In Sigal Samuel’s The Mystics of Mile End, three members of the Meyer family encounter Jewish mysticism, and are drawn apart in their very different quests for the divine. The father, David, a cynical professor, discovers a shortcut up the Kabbalistic Tree of Life after his heart murmur starts talking to him. His daughter Samara (the novel’s queer protagonist) tries to climb the Tree in his footsteps, while her brother Lev, following a more conventional religious path, attempts to bring the family together. Mystics is both a family novel and a neighborhood novel, with the neat parameters of well-worn streets and people who’ve known each other all their lives creating a navigable stage for dramas of meaning and purpose.
There’s no reason why independent activist media can’ be celebrated along with the heavy-hitters. In fact, GLAAD could use a few more categories — like a Magazine Article category strictly pulled from LGBTQ media outlets, a Reporting award given to independent journalists, or a category for indie Web Series. Maybe “blog” isn’t the right word anymore — maybe “independent” is the real differentiator. The Back2Stonewall post refers to it as “Outstanding Blog/Independent Media,” which feels more accurate.
Own it, grrl. The world is getting queerer and queerer, and all the big businesses that refuse to acknowledge that are in their death throes. Your time is coming. Follow your heart. Do what you love. Start now.
Soulmates as we’ve come to know them rely heavily on the kind of destiny that doesn’t just leave you inexplicably at the doorstep, it sees you through to the end of the story/movie/book. That kind of destiny by its very nature removes choice from the equation, and to dismiss the very real choices we make on a daily basis required to be better for each other assumes relationships are without sacrifice or that they’re innately seamless. Even beyond the complexities of relationships, the idea of soulmates as these star-crossed beings coming (and staying) together implies that we either stay the same our entire lives or that we grow in the exact same way and at the exact same rate as another person. Except we know neither of those things to be true.
The Impossible Math of Gay Soulmates
Valentine’s Day motto: People break up all the time!
Well, they do! Anyway, it’s not your fault you’re unapologetically single and ridiculously good-looking and other people’s girlfriends seem to fall into your lap. You’ve been there, done that, ditched the babe but kept the t-shirt and now you can have the makeup bag, too. Made of durable canvas, super roomy (I’m talking up to 8.5″ x 8.5″) and lined with vintage screen-printed fabric, these puppies from Breakups to Makeups are built to last (unlike your last relationship). Love is for suckers!
Valentine’s Day motto: Too Cool 4 School
You’re young at heart, a little bit of a punk scrapper, and can’t be bothered with all that vapid romance garbage. You’d rather go to town on some pizza, watch a movie or play video games, and chill just like on any other night — with or without a babe around to help you eat the last of the crust. (And trust, if there is a babe around, she feels exactly the same way. Hello, why else would you be “hanging out” with her?!) Since you’re not a total lesbro, you’ve got a few staples from the Dinoplatz Collection on hand to keep things copacetic: blotting papers to soak up pepperoni grease, barely-there lip balm for soft lips, and a loose powder to keep any oilies at bay. Plus, dinos are the coolest.
Hard Lacquer: Self-Care Valentine’s Day Gifts For Every Kind of Lover
Through rule-breaking, more than one unauthorized hot air balloon flight, and a lot of other creative and brave attempts at escape, (RE)Sisters reveals truths about what we know, but may not always be able to say: that we are itching to break free of the implicit and explicit confines the white supremacist, patriarchal, heterosexist, cissexist, ableist, imperialist world puts on us.
To the outside observer, it sounds like the church of a religion no organized religion would ever want to associate with. A place where you can go and hear crazy sounds and dance like mad and forget whatever it is you don’t want to remember. And I didn’t believe any of it. Until I did.
