A dead brothel owner tries to solve his own murder from beyond the grave — I participated in the 2022 NYC Midnight Short Story Contest. I had one week to write a short story, 2500 words or less, after being given a genre (“mystery”), a character (“trooper”), and a subject (“fool’s gold”). While I did not place in the first round and move on to…

It took me fifteen years to feel empowered by my reproductive choices — My relationship with birth control has always been a turbulent one. From the beginning of my sex education, I was taught that getting pregnant outside of wedlock was the ultimate sin. Not only was it a physical manifestation of impurity, but the only option once pregnant was to carry the…

My (ongoing) journey to self-love and acceptance — I grew up surrounded by religion, from Christian schools and summer camps to weekly church and youth groups. Most of these institutions taught me that it was sinful to be gay. …

A short story that’s really weird — Today is exactly one year since I joined the Free Love Farm, and I couldn’t be more content. Nestled away in the Sierra Foothills, my days are full of tending the garden and caring for the sweet animals that roam the land. …

My ongoing journey from sex-negativity and shame to autonomy and sex-positive thinking — My first experiences learning about sex were through the lens of purity culture. I used to be the perfect picture of a Christian woman saving sex until marriage, complete with purity ring. Now, I’m polyamorous, which means I may choose to have multiple sexual and romantic partners. To some, it…

Why I’m talking about it over six years later — (Trigger warning: sexual assault) Back in 2014, I was sexually assaulted by someone I considered a close friend. I wrote this detailed account of the experience for my blog in 2016, but never had the courage to publish it. It felt scary to be so vulnerable in a public setting…

A history of systemic violence towards BIPOC and what you can do to help — Sex education is racist. While at times I’m sure it is overtly racist, I’m specifically talking about systemic racism: prejudice and abuse based on race that is deeply entrenched in our society. These factors compound together to engrain policies of discrimination on an organizational level, effectively hurting people of color.

Back then, I had no legal recourse. Where is the law now? — When I was seventeen and in high school, a naked picture of me from when I was fifteen was distributed amongst my classmates. This was done without my consent and as an act of retaliation. …

And he’s proposing to me too — I was in a Taco Bell drive-thru with my boyfriend when we decided we would get married. I had been thinking about proposing to him for a while and floated the idea of me proposing to him, instead of the traditional man-proposes-to-woman. When we talked about it, neither of us…