WE’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS THING! Now it’s here, it’s right here in our hands and it’s in the Autostraddle Store for your hearts so now it’s real, it’s a real thing that’s happening and you want one, right?
OMG I’M GAY is the first edition of the “Better Together” series, a collaboration between Autostraddle.com and Everyone is Gay in which we thematically unite some of our most important internet-writings and put them on paper for you to have and hold forever. We hope this series will make you laugh and/or cry and/or go “omg” and hide your face, and we’re thrilled about smashing the work of so many diverse writers into one tiny eternal booklet, accompanied by the work of a different queer artist for every issue.
The topic of our first issue is “coming out to yourself” — reflecting on that special moment when you realized OMG I’M A LEZ or OMG I’M QUEER or OMG I’M BISEXUAL or OMG I HAVE A CRUSH ON SHANE or OMG THAT CIARA VIDEO JUST MADE ME GAY. Nearly 70 pages of words and illustrations reflect on the process of coming to terms with your sexuality and finding the strength to live your truth.
We hope this ‘zine will reflect a vast diversity of coming-out-to-yourself experiences. (The title is just what sounded best because nobody has ever looked in the mirror and thought OMG I’M LGBQ, although it’d be real funny if they did.) Topics include not knowing what to “come out” as when your sexuality is wildly fluid, realizing you like girls while married to a man, attempting to reconcile a straight past with a queer future, reckoning with your intense homosexuality while in an oppressively religious environment and so much more.
Laneia and Riese have been working with Kristin and Dannielle on this project for many months along with illustrator Sophie Argetsinger. It was all put together with the generous assistance of editor Alyse Knorr.
OMG I’M GAY includes some of your favorite Autostraddle essays, quotes from Everyone is Gay and Autostraddle interviews, advice from Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid, a playlist from Jenny Owen Youngs, and a really triumphant Shane collage by Riese.
Authors with their Autostraddle work featured in this issue include Riese Bernard, Laneia Jones, Gabby Rivera, Djuan Trent, Stef Schwartz, Laura Wooley, DJ Carlytron, Intern Lily, Heather Hogan , Carmen Rios, Kate Severance and Audrey White.
You can get your copy now for a mere $16 in the Autostraddle store! All profits support the writers of Everyone is Gay and Autostraddle.com. Quantities are limited so get yours STAT!
Buy Your Copy Now.
oh wow oh wow oh wow I am so excited to hold your words, pics and triumphant Shane collage in my actual hands.
I want to buy a million copies of this and give it to all newbies as a welcome to the family gift.
I can’t wait to own this and have it on display in my room after I read it probably 15 times.
Also, just clicked the link to the store and there are so many new fancy things in there – HELLO holiday shopping :)
Yay!!!
You had me at “really triumphant Shane collage.”
i am considering auctioning off the original (IN COLOR) on ebay, just saying
This needs to become a real thing.
(and I will pay more for a signed artwork)
YES. Yes yes yes.
Yes.
That was maybe the quickest I ever jumped to buy something?
ALSO those black hot shorts.
stoked!
Well, you`ve got me instantly, happy Christmas to me. :-)
I need this, I love this, I’m so happy this exists. AND it’s SO beautiful. I want to caress those drop-caps. That Q! Those small caps!
As possibly the 2nd, 3rd or 15th person to read this who wasn’t involved in the actual writing of it, it’s amazing. you will not be disappointed.
This is worth buying a bookstand and displaying in my room. Then I will bring it to camp and ask everyone to sign it.
holy holy holy fuck
This is such a necessary and beautiful zine! Is there a way that we can purchase these in bulk so I can hide one in every Francesca Lia Block book in America? (or whatever middle school girls secretly read in libraries these days)
Anyway, I’ll take a million.
YES
I seriously debated about buying one for our school library. Riese/contributors, could you please comment about whether it would be suitable?
Ellaria, there are mentions of sex and one sketch of boobs floating around. That being said, I think it’s an appropriate read for middle and high school students, especially as personal gifts. But, you know, parents can be crazy about accepting that youth are sexual beings and needs resources, so I would just think about where you live and whether it’s a place where you would have to personally fight that fight. Of course, I strongly believe that there’s at least one girl at every middle school in America whose life would be changed by this zine. But I also know it’s always a challenging choice to work towards ~liberating the youth~ having lived in Texas most of my life.
Thanks Cecelia, this is super helpful.
This looks excellent. I assume this will be replacing the toaster as our go-to welcome gift for newly out gays?
I can’t decide if I want to buy this for myself or buy it for my sister and then force her to lend it to me if no one else gets it for me. Either way, I need to have it in my hands.
OMG I JUST BOUGHT ONE
I loved reading this zine! And it was super handy that it’s fit right inside my Lumberjanes #8 so I could read it at my grandma’s house this Christmas!
I’m really excited for this. I need to save and order all the zines, but especially this one.