From the Editor: Masc, Femme, and Family
In 2022, we often scoff a little at the term “family.” Most of us millennial and Gen Z folks don’t want kids, either due to internalized traumas, the state of the world, or, frankly, having enough resources to make it a reality.
And we often have tenuous relationships with older folks in our biological family. We aren’t all blessed enough to have supportive parents, and even people like me who are so lucky still deal with a more bigoted extended family. That fact, quite simply, has led me to balk a little at the mention of family, immediately picturing my racist uncle and shuddering.
Even worse, sometimes the people in our lives who should be family don’t show up for us like we need because of how we present. Trans folks and those who either present outside of the binary or in ways that don’t align with our assigned birth gender often face backlash from folks who don’t get it and want us to fit in with what they think family, and “men and women,” should look like.
That is why this issue is even more important. In this day and age, family and identity are everything. We should all have the right to choose when and how to show up and have a family—whether that means giving birth, terminating a pregnancy, giving someone a second chance, cutting someone off, or making our own family among our friends and lovers.
So, I invite you to comb through these pages and ask yourself: What does family mean to you, and what space, if any, do the roles of “masc” and “femme” hold in your world? And, if we all work together, would it be possible to rebuild the world in out own, queer image and make these things anew?
Or, at the very least, know we have you covered for coping mechanisms when it comes to that racist uncle, or ideas of how to pull off the ultimate masc or femme look.
In community,
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