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“I don’t think you’ve ever felt anything that didn’t hurt you,�� Julian said. “We’ve found each other, out of everyone else in the world. Does that hurt, too?”
― Micah Nemerever, These Violent Delights

“In the end, there wasn’t any
difference between trusting someone and underestimating them.”
― Micah Nemerever, These Violent Delights

“In a world where queerness all too often alienates us from blood, I am grateful to Julia, and the family I have chosen. Without them, I wouldn't be here.”
― Elliot Page, Pageboy

“Will had heard love described in so many dramatic, bizarre ways over the years, but no one had described it like this:
It’s like drifting down a river of pain and knowing you are safe.

It’s like holding a person in your arms and realizing they are an interlocking piece of a puzzle you hadn’t known how to assemble.

It’s like staring into a dark and treacherous expanse, unsure of what awaits you but finding comfort in the fact that you won’t have to face it alone.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star

“What is it?" Maud said.
'Nothing' was on Violet's tongue, but Maud had requested truth from her, tonight.
So Violet reached for Maud's hand, lifted the inner wrist to her mouth, and kissed it. It wasn't and answer. It was truth, withheld. Maud smiled, and in her smile was the fact that she'd noticed and let it go.”
― Freya Marske, A Restless Truth

“And maybe Violet would again be easy to abandon, and maybe she'd end up with yet more rings on her hand to remind her of it.
[Maud] absently touched her breastbone, as if aware of the locket's absence. 
Better thumb rings, surely, than jewelry worn as a reminder that everyday you ached and loved and settled for less than what you wanted.”
― Freya Marske, A Restless Truth

“Is this okay?"
"Yes," I answered with a nod.
She slid her fingers down my pants and touched me.
"You're so wet," she said.

And I was. Turned on in a way that was new, I felt the sensation I had only managed to reach on my own until this point. My body quivered, I wish we'd been alone, but the presence of others snapped us out of it.

Being in proximity to Jessica changed me. Growing up with hardly any queers around, this person helped me discover myself, someone who had pushed through the fear and the shame to exist proudly. Running into her on the sidewalk, seeing her at a party, eating the wraps she made at the mall, I didn't have a crush, but I yearned to be near what was possible. Her visibility meant the world
to me.

I think about this as I walk through the world now.”
― Elliot Page, Pageboy

“That's what I wanted—not merely the body, desirable as it was, but its will to grow into the very world that rejects its hunger.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Are you a guy or a girl?
I've heard the question all my life. The answer is not so simple, since there are no pronouns in the English language as complex as I am, and I do not want to simplify myself in order to neatly fit one or the other.”
― Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors : Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman

“I wish someone had told me that being queer means you are never alone”
― Adam Eli, The New Queer Conscience

“This is not where I was meant to be. Born to the wrong house, by a stroke of misfortune. The girls here have it all. Men in whorehouses exist only to serve. We are their guards, tailors, cooks and their musicians. Forever in the shadows. If only I could be a woman. With soft hands, big breasts and long hair. To have men fawn all over me, to see them rise and fall. Alas, but all I have is small feet.”
― Ekta Kumar, Box of Lies: A Love Story, Without Love

“And maybe Violet would again be easy to abandon, and maybe she'd end up with yet more rings on her hand to remind her of it.
[Maude] absently touched her breastbone, as if aware of the locket's absence.
Better thumb rings, surely, than jewelry worn as a reminder that everyday you ached and loved and settled for less than what you wanted.”
― Freya Marske, A Restless Truth

“What is it?" Maud said.
'Nothing' was on Violet's tongue, but Maud had requested truth from her, tonight.
So Violet reached for Maud's hand, lifted the inner wrist to her mouth, and kissed it. It wasn't an answer. It was truth, withheld. Maud smiled, and in her smile was the fact that she'd noticed and let it go.”
― Freya Marske, A Restless Truth

“I trust you to handle my heart with care”
― Margherita Scialla, Tears in the Water

“Biology creates males and females. Pollution creates gender issues in them.”
― Steven Magee

“The more you try to bury us, the firmer our roots. The more you try to silence us, the louder our song.”
― Phoenix Ning, Paragon Seven

“A lot of gay people kill themselves. Unhappy lives.”
― Steven Magee

“For many gays, it is not such a rosy rainbow.”
― Steven Magee

“Food is a big part of my culture, especially sweet foods. When you're Bangladeshi, you're taught that any good news or celebration has to be accompanied with some sweet food. Every time you visit someone's house its polite to bring a box of sweets . But in Ireland, there arent really a lot of places where you can buy Bengali sweets, so when I was younger my mom started making them herself. She was really good at it and I used to watch her. sometimes I helped her out. As I got older, it just felt like second nature to start baking. For school bake sales, I would make my own cookies. for friends birthdays, I would always bring along a cake I baked myself. I became the girl who bakes. and I loved being that girl. I guess baking is kinda in my blood".”
― Adiba Jaigirdar, The Dos and Donuts of Love

“Natural intelligence does not require we do anything to achieve it. Natural intelligence imbues us with all we need at this exact moment to manifest the highest form of ourselves, and we don't have to figure out how to get it. We arrived on this planet with this source material already present. I am by no means implying that the work you may have done up to this point has been useless. To the contrary, I applaud whatever labor you have undertaken that has gotten you this far. Survival is damn hard. Each of us has traversed a gauntlet of traumas, shames, and fears to be where we are today, wherever that is. Each day we wake to a planet full of social, political, and economic obstructions that siphon our energy and diminish our sense of self. Consequently, tapping into this natural intelligence often feels nearly impossible. Humans unfortunately make being human exceptionally hard for each other, but I assure you, the work we have done or will do is not about acquiring some way of being that we currently lack. The work is to crumble the barriers of injustice and shame leveled against us so that we might access what we have always been, because we will, if unobstructed, inevitably grow into the purpose for which we were created.”
― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

“We must be clear that people's bodies are not the cause of our social maladies. [...] Our disconnection, trauma, lack of resources, lack of compassion, fear, greed, and ego are the sources of our contributions to human suffering not our bodies. We can accept humans and their bodies without understanding "why" they love, think, move, or look the way they do. Contrary to common opinion, freeing ourselves from the need to understand everything can bring about a tremendous amount of peace.”
― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

“Being different is difficult in a world that tells us there is a "normal". Many of us have oriented our entire lives around an effort to be "normal", never realizing that "normal" is not a stationary goal.”
― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

“Building love relationships require getting to know the other party. Our relationships with our bodies are no different. As we learn them, we can access their unique power and gifts.”
― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

“If only I could be a woman. With soft hands, big breasts and long hair. To have men fawn all over me, to see them rise and fall. Alas, but all I have is small feet.”
― Ekta Kumar, Box of Lies: A Love Story, Without Love

“How romantic and dreamy.�� My mistress sighed. “I should make someone pick a lover’s quarrel with me.��

“I could do it.�� The jest slipped out, my brain catching up seconds later to what my mouth had just said.

“Would you, really?�� Viola asked quietly.

The mood shifted, the light, playful air between us dissolving.”
― Anita Zara, The Maid's Secret

“Did you know,�� she said, “they say the colour of a lady’s lips is an exact match to another region on the body?�� Her gaze drifted below her water-covered stomach.

My face grew hot. The burning need to say something, anything, scorched my tongue.”
― Anita Zara, The Maid's Secret

“While I appreciate the freedom to live anywhere we want, and I love visiting those places, I do feel a sharp sense of loss knowing I can't see the people I consider my queer family on a daily basis. That is, I don't want to see my loves once a year. I want to see them every day. Enough to be sick of them. I want to rummage through their fridges, talk shit on their porches, tuck their plant cuttings into my pockets to bring home. I want them to let themselves into my house with their own keys. I want them to borrow so many of my books that my shelves look spaced and slanted, like a mouth full of crooked teeth. Watching the lesbians in the Wild Side West's garden, grey hard and laughing so hard they had to get thumped on the back. That's it. That's what I really want. That's the goal.”
― Krista Burton, Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America

“et si... / dans la nuitée de nos marges, / cabossé·es jusqu'au fémur, / quelques vérités faisaient avancer le monde”
― Douce Dibondo, ��é�ٲ����ܰ����

“find solace between blues and pinks
of sunset, lavender haze
creep up on time before it
does so to you”
― j. g. bova, Not Ghosts, But Spirits III: art from the women's, queer, trans, & enby communities

“Same-sex love has often been relegated to the margins of art as problematic (and preferably tragic).”
― R. B. Parkinson