Back in My Day, We Stayed Closeted in Middle School Written and Illustrated by Stephanie Liu
Personally, middle school is neither a place nor a period of my life I ever need to revisit, but since I have a younger sister in middle school, I’ve had to go back to the school grounds for events and rediscover the hellscape of my youth. I am always struck by how much can change in six years. They repainted everything a slightly different shade. They added a whole new building and replaced the crusty water fountains with new shiny ones, and the arc of the water goes way higher than the sad dribble from my middle school days. And, perhaps the weirdest change of all: they’ve started putting up posters affirming the identities of their queer 8
