When I first told you I loved you it was just after you’d helped me move to the city. Exhausted and lying on my new bed felt like the right moment I’d been waiting for.
I needed to say it.
And you needed to hear it.
And for the first time — we had sex, made love, fucked. Fully. It was new and strange and amazing. I felt both out of this world and totally in my body. I’d always loved sex but this was something else. Something transcendent.
I came. You didn’t. I’d kind of expected it to happen because of our connection – hoped egotistically anyway. I was disappointed but figured I’d give it time.
(via If I’m Queer But I’m A Preacher, Maybe He’ll Love Me)
“It’s funny because even though I find him misguided, we’re essentially traveling the same path. I’m applying to graduate school right now, and recently, I’ve felt called to look at seminary programs. The path I’m hoping to travel will lead to ordination, and maybe a leadership role in a church. I’m not really sure what “called” means, but it felt different than deciding I’d apply for a PhD in Performance Studies. Seminary feels like something I need to do because it’s bigger than me. It feels important academically, spiritually, emotionally and developmentally. And I think a part of it has to do with my father. I think there’s a part of me that hopes that if I go to seminary I can fix it so he loves me again — that I can fix us.”
Love is when you both have a cold but you want the other person to stay in bed and you’ll make the tea. Love is when you give her the last cookie. Love is when you hang up her towel even though you’ve told her a thousand times to hang it up herself. Love is when you record her thing instead of yours, even though she’s the one who won’t delete stuff off the DVR. Love is when you go to bed angry and annoyed but wake up reaching for her the next morning anyway. Love is the pauses and the breaths and the spaces between all the things you say. It’s when you laugh when she laughs, even if you didn’t hear the joke. It’s when you accept her apology, even though your feelings are still hurt. Love is what happens after you lose the game of hide-and-seek and she sticks around anyway. Santana says love is about finding someone who will put up with your crap. The camera asks Brittany’s face if it’s true and her face says it is, but also that love is when you’d rather put up with that person’s crap than live 100 crap-free years without them.
Heather Hogan, AutoStraddle Glee 603 Recap (via leigh-kelly)
Juliet Takes a Breath, by Gabby Rivera
Cover by Cristy C. Road
We are so psyched about Gabby Rivera’s debut novel, y’all. There’s plenty of coverage to come on Autostraddle dot com (and stay tuned for news about a book release party this spring), but for now we want to encourage you to buy it and devour it. You won’t regret it.
Praise for Juliet Takes a Breath
Inga Muscio, author of Cunt:
“Even if Holden Caulfield was born in the Bronx in the 1980s, he could never be this awesome.”
Riese Bernard, CEO of Autostraddle:
“Rivera cuts your heart right open with the most original young lesbian character I’ve read in years, seamlessly weaving together racial politics, awkward teenage romance and a queer coming-of-age that manages to both center on and transcend the identities it represents.”
Glendaliz Commacho, HBIC of becomenzado dot com:
“Rivera vividly conveys Juliet Palante’s journey—away from the familiarity of home to the newness of Portland and inward to her Self—as she seeks love, acceptance, and her place in the world.”
Kristin Russo, Everyone is Gay:
“Juliet Takes A Breath is an absolute necessity in a landscape that often erases the strength, importance, and very existence of queer, feminist women of color. There are far too many young people who aren’t given the opportunity to witness the nuanced journeys of characters who look, think, or identify like themselves. For this reason, and many others, I am endlessly thankful for this beautifully crafted story and the critical conversations that it will inspire around intersections of sexuality, feminism, race, and gender.”
Phoenix Danger, co-creator of Phresh Cutz, Brooklyn:
Juliet Milagros Palante is my new hero. Rivera pours her heart into ours with this story. Juliet Takes a Breath teems with a gentle but fierce bravery that shows us that we must be vulnerable to survive the process of becoming who we are, especially when we carry many identities on our strong, soft shoulders.
