Straight up | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012

I’m sure many of us have noticed that queer columns often plumb archives of feeling which include anger, sadness or pride, or some combo of these. Which is fair enough, I think, since queer/trans people have lots to be angry, sad, and proud about. However, for this column I thought I’d Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012

In this one short sentence, I will possibly extinguish what’s left of my queer cool cred: I’m a country fag, and I like it. I am not hard country. I’m more the soft, lifestyle block, grow-heirloom-roses kind. I like the smell of silage, flower shows, and shingle roads. I like to Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 25

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012

6.45 am Wake up. Shit. Face creased from sleeping on top of Foucault. 7.00 am Look at face in mirror. Cleanse. Scrub. Tone. Moisturise. Eye cream. Foundation. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh no concealer! Eyebrow pencil. Sunblock. Perfume. Hair product. Perfume. Try on wig. Take off wig. Try on wig with Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 24

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012

This week I met my former high school principal while I was speaking at a seminar. I had been fantasising for years about what this moment would be like. In my fantasy I would do something outrageous that would make her deeply uncomfortable. Or, perhaps equally outrageously, I would tell the Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 23

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012

It seems like rape has been all over the news recently, and often in ways I find problematic. I don’t want to write about Julian Assange or Hell pizza; others have done a brilliant job of tearing those two issues apart already. Instead, I want to look at rape from an intersectional queer Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 22

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012

This week I was pleased to see Jonah Lomu on my TV screen raising awareness about the Live Below the Line campaign, which seeks to raise awareness about the experiences of the approximately 1.4 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty. The New Zealand equivalent of the extreme poverty Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 21

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012

From the moment Louisa Wall’s Marriage Equality Bill popped up on Facebook, I began preparing myself for the worst. The first thought that elbowed its way into my consciousness was not a celebratory “Oh yay, marriage – finally!”, it was a defensive “Shit, how ugly is Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 20

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012

Mama - how do you stay so fabulous? What’s your secret? – Grrrrl Thursday Oh Grrrrrrrl! There is no secret, Mama is an open book. Staying fabulous is more of an art than a science. For me it involves a lot of perfume. Seriously. Perfume lifts a grrrl up. And with perfume, more is Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 19

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012

In this column I thought I’d give myself some space to reply to words people have called me, and I suspect many other queer/trans folks too. These are words some of us internalise and begin to use to describe ourselves. I am writing this column because often I haven’t been able to Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 18

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012

This week I’d planned out my column days in advance. I’d written it quickly – the time I had was squashed beneath piles of other things. When I returned to it today, I noticed something. My words were flat. The piece was stodgy, and I just wasn’t into it. I’d tried to Read more...