Texas is way more queer than you think. Don't let politicians tell you otherwise. Welcome to Big & Bright 🌈⭐👏, our glittering corner of the internet celebrating the full spectrum of queer life in the Lone Star State. Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action are underwriting our original reporting and curation of queer Texas culture and news. All essays, reporting, and analysis are editorially independent.
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Queer Texas
At a bustling venue on Sunday, the speakers boomed with a remix of “Stayin’ Alive.” Heather Schenk and Ty Linhardt had traveled from Chickasha, Oklahoma, for the Big Queer Wedding Party in Austin, where ten couples came to get married and renew their vows in the sanctuary of a former
Investigations
This story is a collaboration between The Barbed Wire and the Investigative Reporting Workshop— a nonprofit newsroom at American University that trains student journalists on in-depth reporting. When she was elected mayor of Houston in 2009, Annise Parker became the first openly gay mayor of a major American city.
Queer Texas
I was probably 13 years old. It was near the end of middle school, during a wintry holiday vacation back home in Connecticut. I was at my best friend Kate’s house, sitting in her bedroom, and listening to her dish with other girls from my class. Honest, unfiltered talk.
Queer Texas
While ghosts and goblins haunted courtrooms — casting their wicked spells on queer Texans — a small haven in the woods of Stockdale leisurely gathered around a campfire on Halloween weekend, naked and unafraid. Camp Nackte, one of four currently functioning LGBTQ+ campgrounds in Texas, sits nestled between farmland and in a
Queer Texas
It was the summer of 2024. Ash Gordon, a barber from Austin, was ready to hit the road for Queer Camp, when all of his friends and campmates backed out at the last minute. “I was really terrified because I was going to this event alone, there were projected to
Queer Texas
I think I need to start at the beginning, because I’ve never talked about this publicly. During freshman orientation at McGill University, I ended up on a pedestrian-only stone street strung with pink decorations: The Gay Village in Montreal, Canada. There’s a Saint-Pierre-Apôtre Church with
Queer Texas
A pile of broken, colorful concrete pieces was all that remained of Houston’s rainbow crosswalk as the sun rose on Monday. Construction crews tore up Texas’ first gay pride crosswalk, a beloved feature of the historically LGBT Montrose neighborhood, in the early hours of the morning. The crosswalk, which
Queer Texas
Today is a good day to say, “thank you, Khalid!” for saving male pop music. His latest album, “after the sun goes down,” which dropped at midnight on Friday, Oct. 10, has earned him the crown of least problematic favorite in a genre populated with headline-grabbing “this is going
Perspectives
Fellow Texans, it’s our sad duty to report that our governor appears to be taking his marching orders from a right-wing social media account (and, yes, we’re talking about … sigh … Libs of TikTok). While it’s a well-known fact that Gov. Greg Abbott lives in fear
Culture
It was May 2020, I was five months pregnant when I walked into the perinatal office, referral in hand, and said, “My name is Kayden Coleman and I have an appointment here at 2:00 p.m.” The receptionist looked at me — disregarding the paperwork I was holding — and said,
News
Four years ago, Williamson County — a “big red sea” of a district, with a population just over half a million — held its first-ever Pride celebration in Taylor. Now, the annual celebration is facing jeopardy on its fifth anniversary: the mayor won’t issue a Pride proclamation. These proclamations, issued
News
Sure, this legislative session has had its share of embarrassing, absurd, even confounding bills attacking everything from public education, to transgender Texans, to abortion rights, and even furries. But there are small victories to celebrate. The Texas House has approved a bill that would remove a ban on “homosexual conduct”