Category: Opinion

George Fowler, aka Drag King Hugo Grrrl, spots the transphobia at the centre of recent anti-drag sentiment and implores parents to take their kids to age-appropriate drag shows. Kids love drag. It’s glittery, cartoonish, colourful, and deeply silly. You couldn’t make an art form more perfect for young audiences if you tried. In fact, drag […]

A shocking encounter in a K Road nightclub leaves Jessie Lewthwaite optimistically reflecting on the boldness of ‘Zoomers.’ Some friends and I went out dancing at one of K Road’s queer nightclubs. I was pretty quickly approached by a cute girl who started dancing with me. I couldn’t help but think how young she looked. From […]

Former Mr Bear NZ, Matt Holster, channels his inner Sex & The City-era Carrie Bradshaw to discuss his experiences with open relationships. In this day and age, with a continual focus on openness, diversity, inclusion and self-authenticity, I find myself wondering: “Is an open relationship status just the ‘flexitarian’* of the relationship’s preference?” And with […]

Michael Stevens examines the headlines made by Phillip Schofield’s affair and sees the homophobia and ageism adding up. Phillip Schofield was vaguely on the periphery of my radar as a former Kiwi, now English, TV personality who had recently come out in his late 50s. His career is now shattered because he lied about having […]

Jack Mould says Queer Safety on public transport will be an important tool for tackling climate change. They say the gays lead the way. If the queer community embrace a trend, it will soon become mainstream. So what better community of primarily urban dwellers for the government to target for increasing public transport use. That’s […]

Kylie Minogue’s return to the charts takes Joe Pakai back to his Whangarei childhood, when hearing the pop icon’s music promised better days were ahead. Here he pays tribute to gay men and their divas. Most gay men have THEIR diva, and mine is Kylie. Although, actually, I’ve always thought that Kylie is about as […]

Inspired by the opening of Auckland’s Heaven Nightclub, Michael Stevens remembers the thrill of going out on the gay scene. What was the first queer club you went to? Mine was the Aquarius on Fort Street in 1979, which became The Staircase. I still have friends from those days. Our clubs and bars have been […]

Nī Dekkers-Reihana weaves their way out of colonial binaries into an authentic ‘unctie’. In 2021, I got a new job. In preparation for the mahi, I had been reading the organisation’s mission statement and the word decolonisation kept coming up. Decolonisation. It’s a hot buzzword everyone’s talking about. I found myself asking, how can we decolonise? […]