Lauren Herold

college

trans

politics + activism

“The Goal Was To Shut Us Down”: Ohio Campuses Reckon With Attacks on Education, DEI, and Trans Rights

Faculty, staff, and students in Ohio share fears and strategies after increase in legislative attacks that have led to departments shutting down, resources taken away from students, and confusion and…

Lauren Herold —

Jun 26, 2025

prison-industrial complex

music

Bending the Bars: New Album Showcases the Queer and Trans Resilience of Incarcerated Artists

Chuckie Lee is a Black trans rapper currently incarcerated in Broward County Jail in South Florida. Her track “Barbie Rockstar” celebrates the expansive queer and trans joy that persists even…

Lauren Herold —

Jun 19, 2025

featured

nonfiction

lgbt history

The Hidden History of Lesbian Phone Lines

London Friend’s Lesbian Line, which opened in 1989 and closed in 1999, was one of many gay and lesbian phone lines across the UK.

Lauren Herold —

May 1, 2025

HIV/AIDS

interview

lgbt history

New DIY Documentary Honors AIDS Media Activism, Love, Loss, and Queer Community

Shot on a mix of consumer-grade recording devices — iPhone, Zoom, VHS camcorder, and Super-8 film — the documentary is an homage to grassroots AIDS mediamaking across decades and its…

Lauren Herold —

Mar 21, 2025

#affiliatemarketing

lgbt history

A New History of Gay Rodeos Explores How Cowboys Have Always Been Queer

Slapping Leather addresses how the idealized white masculine cowboy has always been a myth.

Lauren Herold —

Jan 9, 2025

#affiliatemarketing

audre lorde

book features

A New Biography Transforms Our Understanding of Audre Lorde and the Genre Itself

“Biographies normativize people,” Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs tells me. “It’s like: this is a person, they were born, they died, their life is linear, they’re only one person. My queer…

Lauren Herold —

Sep 6, 2024

#affiliatemarketing

nonfiction

book features

Looking Back on 1970s Lesbian Feminist Film and Sci-Fi To Reimagine the Future

“I mean props to those who are three years old and are like, ‘I’m gay.’ But some of us have to meet some gay people, and sometimes those people are…

Lauren Herold —

Jul 13, 2024

nonfiction

parenting & family

When it Comes to Queer Fertility, There Are No Perfect Choices

I was 22 years old when I donated my eggs anonymously at a fertility clinic in New York City.

Lauren Herold —

May 29, 2024

#affiliatemarketing

lgbt book reviews

Elizabeth Blake’s Edible Arrangements Is Hungry (and Horny) for Modernist Literature

The book can help us understand the sensual relationship between food and sex in Je Tu Il Elle and in other forms of LGBTQ art, media, and cultural production.

Lauren Herold —

Mar 18, 2024

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nonfiction

book features

K. Allison Hammer Imagines the Queer and Trans Possibilities of Masculinity

Rather than focus on individual, exceptional figures of toxic masculinity, Hammer wanted to explore masculinity as a cultural form that people of all genders can embody.

Lauren Herold —

Feb 8, 2024

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trans book

book features

Avery Dame-Griff Is Archiving the Trans Internet

“The history of trans life online is one of sedimentation, with each subsequent change leaving its remains behind to settle and eventually solidify into a mass of images, text, and…

Lauren Herold —

Dec 12, 2023

#affiliatemarketing

book features

The Erotics of Asexuality

For Ela Przybylo, the concept of “asexual erotics” emphasizes non-sexual intimacy and ways of relating to one another.

Lauren Herold —

Aug 2, 2023