Join Us for Queer History: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Hopeful
Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 20 April 2025
by James Finn
This week in Prism & Pen, we’re rocking queer history as writers send in stories to illustrate the past and its influence on the present. Last week, we featured a magisterial queer timeline of the U.S. This week, Germany takes center stage. Then Kaylin Hamilton gives us a contemporary analysis of a frightening U.K. Supreme Court decision that feels rooted in the history of persecution. Kira Ry interviews Jessie McGrath about her experiences at the U.S. Supreme Court and her work as a pioneering, out transgender prosecutor — paving the way for acceptance in Los Angeles and across California. Meanwhile, Prism & Pen stories stir up homophobia on Medium, in ways that feel quite foreboding from a historical perspective.👇
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* P&P Highlights *
A 2,000 Year Queer History Timeline of Germany
(From the editor) Did you know the documented queer history of Germany extends back to Roman times? Did you know our modern struggle for queer equality was (in some important ways) born in Germany? Did you know that after queer people were sent to Nazi death camps, Allied forces did not liberate them like other inmates? Did you know East Germany decriminalized homosexuality while West Germany was still reluctant? Did you know queer activists from the East, unwilling to live with less freedom after reunification, successfully pressured the Federal Republic to do the right thing? That’s just a sampling of insights I gained from this deep and broad timeline written by a queer activist who’s been on the front lines of German equality since the 1980s. Like Jean Glass’s amazing U.S. timeline, this timeline will be featured permanently on our homepage. Stay tuned next week for a Canadian timeline! And please, could you think about doing a timeline for your nation, region, city, or state?
UK Supreme Court Ruling Is a Loss for Transgender People — and Women
The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that, under the Equality Act 2010, the UK’s main anti-discrimination law, transgender people are to be treated as their sex recorded at birth, even if they hold a gender recognition certificate (GRC) which changes their legal sex. The ruling comes after a long court battle between the anti-trans group For Women Scotland (FWS) and the Scottish Government …
Transphobic “gender critical” groups and right-wing media are hailing the ruling as a victory for women, however, it’s anything but, since the ruling will likely lead to an intensification of the “gender policing” that trans people and cisgender women already experience at the hands of transphobes and misogynists, including those calling themselves feminists.
Why Are All the Men Who Embody Healthy Masculinity “Fruity”?
I put my phone down and took out my headphones to admire this adorable display, which made the young man smile and glance at me a couple times. Suddenly our guards were down and a conversation felt almost inevitable.
So I asked him about the book he was reading, and like a true fan-boy, he told me all about the plot, the prequels and sequels, and the various film adaptations. I was charmed, but keen to talk about something else.
I was not prepared for the crass homophobia he was about to unleash.
Editor’s note: I have never encountered an onslaught of homophobic abuse under a Prism & Pen story like I witnessed here. The author has removed some of the worst, but the totality tells an ugly story of its own. Why? I speculate that people feel emboldened by Trump and his administration, prompting them to publicly attack queer people. This feels like the normalization of hatred common to fascist regimes.
Learning to Show My Pride When Anxiety Says Hide
The first time I wore a Pride pin in public, my fingers trembled so badly I stabbed myself twice trying to fasten it. It was tiny — barely the size of a dime — six simple rainbow stripes against the black canvas of my work bag.
For most people, it would’ve been nothing. For me, it might as well have been a neon sign flashing above my head.
My mouth went cotton-dry in the elevator of my office building. Sweat pooled at the small of my back …
Interview with Transgender Supreme Court Lawyer, Prosecutor & Veteran
I was so happy that the very first person in line was the National Trans Bar Association chair. There were ACLU lawyers, Lambda Legal lawyers, and pretty much the entire 18, except maybe 2 or 3, were all queer-related supporters. It was really great to see that.
For whatever reason, every year I’ve gone, I’ve managed to get seated basically in front of Amy Coney Barrett. So I’ve been watching her and seeing her reactions. It’s going to come down to how she decides on this. I have a feeling, and I can only hope, that those glances and smiles we’ve exchanged mean something to her.
The Anti-Trans Cowardice of ‘White Lotus’
The reason this minor scene [supportive of nonbinary people] was cut was allegedly because showrunner Mike White felt the reaction would overwhelm the narrative … This is a cowardly excuse. Mike, I am sorry this trans backlash is inconvenient to your show about rich people being mean to each other while eating salads …
It’s the type of reasoning that would have made me upset by itself, but after the showrunner admitted to cutting this scene because the stakes were suddenly higher, it incensed me that the trans scenes he did include skewed in a decidedly more conservative direction.
Transgender Civil War Hero Albert Cashier
As a Social Studies teacher I considered it my job to pry open the minds of my students.
Teaching in one of the poorest and most rural counties in the state, I found that many of my students had somewhat narrow horizons. Many were quite intelligent, hardworking, and curious. But they seemed to have been exposed to little outside of the immediate orbit of family, school, and church.
They sure as hell knew almost nothing about Trans folk. At that time, though I knew about “women disguising themselves as men in order to fight” I knew very little about the sacrifices of Trans soldiers.
I don’t think I had ever heard of Albert D.J. Cashier.
Banned Lesbian Books You Should Read This Week
With anti-LGBTQ+ book-banning on the rise, this Lesbian Visibility Week here are the banned sapphic books you should know about… Sabrina Baeta, senior manager of PEN America’s Freedom to Read programme, told me: “Erasing the stories, achievements and history of the LGBTQ+ community from schools amounts to targeted discrimination, which is a harmful assault on an historically marginalised and underrepresented population.”
A Gay Teen’s Silent Love for His Straight Best Friend
I have a habit of collecting memories. A few days ago, while organizing my bookshelf, I found a note I wrote to myself just before my college entrance exams. It was a short page, filled with emotions I can hardly touch anymore.
That was 14 years ago, when I, a teenager just beginning to understand love, fell for a straight guy in my class. Our story was brief, perhaps one that many gay people have experienced — representative yet mundane. There were no earth-shattering events, only the intense ups and downs of our inner worlds. Even after all these years, thinking about it still stirs subtle ripples in my heart.
* From the Editors *
Calling All Writers! Big (Special) Queer History Prompt!
It’s writing-prompt day at Prism & Pen, and this one’s special. See the flames in the photo above? That’s not just a metaphor. Books about queer people and queer subjects are being banned all over the United States, in school libraries and public libraries. In a few cases, books about queer people have been literally burned.
The federal government under the leadership of Donald Trump has been very busy in recent weeks actively scrubbing queer history from official web sites, plus threatening educational institutions with loss of funding if they don’t do the same.
But the federal government can’t silence all of us!
* This Week’s Essays & Creative Non Fiction *
Fag Rag. My First E-Book.
Hubie is just a typical kid in a small, rural county in the South. But when his teacher puts up a Gay Pride Flag, he and his friends must confront their feelings about LGBTQ+ issues.
Encouraged by the flag, a number of kids come out as Queer. But things get tense when community feeling against the flag runs high and a group of bullies pledge to “run the fags out of our school!”
Will Hubie, Marco, Sandy, and their friends have the courage to stand up to School Administration and even the bullies threatening violence?
Based on a true story, Fag Rag is a tale of controversy, courage, and the sacrifices that must be made for friendship.
The ‘Dragon Age Veilguard’ Trans Backlash: Six Months On
… we have also seen a massive wave of backlash against games for having even the most milquetoast representation or support for trans/LGBT people. By far, the most vicious backlash we’ve seen here was against Dragon Age: The Veilguard due to the fact that it featured an openly non-binary character.
The backlash against the game was so severe that even prominent anti-trans pages such as Libs of TikTok posted about the game, encouraging more people to generate fake outrage over this issue.
The Silly Things I Did as a Novice Trans Girl
This is me, the novice girl, when I finally came out in 2016. I was 56 years old, and this was my first attempt with makeup. Spent most of my life observing cis females and envying everything that females are. I did not know what size to wear in ladies’ clothes and shoes. Shopping for the attire, odds and ends, and items necessary for transition became emotionally tortuous to say the least. I needed a Fairy Godmother ASAP …
In the Den of the Lion: An Unconventional Gay High School Spy Story
You had to ruin everything, didn’t you? With just a few weeks to go, I almost made it out unscathed and undetected. None of you had a clue what was underneath. Yes, I, Daniel Owen, had infiltrated the ranks. I had fooled you all. But in a single moment, you destroyed all those years of work.
At first, the fake persona was hard to create. But watch a few spy movies like I have, and you slowly get the hang of it.
What Does A Gay Teenager Say To The World?
My tongue feels the chocolate moving around in circles. The sweetness is hard to describe — saturated fats? Pleasure?
As a kid, I thought I was special. I thought some higher power put me on this Earth to be curvy. I would run across the lawn thinking: “I’m special. And that’s all I want to be.”
Kids wouldn’t treat me different, in fact, I was well liked. I was the “smart” kid. The “social” kid.
I never thought I would be so afraid of what the world sees me as.
My Bisexual Manifesto
Bisexual stereotypes make us out to be duplicitous, sex-crazed, confused, greedy, indecisive, going through a phase, or not quite ready to be “fully” queer. These stereotypes, in turn, cause many bisexual people to isolate, making themselves invisible. We might even believe the stereotypes ourselves, perpetuating our own bi-phobia.
And by we, yes, I mean me. I was biphobic and lost, depressed and anxious, floundering to figure out what would make me feel whole and happy — until I realized the simple, nuanced, complex truth: I am bisexual.
Asexuality Is Real — Why Does That Make People Uncomfortable?
Asexual people have always existed. But in a world obsessed with sex, their existence gets continually erased — sometimes through silence, sometimes through mockery, and sometimes through loud and proud ignorance.
On April 6, 2025, during International Asexuality Day, J.K. Rowling posted dismissive comments about asexuality on the social media platform X. Referring to the awareness day as “International Fake Oppression Day,” she made belittling remarks about ACE individuals and questioned their legitimacy.
The Quantum Leap: How One Moment Redefined My Identity
In the summer of 1986, I made a choice that changed everything: I came out as a lesbian in my small German town. Legal uncertainty shrouded homosexuality in those days; the laws explicitly targeted men yet cast a shadow over anyone who was queer. Living openly as a queer person felt dangerous, and my coming out tested the loyalty of my closest friends. As I shared my truth, three-quarters of them vanished, fear scattering them faster than acceptance.
Rock Music Has Always Been Queer
All I really need to say is Little Richard. We were fortunate to have his queer self, shouting “Wop Bop A Loo Bop…” for decades even if he decided to embrace something different towards his end, a veritable come-to-Jesus life moment.
I am a fortunate man to have lived my life in the entirety of the Rock and Roll (and by this I mean to embrace R&B, Folk, Country, Soul, and then all the branches springing from the big river) era.
Ginger, Blonde and Bewildered: On Gay Fetish vs. Preference
Fetish vs. Preference: Where’s the Line? Let’s break it down, darling. Preferences? We all have them. Some like tall men, others go weak for scruffy beards. Preferences say, “I like guys with tattoos,” not “I can ONLY date someone who looks like they just got off a Harley.”
A fetish, though? That’s when you stop seeing the person and only see the trait. Fetishes scream, “I need that trait, and whatever’s attached to it is negotiable.”
How It Might Have Gone: Micro Sci-Fi About Coming Out
I wake up from my dream with a start and run to my INKcarnate device. I almost poke an eye out with how fast I slam the cable into my headport, but I don’t care. This is the clearest I’ve ever remembered a dream about grandma. It could be my only chance to talk to her for a long time.
I focus on every thread I can hold onto from the dream and watch her materialize on the INKcarnate screen, right down to the skin tag on her eyelid.
A Gay Man Breaks Free from Fear and Shame to Fight for Visibility
I vividly remember a morning in my freshman year of high school homeroom when a classmate turned to me and asked a terrifying question. “Tom, are you gay?”
My body burned with panic. What had I done to make it so obvious? I knew I had to answer quickly. “No, I’m not,” I blurted out. He responded, “Okay.”
On the surface, my grade-school years seemed ordinary, but beneath, I was grappling with the realization that I was “different.”
Musk’s Tesla Chainsaw Massacre: The LGBTQ+ Future Strikes Back
A.L. Bellettiere (Anna Louise Bellettiere-Kuyper)
There was a time when Elon Musk looked like the future. Now, he looks like a cautionary tale. Back when Iron Man 2 was released, Musk might have been on track to be the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. He was an innovator, a disruptor, someone who seemed poised to shape the world in groundbreaking ways. But that version of Musk is long gone. Today, he is not a futurist.
As a queer woman, I’ve always seen the future not just as a possibility — but as a necessity. Queer people have long had to imagine better worlds because the ones we were born into often denied us safety, dignity, and joy.
Why Transphobia and Misogyny are Inseparable
The claim these sorts of people often make is that trans women are invading women’s spaces and/or that trans people (whom they consider men) pose an imminent existential threat to the rights and safety of women. Even people who don’t consider themselves feminists will make these sorts of points. Joe Rogan, for example, has done so on numerous occasions.
Something that really struck true about the aforementioned Twitter discussion, though, was that people were pointing out how, despite this insistence from transphobes, actual misogynists always ally with transphobes, and this is, of course, correct.
It’ll Pass. On Queer Progress via Ru Paul and Joan Rivers
I was just reading this article from Jean Elizabeth Glass that attempts to create a comprehensive timeline of queer history in the United States. While reading it, I couldn’t help but notice a recurring trend throughout the years, a pattern of alternation between periods of time that allowed LGBTQ+ rights to advance and queer culture to develop, and periods of closure, deep hatred and ostracism towards our community.
Here’s Why, As a Black Gay Man, I Can No Longer Support Paris Hilton
Paris has gone through several metamorphoses in the public eye, ultimately evolving into a modern jack-of-all-trades. She is now a world-renowned DJ, a New York Times best-selling author multiple times over, an advocate for abused children and teenagers, and a wife and mother of two children.
All noteworthy acts and yet, I can’t no longer support Paris. In fact, I haven’t for some time.
It’s Time to Celebrate Greek Easter — Queerly
Growing up, I took part in Greek Easter traditions firsthand. Born in a seaside village in Cyprus, my dad moved to Michigan at sixteen to finish high school and attend college. He passed his culture down to us through language, food, and celebration.
Greek folk dance classes, the annual festival at our local church, and elaborate murals of saints watching over us in candlelit churches — these were the backdrops of my childhood.
Courageously LGBTQ in Ukraine
Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 27, 2025, ordering the policy change and identifying gender dysphoria as incompatible with the government’s “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”
In the meantime, the LGBTQ members of the Ukrainian armed forces are fighting and dying for their country against Russia in their own display of “high readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, uniformity, and integrity.”
A Personal Gay History. Who Was I Then? Who Am I Now?
I did not have an easy coming-out story. I didn’t come out until late in life for many reasons. Probably the main reason is that I grew up in Southern Oklahoma. I was unaware of other gay boys and thought I was the only one who felt like I did. My parents didn’t go to church, but they deposited all five of their children on the steps of the small Assembly of God church in the neighborhood whenever the doors were open.
There, I heard about an angry, controlling God who would send me to hell to burn for eternity for the slightest sin …
Trans People Are Humanity Evolving
Lately, I’ve been meditating on what it means to be trans in a culture that so violently and loudly resists our existence.
To me, transness feels incredibly natural, human, and obvious. Yes, it is a facet of my personal human identity but, more importantly, I understand it as innately human — quite as natural as breath, as human as grief, as obvious as the body’s need for sustenance and the mind’s hunger for truth.
That’s it for this week!
Courage to all of you! Keep resisting, reading, shining your love, and sending your stories to Prism & Pen.
We need you all!
