Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.

Liz Theoharis, et al: The War on Trans People in the Age of Trump

This year, Pride Month arrives at an especially dire moment for the LGBTQ+ community. Under the second Trump administration, homophobic vitriol and violence are on the rise.

June 10, 2025 · 8 Comments

Nico Lang: Serving Justice

On stage and in the courthouse, these queens prove drag is not a crime.

October 19, 2024 · 6 Comments

Rose Mary Boehm: Sunsets on Mars are Blue

We’ll soon be sending settlers to Mars.
They’ll be sitting on their porches contemplating
the Martian sunsets.

March 13, 2024 · 6 Comments

Richard Michelson: Three Poems

Today, I am weary of my soul, forever dragging behind me, 
clanging for attention like tin cans left tied to a coupe fender    
long after the sacred vows.

December 17, 2023 · 4 Comments

Ira Chernus: Who Will Speak Up for My Child, the Drag Queen?

How we treat the most marginal and vulnerable among us determines the quality of life for the rest of us…. A good society takes care of the most vulnerable by assuring their safety…

January 25, 2023 · 10 Comments

Sam Long: Why I Decided to Come Out to My Students as a Trans Man

Every August, as new students arrive, I wonder whether I want to share this part of myself.

July 29, 2022 · Leave a comment

Video: West by God

At a water park deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Nelly locks eyes with Dane. On an awkward date, they drive around their West Virginia town, and Dane shares a version of himself others don’t see.

July 10, 2022 · 2 Comments

Glen Brown: Epitaph for a Transsexual

He liked feminine things
as far back as I can remember:
high-heel shoes, scarves, purses,
dancing before mirrors.

February 3, 2022 · 2 Comments

Joe Kadi | Good Poetry: A Force To Be Reckoned With

As soon as I became an activist, as soon as I connected with Arabs and feminists and queers and folks with disabilities and poor people fighting to re-make the world, poetry demanded my attention.

July 19, 2021 · 2 Comments

Bhikshuni Soma: Neither Male Nor Female

He said: How could a woman who knows no more than how to cook, clean, and make babies, possibly reach the further shore, on the way to which so many … Continue reading

May 28, 2021 · 2 Comments

Leslie Anne Mcilroy: On the Rocks

I love my son so much I no longer call him my daughter. He presses his bound breasts to me when I hug him hello and goodbye. He wants them … Continue reading

June 25, 2018 · Leave a comment

Irvin Cemil Schick: What Ottoman erotica teaches us about sexual pluralism

History might be the best antidote to the unthinking, and pernicious, naturalisation of cisgender identity and heterosexuality. When confronted with the fact that, for most of history, people simply did … Continue reading

May 5, 2018 · 3 Comments

Will Fraker: Gender is Dead, Long Live Gender

Just what is ‘performativity’? Gender is burdened by a lot of adjectives these days. It’s non-binary, it’s fluid, it’s ‘over’. According to the American rapper Young Thug, an artist at … Continue reading

January 25, 2018 · Leave a comment

Video: The Secret Life of Dr. James Barry

. What makes Dr. James Barry—born in Ireland as Margaret Bulkley, niece of the painter James Barry—such a noteworthy person besides passing for male in the company of people who … Continue reading

September 29, 2017 · Leave a comment

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