Story Guidelines
Below are some initial starting points for your story. Feel free to answer a question and its follow-up questions as listed, or feel free to use these as a jumping board to another topic all together. At the end of the day, we are trying to capture LGBTQ+ culture, so if you have something you’d like to write about that isn’t listed, we’d love to read it!
What is your coming out story?
What were you feeling? Who were the first people you told? What was their reaction? Looking back, how do you feel about the timing of your coming out, and the people you came out to?
What was the first time you went on a date?
What were you feeling? What do you remember about the person? What happened (be mindful that we have a <18 audience 🙂 )? How did being LGBTQ+ influence how you thought and/or did on the date? What was something you learned and/or appreciated about it?
Tell us about the first time you attended a pride parade/event.
What was the feeling in the air? Where were you (city/town, country, etc.)? What time of year was it? What was everyone wearing – what were you wearing? How did you feel when you saw the first people? What did you learn about yourself? What memory sticks out to you the most?
Tell us about the first time you met your first openly LGBTQ+-friendly friend
(especially if you would consider this friend a “best friend). How did you meet? How did you know they were LGBTQ+ friendly? Are you still friends? What lessons did you learn from that friendship?
What is the most impactful lesson you learned as an LGBTQ+ person in the world?
How did you learn this lesson? Are there any other “side-lessons” you learned as a part of this? If you have used this lesson, how did you use it?
Advice for person who shares your identity (sexuality, gender identity, etc.)
What is the single-most important piece of life advice you would give to a younger person who shares your identity (sexuality, gender identity, etc.)?
Advice for LGBTQ+ Person
What is the single-most important piece of life advice you would give to a younger LGBTQ+ Person?
What does your typical day look like?
How does being LGBTQ+ and influence your typical day? Is there something you wish you could include in your typical routine?
What was/is your life’s biggest dream?
Did you achieve it/are you on the path to achieve it? What lessons did you learn from pursuing or not pursuing it. Did your dream change, and into what?
Important Considerations
- Authors will remain anonymous with a pseudonym either self-selected or given.
- Authors age range (20s, 30s, …, 70s, etc.) and story-related tags will be added for ease of searching.
- These writings will be public-facing for the entire community (including people under 18 years of age), and as such, please avoid adult and/or illegal themes/language. Writings that include these themes may have their adult sections/language edited before publishing, or the story might be requested to be rewritten on a different topic.
- Stories will remain unedited (save for removing adult and/or illegal themes). However, should the author wish, assistance in writing will be given, including story creation and grammar editing. We are aiming to capture your voice!
- There is no suggested word limit Although these writings are going to be revealed as short stories. If that means to you a few paragraphs to a few pages, or even recurring chapters, we’re excited to see what you have in store.
Submit a .doc or .docx file via email by clicking below, and you will receive a response that it was received, any edits, and when it might go up, within a week.