PORTRAITS OF THE YOUNG QUEER COMMUNITY
Letter from the Editors Rachel & Elle As two young queer women at the brink of starting our real adult lives and careers, we are already tired of seeing the way that the media, the government, and even our neighbors take advantage of us and our friends. We are tired of people putting words in our mouths and taking the steering wheel from us. In creating this magazine, we wish to generate a better understanding of the young up-and-coming queer community our values, what’s important to us, and what we represent. We hope that you listen to the unique stories of our subjects and walk away with a reinvigorated knowledge of the queer people you may interact with on an everyday basis. We are funny, sad, sarcastic, and confused. We have our good days and our bad. We need our friends and our community to survive. We are just like you. Thank you for your time and for your attention. All the best, Rachel Fucci & Elle Sanchez
everything’s fun & Many queer individuals come to terms with their identity in their youth, at a time when they already have complex feelings about the way that they present themselves and are perceived by their peers. Sydney Hannibal began to explore the queer community after her first romantic relationship with a woman made her realize she was a lesbian. She often finds herself wondering about the way she dresses and acts in relation to her own queerness, and challenges the notion that there is a specific way to look or act “right” for the LGBTQ community. She asks the question, “How does one ‘look gay?’” While she feels that this is a negative aspect of the queer community, she finds solace in the community as well and describes it as “a little tribe.” She says that the LGBTQ people she’s met and interacted with are “freer in their existence,” but they are also often deeply emotional about their identity and the adversities they face. In summing up the queer culture she is surrounded by, she says, “everything’s fun and everything’s sad.”
Sydney Hannibal She/Her/Hers Lesbian
& everything’s sad
“Queer opens up a realm of possibilities.”
somewhere on
“Being able to openly express who I’m interested in, who I love, what I’m attracted to is very important to me.”
n the spectrum The term “queer” in relation to sexual identity can be used as an umbrella term for those who do not align with a more specific LGBTQ identity. The spectrum of queerness is one that allows for room for movement across planes of attraction. Kelly McGarry doesn’t feel comfortable using a label for her sexuality at this point in her life, but strongly aligns with the queer community. She admits that even though she’s unsure of the specifics surrounding her identity, she knows that being an LGBTQ person has impacted the way that she thinks about her femininity, saying, “I don’t think that anybody’s sexual orientation is wholly who they are but I definitely think being queer has inspired me to not be conforming to feminine stereotypes at all or to reach outside the realm of typical femininity.”
Kelly McGarry She/Her/Hers Queer
it’s not all Although members of the LGBTQ community are featured in pop culture now more than ever, they are not always portrayed accurately or in a positive light. Evan McCrory believes that these representations of the queer community have the potential to create misconceptions about real life individuals. “I wish more people knew that it’s not all rainbows and super flamboyant people,” he says. “There’s average people within the community. When I came out to my parents they told me, ‘You can’t be super flamboyant, you need to be safe in the world,’ just because there are so many people that are so ignorant and very full of hate. When my parents said that to me I was like- now that I’m out, why would I change?”
Evan McCrory He/Him/His Gay
rainbows
“There’s a bunch of different people in this community and we’re not defined the way that’s in our media.”
bringing queern
“I try to make my queerness very visible because I have the privilege to do so.�
ness to the world While some people only consider their sexual orientation to be a fraction of their identity, Meg Kenneally describes her queerness as “the majority of me.” As a person who works within the realm of academia in archaeology, Meg makes it a huge part of her work to highlight queerness in history and in our current political moment. She thinks that it’s important for other people to recognize queer individuals existing in their spaces to help strengthen their understanding of them, saying, “I’m definitely many identities at the same time; I’m white, I’m a woman, I’m still figuring out a lot of other elements. But I think being queer to me in this moment is a lot of my everything. It’s how I understand how I choose to present and project myself, and I want other people to see and recognize that I am a queer person existing in their space, especially if they are straight folks who have never contemplated that idea or who would prefer to avoid that idea. Aggressively queer is definitely how I would put that—not letting people forget or push aside the fact that I’m here and a part of your society.”
Meg Kenneally She/Her/Hers Biromantic/Asexual
intersecting Peri Lapidus has multiple identity markers that are important to her - her queerness and her Jewish heritage. She feels that both of these factors are essential in defining who she is and how she exists in the world. However, she notes that sometimes it can be difficult for outsiders to process multiple aspects of a person’s identity at one time, and that all these characteristics can get jumbled and confused. She wishes people understood the complexities of these identity markers, saying, “I wish people understood the differences between your sexual orientation, your gender identity, your sexual identity, all the different terms and that they don’t have to connect and can all be different.”
Peri Lapidus She/Her/Hers Queer
g identities
“The queer community isn’t trying to push an agenda on anyone, they’re just trying to function.”
sexuality an
nd language While the term “queer” is surrounded by varying levels of controversy due to its connotation as a derogatory slur, some members of the community choose to identify this way to avoid labeling themselves as bisexual. Ash Dunn is one of those people. She originally identified herself as a bisexual woman in high school and at the start of college. However, as she learned more about language, she started to wonder if this term promoted toxic ideas about gender expression. She reflects, “I used to identify as ‘bisexual’ but then I started to think about linguistics and how ‘bi’ enforces the binary.” In order to label her sexuality in a way that accommodates all the genders she is attracted to, she describes herself as queer.
“When I was identifying as bisexual I felt ‘not queer enough.’” Ash Dunn She/Her/Hers Queer
the power “I always said, ‘I’m into boys,’ which I am. But I never knew that there was an ‘and’ I always thought it was just an ‘or.’” “The word queer just means different. Queer is a verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, anything you want it to be.”
Chala Tyson-Tshitundu They/Them/Theirs Queer/Androgynous
of ‘they’
“A lot of times I have to adjust to where I’m fitting into because of feeling safe and because of feeling like I can get jobs. I’ll define myself however I need to in order to exist where I’m comfortable and to feel safe.”
“If I don’t exist within a binary, then how is it even possible for my sexuality to be either hetero or homo?” Jace Ziev They/Them/Theirs Pansexual/Demiboy
Queer, for many people who identify themselves using the term, is a safe haven. It is a means of understanding oneself, it is a lifestyle, and it is a community. However, the term’s history is one rooted in hate speech, in oppression, and in creating a sense of inferiority. So how do we reconcile a word with such a dark history? How does this term move from slur to celebration, and is this something that’s moving too fast for our current political moment to keep up? Chala Tyson-Tshitundu sees this change in connotation as a powerful move of activism. “Between generations we are recognizing a giant paradigm shift,” they say. “With our generation and the generation after us we’re realizing that what makes different movements so important is rhetoric. We’ve decided that since the rhetoric is so powerful, the act of reclaiming that is reclaiming that power.” With this idea in mind, the term queer takes on yet another important role - one of becoming a tool for societal change. Queer is a stepping stone for those to better understand the concerns of those within the LGBTQ community for equal opportunities and higher quality treatment within their workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods. By identifying as queer, members of this community are taking the power out of their oppressor’s hands and throwing it back in their faces. Tyson-Tshitundu warns those spreading messages of hate and intolerance,
“We’re not going to let your words hurt us anymore.”