarrassed but very happy 🙂 – Amy
Last summer I did a show with 2 of my close friends. One of them is agender and a man, one is a non-binary transfemmine babe and I am non-binary. We devised the show together, directed ourselves and performed as a trio. It is the best art I have ever done/been a part of and is my standard for future work. The writing process involved a lot of shittalking and failed attempts at physical theatre. It was sooo good. Rehearsals would just wash off the dirt of microaggressions from the past week. We didnt only focus on trans stuff but instead tried to make the show queer in tone rather than 100% in content. As in we wanted it to be weird and refreshing and colourful and a little ~punk~ in line with our positive experiences in the the queer community. I felt safe making and performing that show. The closing scene consisted of a queer initiation ceremony in which we gregorian chanted an ode to queerness and covered ourselves in whip cream, fruit, skittles and gatorade to the tune of Love on Top, every ‘you’ in the song edited/replaced with ‘me’. ~Self-LoVE~ I might be overselling it but it felt like we created a world I wanted to live in. Being trans (and feminist, polyamorous, queer etc) has encouraged me to question damaging norms in society and replace them with more helpful, positive understandings of relationships, life and myself. That has genuinely made my life better. Being on the edge empowers you to see the cistem (heh) for what it is, and build/rebuild shit thats better. And making I think sick af art with with people I love in a community is just bloody stupendous. – Shevvi
