Reflections on Love and the Power of Growing Together

Part of growing up is realizing that your parents are humans, too. It’s coming to the understanding that there is both good and bad that exist in all of us, and that the most common and important thread that binds us together is love. Not romantic or passive or selfish love, not love-love, but LOVE. To LOVE is to accept someone’s shortcomings, to forgive them their imperfections, and to create the space necessary to grow together. I’m going to tell you how I learned to LOVE my parents.

Read More
Sam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth, Inc.
TRANS VOICES: Moses

The summer in between my sophomore and junior year of college, Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago was doing a play called Ms. Blakk for President, which was co-devised by Tarrell Alvin McCraney and Tina Landau. It was about the true story of Terence Alan Smith, better known as Ms. Joan Jett Blakk, who was a drag queen that in 1992, when the AIDS crisis was still at its height, joined forces with Queer Nation Chicago to run for president against George Bush.

Read More
Sam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth, Inc.
Utilizing Gendered Terms When Existing Outside the Binary by Sacha Matthew Trinidad

Despite advancements in society towards the understanding of queer identities, there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding the relationship between the concepts of “sexuality” and “gender” because of the way both have been interpreted in white western society for so long. One of the questions I often get about how these concepts relate is: how someone can label themself as nonbinary and gay/lesbian while using “opposing” binary pronouns? For example, a nonbinary he/him lesbian is a nonbinary person who uses he/him pronouns but is attracted to women and not men. I want to discuss why this identity and others like it are valid.

Read More
Personal EssaySam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth, Inc.transgender, trans, sexuality