A Look Into 2022

January 2022

Preserving

queer stories

A LOOK INTO

2022

NEW YEAR, N E W E N E R GY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME 45 NUMBER 10 JANUARY 2022

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FROM THE EDITOR

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OFM GALLERY Diving the New Year at Reign Rituals

OFM BREAKING 2022 News Predictions

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OFM ART Cheyne Gallarde Ash + Chess

Fortune Feimster

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Community Tarot Forecast

OFM CULTURE 2022 Cultural Predictions Movies, Music & Entertainment Reike Healing Good Judy Garage House of Intuition The Witch’s Mountain Queering Sci Fi Mars Wright on Trans Masculinity

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From YouTube Boyfriends to LGBTQ Travel Connoisseurs

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OFM DRAG Maxxie La Wow Honey Davenport

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OFM MUSIC Oxygen Thief Lafemmebear Metal Meltdown

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OFM STYLE New Skin Faves Josh Miller

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OFM CANNABIS Ganja So Good

FOUNDER

PHIL PRICE 1954-1993 ADMINISTRATION INFO@OUTFRONTMAGAZINE.COM CO-PUBLISHER MAGGIE PHILLIPS CO-PUBLISHER ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER PRESIDENT JERRY CUNNINGHAM CHIEF STRATEGISTS JEFF JACKSON SWAIM, LANI LANGTON EDITORIAL EDITORIAL@OUTFRONTMAGAZINE.COM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, MUSIC EDITOR VERONICA L. HOLYFIELD COPY EDITOR KEEGAN WILLIAMS CELEBRITY INTERVIEWER DENNY PATTERSON BREAKING NEWS REPORTER, PODCAST EDITOR RAY MANZARI WRITERS ALANNA L.P., AMANDA E.K., ANGEL RIVERA, BRIAN ARAGON-SHAFI

BYRDSONG, ELENI STEPHENIDES, RACHEL GALSTAD

Establishing the Baseline for the Nonbinary Experience Queer Q&A

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OFM ASTROLOGY

OFM LIT Foretold

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OFM THOUGHTS

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SERVING THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS SINCE 1976

January Horoscopes

ART ART@OUTFRONTMAGAZINE.COM GRAPHIC DESIGNER VERONICA L. HOLYFIELD COVER PHOTO JULIUS GARRIDO CARTOONIST DYLAN EDWARDS MARKETING + SALES MARKETING@OUTFRONTMAGAZINE.COM SENIOR MARKETING EXECUTIVE QUINCEY ROISUM JUNIOR SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVES BRIANNA ARMSTRONG,

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FROM THE EDITOR

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YIKES! How is it already 2022? If you’re like us, you may be wondering: Where did the time go? When did the calendar change? And, after so many years of this hell rollercoaster we call life, what the fuck can we expect in 2022?

Normally, I’d say, “Well, we can’t see the future,” but that’s not entirely true. First off, we’re journalists. It’s literally our job to predict news and cultural trends, though with social media, that seems to be a role we’ve all taken on. And second off, we’ve focused on divination and looking into the future in this issue, giving you a sneak peek of what to expect.

From fashion and health to culture and news, to—yes, we went there—a tarot card pull for the year ahead, we’ve got all your 2022 predictions. And I do mean all of them. Will folks turn on Britney now that she has control of her own finances? Will socially progressive folks prevail in politics? Read on and find out.

And, as you read on and get educated, I’d also like to welcome you to a new year of OFM, of queer content curated specifically for you.

If you’d like to advertise with us, work with us, give us feedback, or get more involved, this is your year. It’s in the cards.

Addison Herron-Wheeler

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New Year

Divining the

OFM gallery

From gazing into crystal balls and reading tarot cards to speculating about news, current events, and pop culture, let us take you behind the scenes and into what 2022 has in store.

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Rituals

OFM gallery

at Reign

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Model: Brianna Janae Shoot location: Reign Rituals Photographer: Julius Garrido 1 0 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

Reign Rituals, located in downtown Denver in the Whittier neighborhood, is a space that is welcoming and accepting to everyone who walks through the door. They offer a place to come get your makeup or nails done, or get a facial or tarot reading in a safe space for people of all colors, all faiths, all genders, and all orientations.

Witchiness is not just for the straight, white women of the world—it’s for the queers, and we love to get our supplies— and get our lewks on—at Reign Rituals.

“I love that this is a space that tries to work actively for the community, not against the community, when it comes to including people of color,” says model Brianna Janae.

“They’re inclusive with their staff and their pricing—if you inquire with a financial need, they will work with you, which doesn’t happen at most metaphysical shops. They also offer discount days to people of color and unhoused folks.”

The space also offers intentional makeup lessons for trans folks and those who didn’t learn to do makeup growing up, and pair tarot work with beauty to remind us that as important as getting the look might feel to us, what’s important is what’s on the inside.

If you need to set your new year off right, head over to Reign Rituals, and grab some supplies for divining your new year, and your new you.

Do you want to be a Q Publishing House author?

OFM is launching a publishing arm, and we want YOU to be involved!

We’re launching our first book at the start of 2022, and we’d love to hear from you if you’re an author with a finished manuscript, a project in the works, or a book proposal you think we need to take on.

We’re interested in all kinds of queer topics including erotica, essays and critiques, queer fiction, sci-fi and horror, historical fiction, interviews, fashion guides, and more. If you write it, we want to read it!

Queer writers, BIPOC writers, disabled writers, trans writers, etc. TO THE FRONT! We’d love to tell your stories.

OFM breaking

2022 NEWS PREDICTIONS: What to Expect Out of the New Year

By Ray Manzari

POLITICS This is by no means a comprehensive list of policies and actions that can be expected out of the new year. Instead, consider this a condensed list of some of the top stories you may want to follow into 2022.

January 6 Investigation You can expect continued coverage of the investigation into the January 6 insurrection in the new year.

The House select committee in charge of the investigation has issued 35 subpoenas to groups and individuals linked to the attack on the Capitol. Republican operative Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones were cited as Trump allies directly involved in the “Stop the Steal” rallies.

The issue the committee faces now is finding time in a legislative calendar packed with major legislation, such as Biden’s Build Back Better Act, taking House priority.

Reproductive Rights Texas’ new law, which outright bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, made national headlines last year, though a Mississippi case, which has been brought before the Supreme Court, will likely determine the future of reproductive rights.

The Supreme Court held hearings in early December, and after two hours of tense exchanges, the court appeared to be poised to uphold the Mississippi law, which bans abortions after 15 weeks.

The significance of this court case lies in whether the high court will decide to overturn Roe v. Wade and leave the freedom of choice for states to regulate instead of the individual. The Supreme Court is set to make their ruling in the new year, so be sure to watch for updates.

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OFM breaking

SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATIONS Whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen released thousands of classified documents from the company outlining years of hidden research and data that would suggest the social media company has been responsible for extremism and political divide, not just in the U.S. but globally.

In light of Haugen’s charges and testimonies in front of Congress, lawmakers in the U.S. have begun advocating for more stringent regulation in regards to social media.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement that the documents show Facebook’s leadership “chronically ignored serious internal alarms, choosing to put profits over people,” and added that the company is “obviously unable to police itself.”

CLIMATE CHANGE As many communities across the globe begin to feel the effects of climate change, you can expect continued civil unrest in response to what some feel is too little too late regulations and promises.

The World Climate Summit of 2021 was held in Scotland and attracted its fair share of protestors. Many felt that the commitments made by larger nations were insufficient.

As the climate clock begins to count down, emissions need to fall around 45 percent by 2030 in order to give the world a chance of limiting warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, emissions are expected to rise 14 percent over the next nine years.

Next year, the World Climate Summit will be held in Ciro, and you can expect to see more activists filling the streets and reminding policy makers that now is the time to get climate change under control.

LABOR MOVEMENT You may have noticed more hiring signs outside of local businesses, or seen the occasional passive aggressive post from a hiring manager claiming that “no one wants to work anymore.” You can expect continued strikes, walk-outs, and growing labor unions, should workers’ concerns remain unaddressed.

One unexpected consequence of the pandemic was the shattering of the idea that remote work would be too difficult or impossible for most companies to allow. In addition, for those employees who still needed to show up, like those in the service industry, low wages and high tensions caused many to look elsewhere for employment.

Unions are on the rise, with a recent Gallup poll suggesting that 68 percent of Americans are in favor of unions. Worker movements at high-profile corporations

such as Amazon, Nabisco, Starbucks, and Kaiser seem to be building up to what may become a wave of labor unrest.

COVID-19 Though two years have come and gone, the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the daily lives of people across the globe. As world leaders began preparing for yet another flu season, more vaccination mandates began rolling out.

One such mandate requires companies of 100 employees or more to ensure each of their workers are fully vaccinated, or test for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. This mandate extended to federal workers as well, though President Biden announced in early December that federal employees won’t face “serious discipline” (including unpaid suspension or firing) until early next year.

The CDC began recommending booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 years of age or older.

For individuals who received the Pfizer or Moderna, boosters can be administered at least six months after completing their primary vaccination series. For those who received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, that timeline is closer to two months after their initial vaccine.

The emergence of a new variant in the virus has led to some concern. The Omicron variant was first discovered in Africa at the end of November and quickly began spreading. The first U.S. case was cataloged on December 1 in California.

The main concern with the newest variant is its unique combination of mutations, which may enable the virus to spread faster. Early evidence suggests that the variant poses an increased risk to those who have already had COVID-19 and could catch it again.

As families look to get together this holiday season, many will want to consider booster shots as an added layer of protection for themselves and their loved ones.

“Vaccines are our best line of defense against COVID-19, including this variant,” says Dr. Julie Swann, a health and humanitarian researcher and the department head of NC State’s the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

The CDC has also given the Pfizer vaccine emergency approval for use in children ages 5 to 15, and full approval to use in people ages 16 and older. Hopefully, with continued vaccination, the coronavirus pandemic will begin to diminish. outfrontmagazine.com 13

OFM art

Have you always been into creating art, and when did you get started?

I’ve been an artist ever since I could pick up a pencil. I have distinct memories of drawing the Saturday morning cartoons I’d watch as a child in the 80s. I was the kid who would draw in the margins of my school homework and all over my homemade, paper-bag book covers.

How has your style changed over the years, and how would you describe it now?

Queer Icons

imated by Cheyne Ga lla rd e’ s Get An

Unique Style

by Rachel Galstad

Cheynerama’s illustrations are giving LGBTQ culture meets vintage comic books. His pieces are heavily inspired by the art of drag and an array of cult classics, transforming his ideas into vibrant works of art. Cheyne Gallarde, award-winning queer illustrator, chatted with OFM about his unique take on pop art.

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My illustration style has evolved so much over the years. My style has gone from a Mary Blair-style, Golden Books illustration phase, to a Sailor Jerry, traditional tattoo phase, to even a brief 90s-anime phase. I attribute the frequent style changes to my insatiable curiosity and always wondering what something would look like. Now, I’ve found my niche of combining vintage comics with pop culture, and I love it.

How does it feel to advocate for the queer community?

It feels amazing! I get to create the art I wish I saw as a kid. As a gay, Brown Asian, representation in the media was close to none, so I get to draw people that I identify with, as well as other under-represented communities. It brings me such joy to draw queer and trans people and people of color as superheroes.

What inspires you to create these vibrant and fun illustrations?

I love using color as a storytelling element while paying tribute to the limited-palette comics of the golden age.

How is it being able to team up with Adobe and other queer creatives to tell your story in the Create Change series?

I still can’t believe that actually happened! Out of all the amazing LGBTQ artists, to be invited to discuss art and creativity with Bob the Drag Queen was an amazing and humbling experience. It can feel a little stressful when I think about all the future generations who may see our chat, but I take the responsibility with humility and honor.

What inspires you about the art of drag?

Growing up, I’ve always admired fierce females, so drag is like a super version of that. In addition, as someone with stage and screen experience, strong character design and performance appeals to me very much, so I love seeing drag performers who have a strong character. I also love how drag is always evolving, and I am so happy to see drag kings and AFAB queens get appreciation in media nowadays.

What does Cheynerama’s future look like; do you have anything in the works you can share?

I never know what I’ll be doing next—One minute, I could be illustrating a lunchbox for pop stars like Ariana Grande, and the next, I could be drawing plastic Halloween masks for drag legends like the Boulet Brothers. I’ll just continue to make art and go with the flow! I’m a Scorpio, so as a water sign, I’ve learned to adapt quickly. It’s a wild ride, and I’m enjoying every minute of it!

OFM art

How does it feel to channel your queerness into a creative outlet?

It feels great to be able to be openly queer and highlight other queer people in my art. I think, by celebrating queer culture so openly, it gives LGBTQ people a sense of pride in being represented.

Why do you feel it’s important to highlight queer culture?

We live in an era where there are so many talented queer artists and actors, but they always seem to miss out on big opportunities given to cisgender, heterosexual contemporaries. Until we are afforded the same freedoms and opportunities as them, I think it’s important to shine as we are. So, I use my art to spotlight and celebrate queer people and culture in super ways.

What’s been your monumental moment thus far in your career?

Probably doing a three-story mural for the POW! WOW! Hawaii Festival in 2020. Spending a week on a cherry-picker painting my tribute to queer people of Hawaii was worth it because now it’s on display in a heavily trafficked area and continues to be photographed and talked about.

Where and how can someone purchase an illustration?

I open my online shop occasionally, so signing up for my mailing list is the best way to be notified. I will have a huge booth at DragCon LA in 2022, so I hope people can stop by then.

Low Cost Medical, Dental, & Behavioral Health Make an Appointment Today!

(303) 7STRIDE

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OFM art

Ash + Chess Uplift the Queer Community with Art

by Denny Patterson Photos courtesy of Ash + Chess

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hen Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham met in 2015 on a dating app in Brooklyn, New York, art was just a shared hobby.

Now, they are a queer and trans power couple who run and own the successful stationary company Ash + Chess, which made its debut at the National Stationery Show in May 2017.

“When we first met, Ash was working in textiles back then, and I was a special ed teacher,” Needham recalls. “So, I was completely not involved in this. When she took me to the National Stationery Show, we walked it, and she kept telling me how she wanted to start a stationery company. I was like, ‘Sure, whatever,’ but we actually ended up starting it. I used all my savings to go to the Stationery Show in 2017, and it kind of took off from there.”

Based in Richmond, Virginia, Ash + Chess creates greeting cards and art prints in bold, retro color palettes, and they often use their artwork to make a political statement and to uplift the queer community. Since the company’s inception, more than 600 retailers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia sell their art and stationery.

“We started out selling greeting cards and art prints wholesale to retailers around the country, and we still do that,” Molesso says. “That is around 90 percent of the business. In the years that we’ve been in business, we have also had the opportunities to do books, like we did The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History & Handbook, which came out last year. That was our first publication ever, and we have done cool freelance and collaboration projects with other companies. We recently worked with this California

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company called New Works, and they print bulk fabric of artists’ designs and then make them into a bunch of different clothing items with the same pattern.”

Currently, Molesso and Needham are working on two more publication projects. One is called My Queer Year, which is a guided journal/planner, and the other is a children’s book called ABC-Deconstructing Gender.

The pair also plan to publish their debut tarot deck, Queer Tarot: An Inclusive Deck and Guidebook, in April. Centering and celebrating LGBTQ identity, the classic figures of the Major and Minor Arcana are joyfully reimagined, and each card in the deck is modelled after real LGBTQ people commissioned for this project.

Queer tarot readers will love the nods to queer history and iconography, while beginners will appreciate the deck’s accessibility and illuminating background.

“We designed all 78 cards ourselves,” Molesso says. “We based the imagery off the Rider Waite tarot deck, which is, like, the classic deck. It has gone up and down in popularity, but it is one you see referenced a lot. We took that imagery and reimagined it. We used real-life queer models for each card, and we even put ourselves in the deck. It’s really cool, and we wanted to do it because queer people tend to move towards tarot.”

“Tarot is all about introspection and exploring yourself and the world around you,” Needham adds. “We were like, ‘OK, this is a thing that a lot of queer people naturally kind of connect with—if not tarot, then at least the feelings that it invokes.’ We noticed that the Rider Waite tarot deck was basically depictions of thin, white, presumably cisgender and heterosexual people. We were like, ‘Let’s make it super queer and diverse.’”

Molesso and Needham are often asked what it has been like to navigate the success of Ash + Chess not only as a brand, but as a couple. There are many people out there who would find it difficult to have a working relationship with their significant other.

“Every now and then, we’re like, ‘Let’s stop talking about work,’ but it is still really fun for the most part,” Needham says. “We have been doing it for four years, and it is still fun to think of new projects. We are both open to trying new things, and because we are both really different people, I feel like we push and pull each other in a way that is constantly changing.

It’s fun.”

Moving forward, Molesso and Needham hope to continue making a positive impact on the LGBTQ community through their work.

They hope to soon own their own retail space.

“We recently moved the business out of our house, and it’s done wonders,” Molesso says. “Having that separation of home life and work life, I think, has really made us succeed more because we have been able to focus on work while at work, and then relax at home. It doesn’t wear us out as much.

I would like to expand our studio space and basically get a place that can act as a storefront.”

To connect and stay up-to-date with Ash + Chess, follow them on Instagram @ashandchess and visit their official website, ashandchess.com. outfrontmagazine.com 17

OFM culture

2022 Predictions for

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Culture, Media, and More!

by Keegan Williams

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eehaw, folks: We made it to 2022. And in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic, consistent political turmoil in America, and ever-growing reality that we might be living at the beginning of the end of humanity as a whole, it looks like Y2K fashion is back.

Sarcasm aside, it’s near impossible and truly unhealthy to dwell in the detriment of the human experience all the time, and with the mini-computers we all have in our pockets, it’s easier now than ever to occupy ourselves with an unending stream of media to distract from the ever-present existential dread.

As we creep further into the new Roaring 20s, fully cementing the separation from the Mumford and Sons indie rock, infinity symbol tattoo, mustacheson-everything, cheugy vibes of the 2010s, the 20s are shaping up to be something different entirely.

While I’m not an actual medium and cannot truly predict what’s to come this year, I am a snarky queer with a smartphone and have paid (probably too close of) attention to entertainment and culture news since I was a young child, binging E! and coercing my entire family to fill out and score ballots as we casually watched award shows.

So, in my marginally expert opinion, I offer you all, OFM readers, a look into the future of 2022 culture and media: 1 8 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

Social Media in 2022: How Will Our Favorite Apps Fare?

With all of us increasingly glued to our phones amidst the pandemic strife, we’ve already seen abundant changes in social media (or, arguably, uniform and annoyingly capitalistic shifts, with Facebook introducing stories like Instagram, which were namely first stolen from Snapchat, and Twitter’s attempt to do the same with “Fleets,” which have since retired).

Looking into my crystal ball, see Instagram fading further into the background if it doesn’t make some big moves.

Reels are essentially a TikTok copy-cat feature, the tab often littered with reposted TikTok videos as it is. The interface also shifted last year to favor a focus on shopping, to the distaste of many users.

As the platform also shows how easy it is to add an automatic COVID warning about disinformation, while failing to adopt that same technology for violent, defamatory, or discriminatory content—often targeting BIPOC, trans, and queer folks—along with the persistent targeting of

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OFM culture

sex workers via the terms of service, it often feels like Zuck is pushing people out of the app.

I see TikTok continuing to rise, though they face a similar issue with their censorship of queer, BIPOC, sex work industry creators, among a plethora of other marginalized groups, and reluctance to remove dangerous content that often targets those folks. From the inside, many creators falling under these categories (who have yet to be removed from the platform) are simply waiting for another app that will provide more protection and inclusion for them. t’s only a matter of time before another app emerges and takes TikTok’s crown.

To round out our social media trifecta (I should note that I think Twitter is just going to be Twitter—It’s tried and true, and I see that platform as unmoving), let’s talk Facebook, ahem, Meta.

Given the abundant scandals Zuck and the team have faced recently, the role the platform has played in misinformation, politics, and very real-world effects, along with the weird, VR-based rebrand, to be real, I think it could go one of two ways: The new direction could be a hit, successfully separating the former brand from the bad press and boomer-heavy, misinformation machine it’s grown into; though (and perhaps this is my years-long distaste for the platform speaking), have a hunch Meta/Facebook will crumble. Zuckerberg is already so removed from reality as a billionaire trying to save face over years of neglect and recklessness, and many folks are already seeing through the weird facade of a virtual world, a “Meta world.” Maybe it’s time for the platform to just die, though I wouldn’t be shocked if it finds a way to keep holding on.

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As more of a miscellaneous prediction (or just a personal wish I’m manifesting in print): omething like Myspace—a highlycustomizable, HTML-based friendship website/app—will come back into the forefront. There’s already a platform, Spacehey, which was built as a nostalgia project, fully mirroring the Myspace interface from the mid-2000s. Whether that site takes off, or another one takes hold, the 2000s are alive and well, and I know other depressed millennials and I would relish in the opportunity to jump back onto a similar interface.

The 2000s Renaissance: Eccentric Fashion and the Queens of Yesteryear And that’s what we call a segue, folks.

As I alluded to in the quippy lede of this piece, it’s clear historically that many trends re-emerge after about 20-or-so years, and the 2000s are back in full force.

Especially as Gen Z continues to press forward into their adult years, many of whom are too young to remember those early years of the new millennium, 000s fashion trends will only continue to boom.

That’s right, folks: Expect more low-rise jeans, nets, scarves for no reason, those horrifying, squiggly headbands that push your bangs back—It’s all on the way.

I envision the panned photos of Disney stars on the red carpet in the 2000s, like Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, and their … “eclectic” layering schemes.

Especially from a queer lens, campy fashion is in full force. foresee the smashing together of layers, patterns, and styles becoming increasingly normal in everyday life.

And why not? I, for one, am happy to pair a Backstreet Boys graphic tee

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with Tripp pants and a denim bucket hat.

In the same vein, the “It Girls” of the 2000s are making their return: Lindsay Lohan is acting again, starring in the Netflix holiday rom-com Christmas in Wonderland; Britney is free; JoJo attended her first AMAs since 2004, and Katy Perry has black hair again. It’s all happening! ext year is going to be a test for how much we’ve truly grown as a collective, in regard to some of our famed faves of the 2000s stepping back into the spotlight. If Britney has a misstep following her 13-year conservatorship (which, I’m sure she could—As someone who has been so isolated and is recovering from trauma and mental health struggles, I don’t expect her to be perfect in the public eye by any means), I won’t be shocked if the internet immediately decries her rather than having some empathy for her lived experience, though I hope I’m wrong.

As a person with a similar story, rising above a past of addiction and trauma from her prolonged life in the spotlight from an early age, the same issue could plague Lindsay Lohan. Looking back on the David Letterman interview where he mercilessly berated Lindsay with questions surrounding rehab rather than questions about the film she was promoting, I foresee the public and press being more kind than they were to LiLo in days past, but she has her work cut out for her with how ruthless the public can be.

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I hope for her sake, Lindsay pursues the projects she wants, ignores what anyone else has to say about it, and that the public and media hold themselves accountable for their responses to people like her.

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usical icons of the mid-to-late 2000s could also have a mainstream renaissance. I’m talking Katy Perry, JoJo, Aly and AJ, Nelly Furtado, P!nk, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, and I’m here for it.

We’re living in an age where we’re constantly connecting to the comfort of the past to cope with the present, which will offer the perfect opportunity for some of these iconic musicians to make a mainstream resurgence.

2022 will be a turning point ...

Could we even see Rihanna’s first album since 2016’s ANTI? … Well, OK, probably not.

2022 Movies/TV: Anime is In, the Persistence of Reboots and Remakes, and the Reckoning of Drag Media and Queer Inclusion In a similar tradition, the anime-obsessed high school outcasts of the late 2000s (I get to say that because I was one) are having their moment.

I

predict anime and anime-inspired remakes making a big commotion this year.

Whether it be live-action remakes (see last year’s Cowboy Bebop on Netflix or the long-teased Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot—albeit an American anime—which fans are eagerly awaiting and hoping isn’t a total mess like the last attempt by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010), the embrace of acclaimed faves like Naruto, Bleach, Evangelion, and new classics like Sanrio’s relatable and adorable millennialadjacent tale, Aggretsuko, or the hyper-violent and rich storytelling of Castlevania (do I smell a spinoff series?) is sure to continue moving forward.

Like it or not ...

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eboots, remakes, or sequels aren’t dying any time soon. While I would argue we never needed the Jurassic World franchise to begin with, another release is already slated for 2022; Dune: Part II is coming in 2023, and Eternals continues the highly-successful Marvel lore with a new group of super-human beings (though, at time of publication, Eternals 2 has yet to be greenlit). Oh, also, I guess Avatar 2 is finally coming out, and starting the string of abundant sequels James Cameron has been teasing for more than a decade. (Is anyone still excited about that? Well, in any case, it’s happening, I guess.)

Speaking of Eternals, the film featured an openly gay couple, a first for the Marvel movies.

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he future will hold even more queer and trans representation; it HAS to, even if it’s just big budget studios realizing it’s what the public wants and will garner them profit.

Especially following the success of shows like Pose, and the visibility surrounding the harm of casting cis actors in trans roles (did y’all see that Eddie Redmayne finally admitted years later he shouldn’t have taken his role as a trans woman in The Danish Girl?), the progress is immensely slow-moving, but I

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believe 2022 will be a turning point, showing more actual LGBTQ actors in roles mirroring their real-life identities, along with more stories about LGBTQ people that don’t boil down to the tragedy or detriment of our lived experiences.

(I’m still processing 2020’s Happiest Season, which was essentially Kristen Stewart’s character being emotionally abused, gaslit, and pushed back into the closet for 90 minutes because her partner’s parents are right-of-center.)

In that vein, we’ve gotta talk drag. As the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise seems to be bigger than ever, expanding across country borders with numerous spinoffs and competitors, the move to embrace inclusive, all-gender drag is moving far too slow for my taste (and many other LGBTQ folks).

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his year could be a pivotal time for RPDR, and if they don’t make some sweeping moves toward inclusion, I predict other drag shows will begin to take the spotlight, or at least that Ru will be forced to make space for other shows alongside his.

That could be The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, which has gained a substantial following over four seasons for their inclusion of drag performers spanning all genders and noticeably more raw and gritty frame for the contestants’ looks, or another program could easily swoop in and take the reins.

--I qualify the statements above once more, stating that I was not born with The Gift, and this is surely a collection of ideas based off my own hyper-consumption of media, a thought exercise in what I might like to see as we collectively move forward, and an admission of what we’re bound to see given the capitalism machine and the culture—desperately holding onto nostalgia of the past for comfort—that we all live in.

In any case, let’s press forward into the third year of the 2020s and make this decade whatever we want it to be. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that time is fleeting, and we might as well craft the world and culture we want to see.

As our now-free pop queen Britney Spears so wisely retorted to a fortune teller asking “Do you want me to tell you your future?” in a 2010 ad for her Radiance fragrance: “No thanks; I choose my own destiny.”

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OFM culture

2022 entertainment Movies, Music, and TV

by Ray Manzari

Movies (in order of release date) Moonfall Release Date: February 4

In this sci-fi thriller, a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it.

Marry Me Release Date: February 11

A sweet rom-com starring J-Lo and Owen Wilson follows the love story of two strangers who marry each other during a live performance in front of millions of people.

The Batman As 2022 is shaping up to be another year of political polarization and continued pandemic concerns, it will also be the year of some of the most highly anticipated entertainment we’ve seen in a long time. Here’s a list of movies, albums, and TV series to look out for in the coming year.

Release Date: March 4

Robert Pattinson will star as Batman in this story of crime and corruption in Gotham City while facing off with the infamous villain known as the Riddler.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Release Date: May 6

This highly anticipated film is the result of years’ worth of MCU shows and movies cultivating into the climax of a much larger story.

Top Gun: Maverick Release Date: May 27

After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy's top aviators, Pete Mitchell is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him.

Jurassic World: Dominion Release Date: June 10

The plot of the newest installment of Jurassic World has been kept under wraps; the cast however, includes franchise staples such as Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt, and Daniella Pineda.

Light Year Release Date: June 17

Disney Pixar’s dramatic telling of the story of Toy Story character, Buzz Lightyear, who will be voiced by Chris Evans.

Thor: Love and Thunder Release Date: July 8

The fourth installment in the Thor saga features the return of star Chris Hemsworth, and his adventures with other Marvel star power like Chris Pratt and Natalie Portman.

Killers of the Flower Moon Release Date: TBD

Members of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s sparking a major F.B.I. investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.

Hocus Pocus 2 Release Date: TBD

This highly anticipated sequel to the 1993 cult classic welcomes back its three main stars: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy.

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Albums OFM culture

Most artists have only released dates for albums dropping from now until March, but here’s what to look out for in the first few months of the year.

RuPaul Mamaru January 7

The Lumineers Brightside January 14

Band of Horses Things are Great January 25

Eddie Vedder Earthling February 11

TV Shows

Soft Cell *Happiness Not Included

Much of the highly anticipated shows coming in the new year paint 2022 as a nerd’s paradise. Popular science fiction and fantasy franchises will be getting spinoffs and live-action adaptations.

February 25

Lord of the Rings

February 25

September, 2022, Amazon Prime

Lord of the Rings, the television series, will take place “thousands of years before the events of the Hobbit and the original trilogy,” or during Middle Earth’s second age.

The story follows an ensemble cast of characters as they confront the reemergence of evil to Middle Earth. Production for the show topped $1 billion, making it the most expensive television series ever made.

House of the Dragon

Guns N’ Roses Hard Skool Dolly Parton Run, Rose, Run, March 7

Charli XCX Crash March 18

TBD, HBO Max

Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood series, which is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen. House of the Dragon will aim to repeat its predecessor’s legendary cast with another mostly British roster of recognizable names such as, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, and Rhys Ifans.

Avatar: the Last Airbender August, 2022, Netflix

This live-action adaptation of the incredibly popular animated series aims to right the wrongs of previous live action adaptations which have left fans wondering if the creators had ever seen the source material. Comprised of a mostly Asian cast, Avatar: the Last Airbender will follow the events of the original series, where Aang and his friends try to put a stop to the century-long war that has raged in the absence of the Avatar.

Star Wars: The Acolyte, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Lando and more.

TDB, Disney+

This sci-fi franchise is getting several new series including The Acolyte set 200 years before Episode One: The Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan Kenobi will be getting a similar series starring, of course, Ewan McGregor. In addition, Lando Calrissian will also see a spinoff set to premiere sometime next year. All in all, Disney has announced at least six new series to flesh out the larger franchise. outfrontmagazine.com 23

OFM culture

Reiki HEALING

AND CREATIVE COACHING FOR POSITIVE GROWTH

by Amanda E.K. I’ve lived with chronic anxiety and pelvic pain for more than 20 years and have seen a marked improvement in my symptoms since I started receiving Reiki treatments.

Over the years, I’ve tried several prescriptions and pain relievers, as well as therapy and changes to my diet and exercise—all of which have had their benefits—but I’ve seen the most consistent relief in my pain and anxiety, and a balancing of my emotions, since receiving regular Reiki treatments. For me, Reiki calms my monkey mind and recenters my focus, so that I’m able to show up in life with more energy and be open to any needed perspective shifts.

Reiki—a Japanese word that means “universal life energy”— is an energy healing technique that stimulates the body’s natural healing abilities to manage symptoms, provides a sense of calm and relaxation, and improves your sense of well-being. This past summer, I became a certified Reiki practitioner so that I could continue daily treatments on myself and bring this transformative experience to others who are seeking alternative care, especially those who are ready to dive deeper into self-awareness and participate in their own healing and personal growth.

No matter how well you think you know yourself, there is always something new to discover, and—like so many of our elementary school teachers used to say—knowledge is power.

For example, if you suffer from regular sore throats, this could be a sign of not feeling safe to speak up. Maybe you

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don’t feel safe expressing your thoughts, feelings, or opinions at work, or around family, for fear of being rejected, harassed, or even abused.

In a Reiki healing session, focusing on the energy center at your throat can aid in confidence, clarity, and boundarysetting to help you speak your truth, seek a safe haven, or find a reliable confidant. Reiki energy works with your whole self—mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical—and therefore promotes mindfulness and body awareness to help serve as an energetic reset.

You are worth the time you put into yourself. If you’re feeling stuck, stagnant, ungrounded, or disconnected, that’s a sign that it’s time to clear out the old and make room for the new. Reiki energy can work with any other treatments you may be undergoing, from medication or talk therapy, to surgery, acupuncture, and even chemotherapy; however, it’s important to note that Reiki is not intended to replace the advice and care of medical professionals or therapists. Above all, Reiki can do no harm.

Additional symptoms that Reiki can help treat include headaches, stress, anxiety, depression, aches and pains, low energy, insomnia, and poor mental focus and concentration.

When we address these underlying symptoms, we open up space for following through with the direction we want to take our lives.

My Reiki method can benefit artists and creatives in particular by clearing out creative and energetic blocks and opening

interpret the world and manage our emotions. When we know our Enneagram type, we can grow in self-awareness by observing our behaviors and begin to make more conscious choices rather than let our emotional states dictate our lives.

The Enneagram can also help you gain a better understanding of others’ personalities, giving you more compassion for all people in your life. I help clients assess their type and teach them how to use it to improve their relationships, work, and the way they see and approach the world.

My Creative Coaching practice isn’t your standard coaching experience. Creative Coaching is for the weird ones, the discontent, the highly sensitive and the ones who want to always evolve. I’m looking for folx to work with who are ready to put their trust in a wandering redhead and be led into new inner dimensions. Let’s learn how to enjoy the process without judging the outcome.

I offer 60-90 minute, one-on-one coaching sessions to help you identify, set, and work toward personal and creative goals with guided exercises, discussion and accountability.

My Creative Coaching is a combination of the above listed modalities, as well as narrative guidance and idea development on any projects you may be working on.

You get to choose the path we take. Reiki sessions can last between 30-120 minutes. I offer in-person sessions in Denver, and virtual and phone sessions for all.

For more information and to book a session, you can check out the COACHING/REIKI page on my website at amandaekwriter.com. You may also DM me on Instagram @ amanda.ek.writer. Mention this article and receive 50 percent off your first coaching or Reiki session.

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mental, emotional, and spiritual pathways to enhance your imagination and refocus your artistic direction.

In my Creative Coaching practice, as well as my Reiki practice, I use a variety of modalities to help clients return to their center and take charge of their own healing and growth and learn to rely on their own innate knowing about what’s best for them.

One of the modalities I use in my practice is dreamwork.

Our dreams offer boundless creative inspiration and opportunities for tapping into our intuition to help us explore new avenues of thought and self-awareness. I help clients improve their dream recall and work with them to analyze their dream symbols to unearth ideas and creative solutions already within them. Dreamwork can be the sole focus during a coaching session, or it can be incorporated into any of my other modalities. For example, dreams have the potential to reveal internal blocks that Reiki energy can help clear out.

Another modality I use in my practice is synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a blending of the senses that can translate music into shapes and colors, or (among many other crosssensory experiences) create bodily vibrations that are triggered by visual or sound stimuli. As a synesthete myself, I use exercises based on the synesthetic experience to help bridge connections among your senses to enhance your energetic reset by strengthening your abstract thinking and clarity of expression. These exercises may also reduce stress and anxiety, and promote focus, and can be incorporated into Reiki healing sessions.

A third modality I bring to my coaching practice is the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a personality typing system (similar to Myers-Briggs) that reveals patterns in how we

outfrontmagazine.com 25

Good Judy Garage

OFM culture

Englewood’s

Promotes Safety, Openness, and Inclusion

V

by Keegan Williams

ery few people feel excitement surrounding the prospect of car maintenance. For many LGBTQ people especially, visiting a mechanic also comes with a certain anxiety, as the auto industry is a traditionally cisheteronormative, masculine industry, and the same often holds true for queer folks working in the industry.

CC (she/they) and Faith Haug (she/her) recognize these truths, which eventually led them to consider a new idea: a queer-owned-and-op erated automotive service and repair shop where all are welcome.

Photos by D. Fritz, River and Root Photography

Thus, Good Judy Garage was born, the name referring to icon Judy Garland, a well-known supporter of the LGBTQ community in her time, and referencing that the shop is a safe and trustful space.

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“It was over the summer, and I don’t even remember exactly how the conversation came up,” Faith says. “It was something like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was a shop that people of all orientations or presentations can feel comfortable at? There isn’t anything like that.’ It was kind of born in the garage of our home over the summer, and we just decided, that’s the trajectory where we’re going to take it.”

The duo are also married, with Faith taking control of the business element as the director of development, while Owner and Primary Operator CC handles the more handson work. Faith has more than 10 years of experience in funeral service and just finished her Master of Business Administration degree.

CC has an extensive background working on cars since she was 12 years old, and they eventually moved to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering after high school. She is also genderqueer and trans, which wasn’t always a great fit within the industry they worked.

“I always was in a position where there were a lot of people around that weren’t OK with those kinds of things,” CC says.

“So, I felt like I would have to give up my love for cars, and automobilia, and that type of stuff, in order to transition. The conflict internally of those two things is kind of what led us to this idea and pursue Good Judy.”

The shop is located in Englewood, and the pair expressed that finding a location was a struggle, “especially in Denver, as expensive as it is, so that was a frustration for us, finding the right place,” Faith says. They leased the space in October, and it was a hustle until their opening in mid-December, ensuring they had the proper equipment and planning in place to start up shop.

Prior to opening, they launched Good Judy’s Instagram page, and immediately the community responded, even though they hadn’t even opened their doors.

“It was interesting how many people reached out to us and said that they were hesitant to get their stuff worked on because they didn’t want to deal with traditional auto shops, just how excited they were to have that option,” Faith says.

“It’s something that you’re already having to do that you don’t want to, let alone worrying how you’re going to be treated, or how you have to perform differently than you really are.”

CC attests to this and adds it holds true inside the industry as well. They have witnessed colleagues in the industry that have had to hide parts of themselves as well to fit in with the “bro-club attitude” which is often abundant in auto repair shops. She said that, after they announced Good Judy, many of those peers reached out with support and positivity, even opening up about things they had kept buried for years.

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“

I felt like I would have to give up my love for cars and automobilia in order to transition. is as good as any work that you’re going to get at any shop anywhere, without having to put up with all that.”

The couple hope to expand into the unit next door, which will open up an additional three bays for Good Judy. While they are focusing on mechanical work, CC and Faith said in the future, they would like to look into a partner shop that focuses more on paint and bodywork.

Good Judy will also have a waiting area, where they plan to highlight local artists and begin expanding out into the greater Denver community. The pair are already networking with other businesses in Denver who are involved in charity work and looking at options to partner with upcoming events moving forward.

“Eventually, the goal is, as we expand, obviously, to be an employer for people that is respectful, makes them feel comfortable being themselves, however they identify, and to just tie all that together,” CC says.

Until then, both CC and Faith excitedly press on in their new endeavor, which started as a simple idea and has grown into something exceeding both of their expectations.

“I’m looking forward to having fun with it,” CC adds. “That was one of the whole points of doing it, to have a place where we could enjoy being ourselves, and other people can do the same.”

Good Judy Garage is open for business at 1865 W. Union, Unit M in Englewood. Find them on Instagram @goodjudygarage and at goodjudygarage.com.

“We’re trying to make a positive difference in that kind of way,” CC says. “It’s something we talked about, doing it as, like, ‘If we’re going to open this business, we really have to commit to this and do it right because anything less than that is basically unethical.’”

Part of that conversation is also ensuring that there is an openness with customers when sharing information, who might want to get a closer look under the hood, so to speak.

T a k e

t h e

r e d

p i l l .

CC references that folks in the industry sometimes talk down to people who don’t have the same knowledge or context to understand the technical aspects of the job. When any person might be curious to learn more about the work CC does, she asserts there is an opportunity to expand and teach.

And while the couple strive to ensure Good Judy is a comfortable place, steering clear of those more harmful attitudes, CC says, “On the other side of that, the work we do

w w w . c h r i s t o p h e r l a f l e u r a r t s . c o m

outfrontmagazine.com 27

OFM culture

House of

Is Your Go-To for Spiritual Wellness

A

by Denny Patterson

s a Latinx LGBTQ couple, Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas know the crushing weight of judgments and discrimination more than most, but they also know the power of recognizing one’s own worth and potential.

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Photos by Holland Clement

Intuition

show people that this is OK and not taboo or evil, teach people that you can tap into your own intuition.’”

“We were both in the real estate industry, and when the market crashed around 2007 to 2008, we practically lost everything,” Vargas explains. “With that devastation, it threw us both into a depression. Being an entrepreneur, it is hard to go back into the workforce, especially when you’re so used to working for yourself. So, Alex and I went to our faith.”

House of Intuition now has nine locations in the greater Los Angeles area and one out-of-state store in Miami.

At the time, Naranjo was already practicing candle magic, vision boarding, and working with the moon’s energy.

Coming from a small family in Colombia and growing up in a religious practice, she realized she no longer felt comfortable going to church settings after coming out as LGBTQ. “I started to dabble into other forms of faith, which includes creating a temple in my own home, talking to God myself, and working with prayer through candle magic,” she says.

Vargas admits she feared her partner’s religious practices at first.

“I was scared, but I pushed it aside because I felt that Alex was a good person,” she says. “She didn’t feel evil; she didn’t feel bad, and she wasn’t using things like snake skulls or bones. She was doing money jars and honey jars, and I began to see that this stuff would actually work. So, that was an eye opener for me, and that was what moved me into practicing.

When I started practicing with herbs and candles, I started to feel a connection to ancestral stuff. I no longer felt alone in this turmoil of depression. I felt more connected with the people who have passed over, and I felt like I had this army of people helping me get out of this space that we were in.”

Working and raising money by any means necessary, Naranjo and Vargas eventually toyed around with the idea of opening a spiritual detox center after Vargas went to a tarot card reading.

“I remember being very closed off,” she recalls. “I went there with my arms crossed like, ‘I’m not letting her into my energy field. I don’t want her to know anything about me. I want her to tell me things.’ When she flipped those cards, she literally laid out my life. Like, how could she know this information?

Then it made me feel like, you’re not special. Why would you have a special gift and nobody else on the planet has it? I believe that our God gave us our intuition, and I believe that he lives within us. If we really seek deep down, we will hear the voices that come through. We chalk them off as a coincidence, and we kind of talk ourselves out of our own internal guidance, and she picked that up.”

The power of intuition and spiritual competency not only helped with Naranjo and Vargas’ finances and personal wellbeing, but their relationship with each other continued to grow and blossom. Their business efforts created a thriving national brand of spiritual health and wellness.

OFM culture

In 2010, they founded House of Intuition, a spiritual wellness brand and metaphysical oasis dedicated to enlightening, empowering, and uplifting those who feel hopeless and lost. Experiencing their fair share of heartache and struggle, Naranjo and Vargas chose not to lose themselves to the ashes of despair, but rather rise from the ruins and create a life of beauty and inspiration.

“I want to open a location in every single state in the U.S.,” Vargas says. “That is my goal. I’m going to set that intention out, and that’s where we’re going. We had some really good results in Miami, so I think we are going to pop up a second store there soon.”

In addition to the several metaphysical services, House of Intuition boasts an array of magical items such as handpicked crystals, all-natural herbs, and dressed magic candles, which Vargas says is one of their top-selling items.

“Even if you are religious, they’re not so scary because there are a lot of temples and churches that already burn candles,” she explains. “Those are our best-sellers, and also the best results. We have a lot of great reviews, and I believe in our magic candles so much. Not just because we make them, but also because people have set the intention. It’s really their work that is creating the magic to happen. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, then it’s not going to happen for you. I can’t make you a magic candle and say everything’s going to go away because it doesn’t work that way.”

On December 28, Naranjo and Vargas launched their new highly anticipated book, Your Intuition Led You Here, where they share their journey from heartache to healing and outline actionable tips to invite intuition and real-life magic into everyday life.

Their story is one of determination and inspiration, and they are eager to share it with the world.

“The book really tells our story,” Vargas says. “Additionally, I hope it empowers people to dig within and really be guided by themselves. They don’t have to seek outside to find that feeling of empowerment and strength.”

“We also have a journal and tarot deck that we’re working on,” Naranjo adds. “Those are some other goals we hope to complete.”

Long-term, Naranjo and Vargas hope to make House of Intuition a household name.

That’s what threw the couple into wanting to know more about the mysticism of esoteric.

“I want people to feel safe and know that they have a sacred and safe space to be able to practice their religion and craft,” Vargas says. “They shouldn’t feel intimidated by walking into a store that has different practices within it. We are all inclusive, and we want people to focus on themselves and really grow and practice that music of intuition.”

“We wanted to share this experience with other people,” Naranjo says. “This experience of how you don’t have to box yourself into one spiritual practice. You can take from different things and really create your own. We were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a place where we can guide and

Stay up-to-date and connect with House of Intuition by visiting their official website at houseofintuitionla.com or follow the brand on Facebook @houseofintuitionla and Instagram @houseofintuition. Your Intuition Led You Here is now available on Amazon and all other major book retailers. outfrontmagazine.com 29

OFM culture

The Witches Mountain Spellwork to Embrace the Magick Within Oneself

“

Magick— it just feels like home.

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by Keegan Williams

agick is everywhere, and no, we’re not talking about top-hatted, wand-bearing entertainers pulling rabbits out of hats.

Lexus Williams (she/they), Denver-based owner and operator of the online shop The Witches Mountain, has held a sense of mysticism and spirituality about her since she was young. Growing up close to her Romani heritage, superstitions were abundant, and she internalized that essence early on.

“It’s always been around, and I’ve always been the one my family asked for advice from, or even a cleansing walking into a house, like, ‘Alright, Lexus, how do you feel?’” they recall.

While magick (sometimes spelled with a “k” to denote the distinction between the entertainment act) and that additional receptiveness to the world around her was always present, it wasn’t something she thought to pursue in a broader, public sense until she moved into an old house, built in the early 60s, that carried a family history.

They describe an overwhelming feeling, a truly deep connection to the house, which compelled her to reach out to that feeling, harnessing it, and using intention to focus in on it.

Photos courtesy of Lexus Williams

From there, they naturally began to make herbal spell jars to establish a deeper connection. It started as a personal exercise to become closer to the energy in the house, though their friends began to take notice of the impact of magick in her life and began reaching out.

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“I had a friend lose her father, so she asked me for something that’ll kind of help her with remembrance and grief,” they say. “So, I started making things like that, and they were working really well. Then, they would tell their friends, and they asked me if they could pay me and I could do certain things for them, like an herbal spell jar or a ceremony candle.”

It took off from there, and Williams says, not only did she immediately love exploring magick further and helping people, they recognized, “I’m good at this. Like, let’s effin’ do it.”

Williams bought a candle from New Orleans—a success candle—and immediately felt connected to it, recognizing how treasured these practices are to this culture she was just passing through. While her candles are herb-based, and she indicates, “This isn’t normally a Romani Catholic type of spellwork,” using a variety of self-taught focuses, she harps on ensuring her magick is authentic and true to her practice.

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“It was an amazing experience, a sad experience, but one I’m really glad that I spent the time to learn about. I went to a magick and voodoo shop down there, where I saw the ceremony candles, talked to the owners, and did my own personal research.”

They recognize, in items that are meant to help people through their personal lives and strife, approaching this craft with the right intention is crucial.

The venture is fairly recent, with Williams deciding on the name The Witches Mountain just about five months back.

She is pleasantly surprised with the reception she’s received, especially around the holidays, which sometimes come with attitudes around magick as sacreligious or corrupt.

“It’s been great informing people and giving that knowledge of energy and intention, focusing with manifestation, and things like that, because I think everybody has a very strong connection to manifesting their own destiny,” they say. “It’s just about the intention and the focus on it.”

While Williams is always thrilled to dish about her practice with other witchy folks who stumble upon her booth, she says her audience so far has been a variety of people, across the board.

“I have some moms come to my booth, and they’re like, ‘So I don’t really know what all of this is about, but my little girl is on WitchTok,’” she laughs, referencing a niche corner of TikTok focusing on modern witchcraft and magick. Though, she notes that, regardless of how immersed folks are, many resonate with her intentions and spellwork.

Along with her spell jars, like “inspiration,” “luck,” “wealth,” self-love,” to name a few, Williams notes that folks are especially drawn to her ceremony candles, which burn for about four to five days and prompt the user to build a relationship with it, drawing upon what they want as an outcome from the candle as it burns. “It really interests a lot of people,” they say.

“I’m always trying to stay as culturally sensitive as possible, explaining what inspires me, in what cultures, because I think the beauty of humanity is that you can learn something from everyone,” she says. “That’s really what I take into my practice and spellwork.”

When asked what magick means to her, Williams stops dead in their tracks, clearly pondering the myriad things that she could say.

“Magick—it just feels like home,” they say. “It’s like your best imaginary friend when you were little, just having that always with you, and by no means is it imaginary … It’s like goosebumps. It’s just around you all the time. When I practice and I’m helping people, I feel such a great sense of, like, I’m helping myself. It’s just a sense of comfort and home, like, you’re here.”

Williams looks forward to the future of The Witches Mountain and hopes her practice and products continue to help people, though they note, “I’m really open to any way the wind blows. I’m not gonna fight it or force it. I’m just gonna go along for the ride.”

For more magick from The Witches Mountain, find them on Etsy at etsy.com/shop/thewitchesmountain and Instagram @thewitchesmountain.

Magick also has a very rich history of practices, spanning different cultures and sometimes leading to conversations around appropriation. Williams stays away from white sage for example, as using it sourced from non-Native folks is considered appropriative and can cause environmental harm.

They recognize that the idea of appropriation in their magick leaves a horrible taste in their mouth, and look to other voices and perspectives to inspire her practice without directly taking from them. Williams references a trip to New Orleans, where she was able to dive into the history of voodoo, why it came to be from the Haitians, and how it’s really immersed in the history of slavery. outfrontmagazine.com 31

OFM culture

Q

UEERING

An Interview with the Founder of Journey Press

S

S

CI-FI

cience fiction explores the extraordinary, the fantastical ideas that reach beyond the scope of our lived experience and universe. As readers dive into these out-of-this-world stories, that’s not to say that LGBTQ folks and all kinds of people don’t want to see themselves represented within the pages

I had the opportunity to chat with Gideon Marcus, founder of Journey Press and author of the Kitra series. We chatted about the founding of the press, making it through the pandemic, and the importance of sci-fi.

Why did you start Journey Press, and why was that important for you to do so?

Journey Press was the natural outgrowth of Galactic Journey.

Galactic Journey is where we all live in the past and live day by day, writing about science fiction, culture, the space race, politics, race relations, and marginalized people as if we lived 55 years ago. We’re basically spotlighting today and are living contextually then.

by Brian Aragon-Shafi Byrdsong Photo courtesy of Gideon Marcus 3 2 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

We started that project in “1958,” which is 2013 for normal people. We very quickly discovered a couple things: One, it was harder to find marginalized characters; queer characters almost didn’t exist. Two, female characters were hard to find who were well realized, and female authors were hard to find, but they did exist. About 10 percent of all those stories we were reading were written by women, and they wrote about 25 percent of what was worth reading. We decided that these days, it’s not that hard to start a press, so why don’t we just start a press?

more about Pinky because Kitra’s going to be 10 books long.

So, my favorite part about writing Sirena was getting to have some interesting critical scenes exploring Pinky.

So we republished I Want the Stars, which originally came out in 1964, by Tom Purdom. I Want the Stars was a revelation.

It was the first book I had ever read that portrayed a homosexual couple without judgment, without negativity.

And I was like, “Wow, 1964!”

Lots of people discovered the joy of science fiction in this past year particularly. What advice would you have for any aspiring sci-fi writers who will read this interview?

Yeah, that’s a lot earlier than I would have assumed, the first one that portrayed queer relationships in a positive way.

So, last year, we decided “screw it” and came out with a gay press, because that’s essentially what we are. We’re more gay than anything else, but we want to appeal to everyone because we just write really great science fiction and publish really great stuff.

So, how was it running Journey Press during the height of the pandemic? For lack of a better word, how was that Journey?

It was challenging but rewarding. It started with the launch of Kitra. It did surprisingly well, and I think it did well because it’s a book about five young adults trapped on a spaceship far from home, and I think everyone could identify with that isolated feeling. We didn’t plan it that way, but it was nice that it was resonant, and it was the feel-good book that people needed at the right time.

It was challenging, particularly because we chose a bookstoreheavy strategy, which is unusual for small presses these days.

Ninety percent of our sales are through bookstores. We chose that because one of my favorite things is meeting booksellers.

I love talking to people who are interested and like getting other people turned on to it. So, when all the bookstores were closed during lockdown, it was an interesting time, but we held through it, and we did pretty well. Now we can do bookstore shows again, and we’re going to the ABA Winter Conference in Cincinnati in February. So, it was hard, but it was kind of nice working in hard mode, because now easy mode feels that much easier.

What was your favorite part about writing Sirena, the follow-up to Kitra?

One of the main characters of Kitra is Pinky, and Pinky is an alien. On the surface, he’s just a pun-cracking, fart-joke-liking, dad-humor kind of character. But there was a suggestion that there was more underneath. I’d always planned to write

The other thing I liked is, obviously the book is called Sirena, not Kitra, and Kitra is still the star, but Sirena is the new character I introduced for it. Sirena is near and dear to my heart. One is that Sirena is of Mexican extraction, and I grew up on the border, so they say write what you know. And the other is she’s in the futuristic equivalent of a wheelchair, and it’s just a part of her character for a lot of reasons. A lot of people said that they appreciated having a character with accessibility issues because that’s something that often gets glossed over. Her having accessibility issues ends up being some of the pivotal parts of the book and part of the reason why she does so well, so that was exciting.

OFM culture

That’s how we came out with Rediscovery: Science Fiction

by Women. It covered the years that we had covered in (Galactic) Journey thus far. That book was a huge success.

It’s still going, still getting into college libraries … and we’re coming out with a sequel next year. It was honestly bigger than I expected. We’ve been releasing a bunch of old classics that had not seen the light of day in a while and works by new authors, and we discovered that we had something of a trend in what we were doing. I’m queer; my wife is queer; pretty much everyone on staff is queer in some flavor or another, and a lot of the books we were publishing had queer themes.

The Kitra Saga stars a queer protagonist of color, and it’s pretty much going to come out that everyone in the crew is queer in some way or another, and that’s just an aspirational future.

A lot of people give the advice to chase the trend; find out what’s popular now, and do that thing. I can say, don’t do that thing for a number of reasons. One, booksellers are getting sick of the same old stuff. When I called booksellers and said, “Hey, you’ll like Kitra because it’s not a grim, dark, dystopian YA” they all laughed and gave me a sigh of relief.

Ultimately, writing is about doing the thing that you enjoy the most; it’s about getting your passion on paper because that’s what’s infectious. So, whatever type of science-fiction you want to write … do that.

What does science fiction mean to you personally? How has sci-fi impacted your life?

Science fiction is my favorite genre because it can encompass any other genre. Science fiction provides the cautionary tale that determines what kind of futures we want to avoid.

Science fiction gives us the aspirational futures that show us what we want to achieve. One of my favorite things about science fiction is, you can see the world that you want to perceive in it. One of the things I love in I Want the Stars and The Kitra Saga is they posit these futures. They’re not perfect; they’re not flawless, but they have a lot of things that they take for granted that you aren’t taking for granted like lack of racism or lack of gender discrimination. And that’s hard to write in something contemporary.

Is there anything else you would like to mention?

(Science fiction is) a genre that is underserved, that we are trying to carve out the niche is the intersection of science fiction and fantasy and romance. In terms of gay science fiction with an emphasis on the romance … that’s not easy to find. We released The Eighth Key, which is a fantasy with a beautifully realized world, but it is also a steamy gay romance. In December, we are releasing a book called At First Contact … a trilogy of novella-length stories, all of which have a speculative theme, but they’re also romances.

We want gay couples to be normalized for romance, but we also really like science fiction, so let’s put them together.

You can find our books pretty much anywhere, and you can find us online at galacticjourney.com and journeypress.com. outfrontmagazine.com 33

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Photos by Matt Misisco

OFM culture

F ortune

OFM culture

NOTHING BUT LAUGHS AND GOOD VIBES

by Denny Patterson

“I tend to find the bright side of things with my stories.”

W

e may be moving into a post-COVID world, but there is still plenty of concern as to what the new year may bring. Always looking for some form of escapism, nothing can achieve that better than the power of laughter.

Fortune Feimster has us covered in that department.

A standup comedian, writer, and actor, Feimster is the true definition of a triple threat. The North Carolina-bornand-raised talent made her television debut on Last Comic Standing and then became known as a writer and panelist on E!’s hit show Chelsea Lately. She has gone on to collaborate with some of the industry’s greatest talents and is currently on her highly anticipated 2 Sweet 2 Salty comedy tour.

Scheduled for two performances on March 11 at Denver’s Paramount Theatre, 2 Sweet 2 Salty comes off the heels of her successful one-hour standup special Sweet & Salty, which premiered on Netflix last year. The special garnered her a nomination for “Best Comedy Special” for the 2021 Critics’ Choice Awards, and Decider ranked it as number four on their “10 Best Stand-Up Comedy Specials of 2020.”

Feimster took some time to chat more about the show and her style of comedy with OFM, as well as being an out woman in Hollywood, contributing to the visibility of queer comedians on stage and screen, and her new role in the upcoming second season of NBC’s comedy Kenan.

F

Let me begin by asking, what are you looking forward to the most about 2022?

Oh, man. I am just looking forward to trying to get as far away from COVID times as possible (laughs). Every time we think we’re in the clear, they’re like, “A variant!” You’re like, “No!” I hope we keep moving in the direction towards getting past all this craziness and being happy and healthy, and I’m touring a ton, so I am looking forward to all that.

Yes, you will perform your 2 Sweet 2 Salty tour at the Paramount Theatre in March. We are so excited to have you come to Denver. What can audiences expect? Will it be anything like your Sweet & Salty Netflix special?

It’s all new material, so it’s nothing like Sweet & Salty. We may even shift into a new name for this tour at some point because it is so different. Still in the same vein of storytelling and taking people on a journey of my life, but this sort of picks up at a later part. The more adult part of my life. Sweet & Salty was very much about me growing up and figuring out who I was. Now I know who I am, and it might be a little different than what people think. It’s just sharing a different side of me.

What do you hope audiences take away from your style of comedy?

I try to lead with very positive, silly type of things. I want people to feel good when they come to a show, and I hope they leave feeling better than when they got there. That is always the goal. I tend to find the bright side of things with my stories. I explore things that have happened to me that might have been sad at the time, but I have found a way to find the humor in it. For me, it’s all about just making people feel good and laugh. Occasionally, things may have a deeper meaning, but I want to send out the positive vibe more.

eimster outfrontmagazine.com 35

OFM culture

The pandemic provided a lot of new opportunities for performing artists, but I can imagine it may have been different for comedians.

How did you adapt and navigate when live performances stopped?

That was a pretty jarring thing for any live performer because we had not faced that before. Even when times were crazy or awful things were going on in the world, we always had performance. We always looked to entertainers to ease that burden or make us feel better, and this was the first time we just could not do our job. I think everybody, for a little bit, just sort of licked their wounds and stayed at home like everybody else.

We were sad, nervous, and scared on top of trying to stay safe and healthy.

That was the focus for a long time, so I kind of shut it down and just allowed myself to be a human who didn’t have to be the one to solve everything.

After a while, I started getting back into doing virtual shows and other performances. At the end of the day, you are a performer. It always calls you back because it’s a part of who you are. You’re like, “I need to get to the stage!” So, it was a challenging time to figure out how to still do our jobs, and we did it in a lot of creative ways, but nothing beats being in front of people and hearing them laugh.

As a comedian, do you believe there are certain topics that should never be joked about?

That’s such a tricky one for me to answer because, personally, I don’t talk about a lot of current events and whatnot because I am such a storyteller. I never know where that line is or what should and shouldn’t be crossed. I tend to just be like, here’s what happened to me, and here’s the story of that. So, I am still figuring that out myself. When I watch standup and see some people go to certain places, I am sometimes surprised. I think the line moves a lot, so I’m not sure.

You came out before you started your comedy career?

They kind of coincided with each other. I started comedy in 2005, and that was also the year I came out. It was like a double whammy of finally realizing who I was. I came to terms with that, and it was a very freeing thing. That allowed me to be in a space to start something like comedy.

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LA and interview a lot of people, kind of like this, and that helped me learn a lot about the business from a different angle. It helped me realize that I am a writer because I never fancied myself as one.

Once I became a comedian, I certainly didn’t realize how much writing went into being a comedian. Like, 70 percent of our job is writing. As I’ve gone through the business, I started writing scripts, and I’ve sold two scripted sitcoms. One’s been shot; the other hasn’t. I also sold a non-scripted show, and I sold two movies to Steven Spielberg’s company that we’re still trying to figure out, and it’s awesome. I love to write because I can write characters for myself and write to my strengths.

The biggest hurdle is getting something made! So, the next goal, I have three very funny movies that I love, and I would be thrilled to make any one of them. Because I wrote it and was a co-writer with some of my friends, it does play to all my strengths. If I could have the opportunity to showcase that one day, that would be a dream come true.

We can expect to see you in the new season of Kenan playing Pam Fox. What was that experience like, and can you tell us more about your character?

Oh, man, that show is so fun. I have adored Kenan from day one of meeting him. Everybody says the same thing about him, but it’s true. He is truly the nicest guy. Not just within the business, but as a human. He is so easygoing, and I would go to that set every day smiling. The other costars are wonderful people, and you can’t always say that out here, so I am very grateful to be a part of it. It’s a job that sort of fell in my lap during the pandemic, which doesn’t happen often either. Right away, they were so happy to have me and very collaborative.

I’m just a recurring cast member, and for them to put so much time into my character is awesome. Pam is a news anchor who does the sports on Kenan’s show. The sitcom is partly him being a widower and raising two little girls, then the other part is him being on a morning news show. I’m his coworker, and Pam is very brash and likes to talk about herself in third person. She is always stirring things up in the office, but she’s fun. I get to say really wacky, silly things.

What's new with your Sincerely Fortune podcast?

New episodes go up every week. We talk with different friends of mine in the business, my mom is on it a lot, my wife does it with me and edits it, so it is very much a family podcast. We have sort of peeled back a bit of our lives, and people feel like they’re a part of our world because we’re sitting at home and chatting with people about work and life.

People also get to learn about a different part of me.

My characters and comedy are very silly and out there, but I don’t shy away from the more real conversations.

It’s like getting to know the person behind the comedy, and I like having that outlet where I can connect with people in a more intimate way.

Stay up-to-date and connect with Feimster by following her on Facebook and Twitter @fortunefunny, Instagram @fortunefeimster, or visit her official website, fortunefeimster.com.

OFM culture

When you feel free, that’s usually when comedy comes out of you the most. Nothing is holding you back. I think it was no coincidence that those two things happened at the same time.

Is it true that you realized you were gay by watching a Lifetime movie?

(Laughs) It is! There were moments and different periods of my life where in the back of my head, something was there, that my attractions weren’t the same as my friends, but you just push it down and push it down.

You don’t really think about it, especially when you’re growing up in the South—small town, small college—it was very scary back then. I didn’t know any gay people; I didn’t have any examples of gay people, and when I moved to LA, I started seeing gay people, and it opened my eyes. Seeing people live their lives and be happy.

Seeing that movie was what made me say out loud for the first time, “I’m gay.”

Have you faced any challenges being an out woman in the entertainment industry?

You never know why you don’t get hired for certain things. There are so many things about you that Hollywood can say no to, and even straight people get a lot of rejection. I don’t know if being out has affected me in certain ways based on a job, but I have been pretty lucky that audiences have been kind for the most part since I started my career. My first gig was with Last Comic Standing in 2010, and I do think a lot of comics that have come before me opened those doors and paved the way for me to be out and it be OK. I have been incredibly lucky in that regard.

There was a long time where you couldn’t be out and be a professional comedian or entertainer because it was a career ruiner, as we’ve seen. I am living in a time where it has become more acceptable. Besides, when you see me, you kind of know right away that I’m gay (laughs).

Even if I put a dress on, it’s not something I can hide.

You just have to embrace who you are and hope that people accept you for you. I’ve been lucky that I’ve had that for a good portion of my career.

And you have now become a beloved LGBTQ icon.

Oh, wow! I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word icon.

That’s pretty incredible.

Trust me, you are!

I never set out to be any particular thing. I set out to make a living doing the thing I love, which is comedy. In the process of that, people begin to pay more attention to you and your life, and my goal is to always just be me.

Hopefully, people resonate with that. If being myself is any sort of positive influence to other gay people, I love that, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I want to be a good example, and that is such an honor. It’s a byproduct of trying to make people laugh, and I am so grateful.

Many people don't realize that you are also a writer and used to be an entertainment journalist. What can you tell us about some of the shows you are currently co-writing?

I have been writing my whole career. It’s just that when you are a writer, a lot of it’s behind the scenes, so people don’t really know that you’re doing it. My day job while pursuing comedy was a journalist. I was a journalist for almost seven years, and I would cover a lot of events in

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Photo courtesy of Mars Wright

OFM culture

O

ne of the best pieces of advice I received while still deep within the confines of the Trans Guy Closet was from a piece of art I found online: “I will no longer let my trauma from cis men stop me from embracing my masculinity.” The piece was created by Mars Wright—artist, clothing designer, and champion of trans joy. He was the first transmasculine person I found online that mirrored my own struggle with masculinity, whose euphoria came from his transness, specifically, rather than being seen as cis.

I couldn’t wait to sit down with him to hear more of his story and how he came to design the clothes he does now.

“My art looks the exact same way as it did when I was drawing at 5,” he says, laughing. “I mean, I went to art school, but I just kept it the same. All of it’s about beauty and imperfection, right? The whole point of my art, I think, is to showcase that it can be beautiful, even though it’s definitely not perfect. It’s purposely not perfect.”

Wright’s big turning point was around the time he first moved out to LA. With only $10 in his bank account and no idea how he would pay for food, Mars found himself at the post office, where he snatched a bunch of to-and-from stickers and got to work. “For 10 days straight, I drew 10 of them a day, and I did 100, and I filmed the entire process.

And then I was like, ‘I’m gonna sell them in 10 days; everybody get excited.’”

And people were excited. So excited, in fact, that Wright’s work sold out within 30 minutes.

“I was like, ‘This is a real thing only remedy that I’ve personally found in that I could do with my life.’ I got my life is to just experience joy, because at on Shopify, and I started really the end of the day, all that is, is (society) thinking about marketing. I’m lucky trying to tell me that I don’t deserve to enough to have also gotten a job at a take up space or exist. And trans joy is marketing agency at the same time, taking up space. Trans joy is existing so I’m kind of taking everything that exactly as who you are.”

I learned from my 9-to-5 and just A portion of Wright’s proceeds goes bringing it into my brand.” directly to the Black, trans community Several of Wright’s pieces are through the Unique Woman’s Coalition, dedicated to trans joy, with a focus as stated on his website, marswright.com. on trans resistance through euphoria “Oh my God, my favorite!” he says. “The rather than dysphoria. “I think the Unique Woman’s Coalition is one of the narrative has shifted towards this: longest Black-led, trans organizations in I can tell that I’m trans because of Los Angeles, and it’s part of this larger the joy and the euphoria I feel when network of trans community in LA that people see me for who I am. I don’t has been like home to me. Every time want people to think I’m anything I go to an event hosted by them, I’m in but a trans man. I have trans joy tears—I’m laughing; I’m feeling that level from being a trans man, and I think of community. Chela and Queen Victoria that trans joy resistance is a really are, like, I mean, fully just everything to important part of me. me. They’re huge, huge inspirations, and I love everything they do.”

“I’m not forgetting the pain, the way society’s treated me and the laundry During our conversation, I confessed to list of things we all know, but the Mars that, while closeted, I used to sneak

Mars Wright on

TRANS MASCULINITY

3 8 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

by Samuel Clark

photos of shirts or even bumper stickers that were trans-friendly. It made me feel hopeful, less alone.

“That’s specifically why I chose to put that message on clothes,” he says. “I want people to know that they don’t have to be trans or queer to wear my art. My art’s for everybody. But really, I wanted to be able to get these meanings and messages out to be seen by as many people as possible.

I want people to have conversations because of my clothes. That’s always been the goal, to have conversations and talk about things. And for people to feel less alone.”

Since it is winter here in Colorado, I recently bought a hoodie from Mars’ clothing line, one that says “Trans Joy is Resistance” on the back. I hope that, like me, someone reads the message and feels less alone. I hope that, one day—when they’re out of the closet and thriving—they’re able to wear Wright’s hoodie, too.

TAROT FORECAST

OFM culture

Community

for 2022

by Alanna L.P.

Hi everyone, You may not believe this, but 2022 is going to be a lot of fun. The tarot card for the year is the Sun. It features a naked baby riding on the back of a white horse in the sunshine. “Behold! A pale horse!”—a naked baby’s ass!

But all jokes aside, if you choose to have a good year, it will be a good year. Just because the world has changed doesn’t mean we can’t find things to enjoy in our lives. The numerology for the upcoming year is six. A six year is a year of love and transformation of the heart. So, instead of cursing 2021, give it a kiss goodbye, and send it on its way at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Because you’re going to love what this upcoming year has in store.

Mantra: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I will read three cards for each season in this reading. These are very general readings that will resonate with many but not all of you. That’s OK! Take away what makes sense, and leave what doesn’t behind.

Winter: Strength, Six of Wands, Page of Cups This is a time when you will receive messages of joy. If at first something tastes sour, know that the bitterness will become sweet. Count your blessings, and they will multiply.

Mantra: Gratitude is my attitude.

Spring: Three of Pentacles, The Lovers, Seven of Wands If you feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, know that your foundation is firm enough to hold a mountain. You will come out on top.

Mantra: Love conquers all.

Summer: The Tower Reversed, Nine of Pentacles, Three of Cups Something shocking is going to happen at the beginning of summer. Hang on to your hats because it’s not as bad as it seems. In fact, this event is actually a way-opener for much abundance and good fortune. You’ll be raising a toast on Labor Day for a job well done.

Fall: Ace of Cups, Eight of Cups, Knight of Pentacles The fruits of your harvest for 2022 are lessons about deep love. Make an effort to fall in love with your life, and do the things you love. Celebrate you, and it will open ways to abundance. This is a time to leave limiting mentalities behind. Next year will only bring more blessings if you stay the course.

Mantra: Life is good.

About Alanna:Alanna L.P. is the owner of Magdalena Tarot, an occult lifestyle brand. She is known best for her internationally renowned predictions based on tarot, numerology, and astrology.

She was also the resident psychic for Witch Way Magazine from fall 2015 to fall 2016 and interned with Biddy Tarot.

If you enjoy her horoscopes, check out Magdalena Tarot Magazine on Amazon to take a deeper dive into tarot, astrology, numerology, and mysticism. Alanna has been published in the worlds of politics and entertainment as well and was the first hula hooper to ever have a weekly spot on television.

She has been to and lived in more than 11 different countries and has dedicated her life to the pursuit of love, light, wisdom, and beauty. In her free time, she meditates, studies spiritual law, creates and enjoys art, and practices her rap game. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

If you would like to purchase a personalized reading, please visit her on Etsy: etsy.com/shop/magdalenatower.

Introducing

DISTILLERS COLA A CAREFULLY CRAFTED, RICH BLEND OF NATURALLY SOURCED CARIBBEAN KOLA NUTS, TAHITIAN LIMES & EXOTIC SPICES.

outfrontmagazine.com 39

From Alaska to Puerto Vallarta, Michael & Matt are travel-obsessed husbands who provide a glimpse into the best LGBTQ travel destinations.

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B

by Denny Patterson

ased in Portland, Oregon, husbands Matthew Schueller and Michael Lindsay are bloggers and content creators who have become experts in the field of travel.

Sharing their stories and experiences, the couple brings audiences the best of the best in LGBTQ travel destinations, tips and hints, and advice from local guides. Not only do they hope to inspire people to travel, but they want to provide all the necessary information one will need for the best trip of their life.

“Overall, I want people to see that there is life beyond just where they are at,” Lindsay says. “I like to share our travel experiences with people and talk about it with them. A lot of people want to know if it’s safe for gay people to go here or there. We may have more exploring to do in that realm, but I hope we are offering people some good advice.”

“I also hope people take away hope from our content,” Schueller adds. “I go back to high school, being closeted, thinking there was nothing beyond where I was at. I didn’t know if there was a life beyond high school for me. I felt very closed off and secluded, in a very dark place, but being able to go online and see other people post content or pictures, it gave me hope. I was given a glimpse into their lives, and I could see there was something more out there in the world.

There was something beyond my current circumstances.

That helped me move forward in life, so I hope our content does the same for others.”

Photos by Mathew Schuller and Michael Lindsay

OFM travel

From YouTube Boyfriends to LGBTQ Travel Connoisseurs

towards each other up until that point because we were both skeptical about meeting somebody that we just knew from YouTube.”

“It was very much 90 Day Fiancé,” Lindsay jokes. “If you conceptualize it, it sounds so weird, but it didn’t feel weird at that moment.”

The couple got married in June 2018.

Together, through trials and tribulations, they have continued to grow and showcase their lives in hopes of inspiring others around them, regardless of their personal lifestyles. Hoping life never settles, Lindsay and Schueller look forward to continuing their travels while sharing more of themselves with the world on their day-to-day journey through life.

Looking back, the two always think fondly of all their travel experiences, but one of their most unforgettable trips was when they visited Mount Rushmore while moving Lindsay to Schueller’s then-home in Nebraska.

“We got out of the car to go take pictures in front of Mount Rushmore, and we were so excited,” Schueller says. “We took some selfies and were like, ‘Cute, yay, boyfriend, love it.’ We got back to the car, and I asked Michael for the keys. He said he didn’t have them. They were locked in the car. So, we called AAA and waited around two hours. It all worked out fine, but I think because it was very early on in the relationship, we’re like, ‘OK, panic. We have a conflict; how are we going to handle this?’”

OFM travel

In addition to travel, Lindsay and Schueller allow fans into their daily lives as individuals. They are now in the process of growing a family, owning their first home, and advancing in their respective careers. Lindsay is applying to a postdoctoral program to specialize in pediatric dentistry, while Schueller is applying to new-grad residency nursing programs.

The two first met in 2014 over YouTube.

“Matt posted a video of his coming out story in 2013 and posted a response video a year later encouraging other people to post their coming out stories,” Lindsay recalls. “I had been following him for a few months because I had just gotten into the LGBTQ YouTube blogging sphere. I came out that previous November in 2013, and I wanted to post a coming out video.

“This was now April or May, and I saw this as my little jab to get it done. I filmed it that night, posted it as a response, and he saw it the next day. A couple days after that, I felt like we had a lot in common and I wanted to chit chat and talk. He was also a little bit cute. So, I messaged him on Facebook, and he immediately responded with his number. Then we started Skyping after that.”

A week later, Lindsay purchased a plane ticket to visit his future husband in Seattle.

“He arrived three weeks later; I picked him up from the airport, and we basically started dating from that day on,” Schueller says. “We have never expressed our feelings

See Peru, Thailand, Copenhagen, and more with Michael & Matt.

o u t f r o n tm a g a z i n e.co m 41

OFM culture

Unfortunately, like the rest of the world, Lindsay and Schueller had to put a halt on their adventures thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they discovered a new appreciation for their now-home state of Oregon during these unprecedented times.

“We did a lot of local travel,” Schueller explains. “We went on hikes and got to experience a lot more of our state. It felt homey and cute.”

No matter where they end up, Lindsay and Schueller cannot wait to immerse themselves in the culture and try the local cuisine. They have several destinations on their bucket list including New Zealand and India, and they look forward to visiting these countries soon.

Because money is tight for millions of people, they can also provide tips on how to travel with a limited budget.

“What’s amazing about travel is how people of all walks of life make it work,” Lindsay says. “If finances are tight, pre-planning is super important, so you don’t end up in a situation where you have a surprise credit card bill at the end.”

“Traveling on a budget sometimes can lead to even better and culturally rich experiences compared to traveling in luxury,” Schueller adds. “Some of my fondest memories while traveling have taken place because of the people I’ve met at hostels. Sharing a room with a few strangers might not sound like the most ideal circumstance, but it saves so much money while traveling. You can stay in places closer to city centers, and some of the strangers can often become great friends.

“Michael and I stayed at a hostel in downtown Copenhagen when we got engaged, and we still keep in touch with some of the people we met there. After Michael proposed to me, we celebrated by attending a bar-hopping tour with the hostel and, honestly, had one of the best times of our lives. I think it was about $20 to join the tour. Not bad for one of our fondest memories!”

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Stay up-to-date and connect with Lindsay and Schueller by visiting MichaelandMatt.com and follow them on Instagram @michaelandmatt and their YouTube channel, “Michael & Matt.”

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outfrontma ga zine.com 43

OFM drag

‘Maxxie LaWow’ to Make Herstory on the Silver Screen

by Denny Patterson

S

lated to release in spring 2024, Maxxie LaWow, Drag Super-Shero will introduce viewers to pop culture’s very first drag heroine.

Created, produced, and directed by Anthony Hand, a product designer and former entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, he is putting his storytelling skills into this highly anticipated feature-length animated film.

“This is a fun, campy celebration of queer culture by a queer creative team for a queer audience,” Hand says.

Maxxie LaWow tells the story of Simon, a shy, young barista, who finds a magic wig that turns him into the titular drag superhero Maxxie LaWow. The film will also have a drag villain, Dyna Bolical, who has discovered that drag queen tears have magical antiaging properties. Therefore, she is kidnapping queens, forcing them to watch the saddest movie ever made, and draining them of their tears to launch a new cosmetics line. Maxxie better watch out because Dana is after her next.

According to Hand, he created Maxxie LaWow because he would like to see more content that is fun, inspiring, and celebrating LGBTQ culture.

“Hollywood doesn’t really do a good job of telling queer stories or including significant queer cast folks in productions,” he says.

“GLAAD consistently gives Hollywood studios insufficient at best ratings. It’s ridiculous, and that is probably one reason why so many productions that have queer storylines are from independent producers and studios. It seems like when we do find stories, for whatever reason, we seem to tell those stories that oftentimes have some level of trauma.

“A coming out story or a story about the AIDS crisis, for example. Those are wonderful, but sometimes, you just want something kind of light and fun. You sometimes want a great date movie or a film you can watch with your family that is inspiring and celebratory. I would like to see more stories like that, and that is very much the perspective of Maxxie LaWow. It’s a fun celebration of drag, intersectionality, and the queer community.”

4 4 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

these folks who are so full of hatred to, hopefully, being full of love and compassion. I think projects like this can help with that process.”

As to why Hand decided to make Maxxie LaWow animated instead of live-action, he says animation provides more opportunities with the stylization and campiness of the characters and the situations they face.

“Simon will go through a transformation that is maybe reminiscent of somebody we have seen before, like in Sailor Moon or Super Drags,” he says. “We can celebrate and have fun with that kind of transformation in ways we couldn’t with live-action. The hair is also a character as well, so by doing animation, we can bring that magical wig in as a character in an easier way, rather than wonky CGI. It is also sometimes easier to tell stories that might make people feel uncomfortable with animation.”

A crowdsourced funding initiative on IndieGoGo was launched mid-September with a $50,000 goal, and that amount was met.

Thanks to the successful contributions from fans and private investors, the production can move forward with casting, continuing its work on the animation, and picking the film’s music, which will include four original songs. Hand says the initiative is still open if anyone wants to donate.

“Fifty-thousand dollars buys a lot of duct tape and glitter,” he jokes.

In addition to IndieGoGo, stay up-to-date by following the film on Facebook and Instagram @maxxielawow, or visit its official website, maxxie.com.

OFM drag

Throughout Hand’s time in quarantine last year after the COVID-19 pandemic started, he worked closely with a scriptwriter and graphic designer to develop the film’s characters. Not only does he hope audiences have a good time with Maxxie LaWow, but he says this project has been a labor of love.

Hand has always had a passion for great stories.

“As a product designer in Silicon Valley, a lot of times, we have to tell stories to help people understand the vision of our products,” he says. “Over the years, I have dabbled in entrepreneurship, and I had my own software company about 15 years ago, so this creative process of having an idea and seeing it come to fruition in some way is an exciting journey.

More often than not, it fails, but even when it fails, you learn a ton, and that can be so rewarding. With this movie, we’ve had to create a company for it, and now I am figuring out how to create a community around this film and get people excited about it.”

Additionally, Hand believes the world needs a supershero now more than ever.

“In recent years, the violence against trans people, especially trans people of color, has been increasing,” he says, “as well as violence in the Asian Pacific Islander community.

Discrimination against any underrepresented or minority group is discrimination against all of us, and the people who do this kind of violence, act out, or create laws that suppress women and minority voters, all of this is related. It comes from a common well of hatred and lack of humanity. So, this is a time when we need to fight on all fronts to help convert

o u t f r o n tm a g a z i n e. co m 45

OFM drag

Nothing Can Beat the Power of Love

by Denny Patterson

W

ith more than a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, Honey Davenport has left an indelible mark on the world.The singer, dancer, actor, and drag superstar will release their latest EP, Love Is God, on January 14, which is a collection of songs about love and overcoming dark times with an overarching story of judicial and sexual liberation.

“During the pandemic, there were so many situations in my life where I felt like my love was tested,” Davenport says. “There was so much emotional struggle that I had to overcome, on top of everything that was already going on in the world. I started writing this project, not about what I had to overcome, but how I knew I was going to overcome it.

I knew that the love I was experiencing, even though it was being tested, will pull through. That was in a lot of different situations. My marriage, my friendships, our country, our government—I started writing it from an inspirational place throughout all of the hurt I was feeling.”

From pop and disco to house and reggaeton, each track spreads a message of social justice and change.

Davenport has made themselves known as a recording artist and vocal activist whose music speaks to the experiences of the oppressed, advocating for equality.

“As somebody who grew up inside that struggle, I think it would be really weird for me to ignore that it’s happening,”

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they say. “I can’t create without speaking to what’s happening because I am a product of our system. I had to come up out of it to get to where I am today, and if I don’t keep that door open for other people, then I’m a gatekeeper.

When you make it to the other side, you shine a light on the injustices that you’ve had to overcome so that, hopefully, somebody else like me won’t have to go through the same struggles.”

Love Is God also features collaborations with DJ and nightlife legend Kevin Aviance, as well as other drag powerhouses including Manila Luzon, Tammie Brown, LaLa Ri, and Jackie Cox. “It was so incredible to work with these drag entertainers,” Davenport says. “I believe in collaboration, and it has been one of my favorite things to do with my musical career. I have had the chance to collaborate with some of the dopest people. A while back, when I started toying with the idea of an EP, I wanted it to be an EP of collabs. I wanted to come together with as many artists to celebrate the kind of music I was writing, and that artists that I picked are people who are close with me in some kind of way.”

The EP’s title track was released in December when Love Is God was officially announced, and according to Davenport, they have heard nothing but positive reviews. Another single will possibly drop right before the January 14 release.

Photos by Davide Laffe

HONEY DAVENPORT

OFM drag

They are also working on a short musical film called Love Is God: The Visual Album, which will feature a story woven together by all the songs on the EP. “We started out by wanting to release the EP and the visual album in conjunction with each other,” Davenport explains.

“As I said, you have to sometimes overcome struggle, and the executive producer who I was working with at the time to fund the projects pulled out to fund a different project. So, it’s been another struggle to create and produce the visual album, but we decided to move along with releasing the music because it is so timely and important, and I really do think it’s the best thing I have ever done.”

Hailing from West Philadelphia, Davenport says they have had a passion for entertaining since childhood. Drag came into the mix after completing a national tour of Broadway’s hit Hairspray.

“Absolutely,” they exclaim. “I don’t feel as though there’s anything I have to prove, but there are parts of me that I would love to share. A lot of my story wasn’t told, and I would love the world to have the opportunity to experience that.”

As for upcoming projects, Davenport says we can expect a lot from them in 2022. They are currently working on a podcast with drag favorite Jasmine Masters.

“It’s called Wake and Bake, and we discuss everything from hot topics to popular TV shows while getting our munchies on and having our morning smoke session,” they say. “That is an upcoming project I am super excited about.”

Stay up-to-date and connect with Davenport by following them on Instagram and Facebook @honeydavenportofficial and Twitter @Honey_Davenport. God Is Love will be available on Spotify and all other digital streaming platforms.

“I did a little bit of drag in Hairspray,” they say. “There are moments where you are in silhouette, and the boys have to put on bustiers and wigs, and I would live my good, gay fantasy life! It was my favorite part of the show. I was a swing, so whenever I got to be one of the characters and do one of those silhouettes, I was living. When I got home from doing Hairspray, I was dancing around in a nightclub, and guess who came up to me? Peppermint. She said, ‘Would you like to dance for me? I have a show coming up at Lincoln Center.’

I said yes, and forever, my life was changed. I was a backup dancer for Peppermint for almost four years, and as I started my own drag career, she was one of my initial mentors.”

Since then, Davenport has won 18 pageant crowns and accomplished several other accolades. However, their notoriety skyrocketed after competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11. Although they were eliminated early, they still made a lasting impact.

Davenport fondly looks back on Drag Race and says the experience completely changed their life.

“It has changed the way I look at myself, for better or worse,” they say. “It definitely made me reflect on who I am and how I present myself, and I think that is truly one of the biggest assets that I’ve had in continuing my career. Even though I was eliminated early, I was able to really market and brand myself and my creations in a way that not many people have taken that opportunity and run with. Watching yourself on TV makes you rethink a lot about your reality. It was all life changing for the better.

Would Davenport compete again for All Stars? o u t f r o n t m a g a z i n e. co m 47

OFM music

s ’ f e i h T n e g y x O ELECTRONIC EMBRACE OF QUEER ANGST AND DIY DRIVE

By Keegan Williams Photos courtesy of Oxygen Thief

O

n the surface, Peter Constas may appear like any other early-20-something. However, there’s much more than meets the eye, namely his musical alter ego, the ever-evolving, electronic, DIY project Oxygen Thief.

Constas pops on his Zoom camera on a break at work to chat, his face and attire a stark contrast to the often theatrical looks and outfits he rocks on the Oxygen Thief Instagram page.

Fort Collins-based and a recent CSU grad, Constas says that music was always part of his life. He grew up in a very musical family, started playing the clarinet as a kid, and then taught himself how to play bass guitar, nodding to his early love of jazz.

“High school was tough, just because I was so tired of starting high school bands, and then nothing coming of it,” he says. “I really wanted to put music out there but not have to be reliant on bands and have full control. So, that’s why I started producing.”

He’s fronted other projects as well, like Paranoid Creature, “which is more of a synthpunk idea,” and When Good Dogs Do Bad Things, “which was just like—oh boy—an emo project, which there was a lot (of emo feelings) to be had in freshman year of college.”

Head over to Oxygen Thief ’s Bandcamp page, and you’ll see 22 total projects, and the music you hear on one album might differ greatly in relation to the next.

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For example, IMHAPPYDONTFUCKWITHIT is a summer album: “I was feeling good; I was in a really good headspace, and I just wanted to make music that encapsulated that.”

CRUSH, his most recent project, is the “most crushing, intense, disco-dance, kind of weird, very experimental, very abstract kind of music. That’s how I was feeling at the time.”

He adds, “If you don’t like one, you can go to the next one.”

Constas is inspired by an abundance of music, like the 90s west-German digital hardcore scene, name-dropping folks like experimental electronic musician Alec Empire and electronic producer and DJ Christoph de Babalon, along with hip-hop, chopped-and-screwed pioneer DJ Screw. “(DJ Screw is) probably one of my biggest influences, just because I love his style so much,” Constas says. “He is literally DIY, and he made all the music on one turntable, lived paycheck to paycheck, and just made music for his buddies and kept on producing.”

Making music started as a healthy and cathartic way for Constas to express himself, and he admits that so much of that expression involves learning on the go and continuing to work with what he has. With every album, he learns something new about how to produce music.

He doesn’t use Ableton or similar software; rather, he has a collection of beat-making equipment and instruments, gushing over his recently purchased CDJ, for example, a small audio controller that changed his production style for the better.

Constas often finds workarounds to incorporate the limitations at play, which made him embrace sampling.

Earlier on, he admitted it was tough to record music that

Through Oxygen Thief—an exasperated and emphasized version of himself—Constas sits more solidly in his identity outside of the project. He also recognizes that it’s an opportunity to play with his manhood and expectations

surrounding masculinity. As a fairly gender-nonconforming person who often doesn’t come off as cis, he says Oxygen Thief allows him to hold that element of himself close and express it in a unique way.

Like many young creatives, he knows he will always make space to express that creativity, even if the main aim isn’t necessarily monetization or some kind of huge success story that thrusts Oxygen Thief into the broader public eye.

“That’s something that my dad taught me. He said, ‘Never compromise. You can be a lawyer and a DJ on the weekends, whatever you want.’”

As great as it would be for the project to grow and become a full-time venture, he’s hesitant to say that’s something he even genuinely wants, given the society we live in.

“I’ve heard a lot of horror stories, especially in my family, where people have tried to pursue music as a career, and it just kills them. It’s work; you can’t do what you were really passionate about really anymore,” he says.

Though, that’s not to say he isn’t going to embrace elements of his craft in his professional career. As a journalism major, he notes his interest in audio and would love to look more into podcasting to explore his passion for sound from a different angle.

“If I didn’t have music, I wouldn’t be here,” he affirms. “So, playing music, listening to music, I’m obsessed with all of that. No matter what I’m doing, I’m gonna be making beats.

Whoever wants to listen can listen, but I’m just gonna keep doing that forever.”

Dive into the world of Oxygen Thief on Instagram @ohtripleexwhy and Bandcamp at oxygenthief2049.bandcamp.com.

OFM music

sounded “professional,” so he bought records “nobody wanted” from bargain bins and transformed those sounds into something new.

“I’ve always been really into the DIY scene here in Fort Collins, also in Denver, and that kind of inspired me to just start making music in the most unique way possible,” he says. “My favorite tool, it’s this broken radio that I found at Goodwill. It’s also a sound sleeper. So, there are certain settings for waves crashing on the shore, rainfall, stuff like that.”

He’s always on the lookout for sounds he can work into Oxygen Thief ’s songs, referencing sample material like a hypnotist record to help folks to stop smoking, a record narrated by Walter Cronkite talking about the moon landing, or a favorite, 50s record of call girls talking about their most interesting stories in the sex work industry.

Constas also says that Oxygen Thief is a character of sorts that has allowed him to express his queerness and journey through queer temporality, an element of himself he says he didn’t gwet to fully explore as a teenager.

“It’s kind of an exercise in that teenage angst and ethos, that type of expression; when you’re a teenager, you like to dress however you want, to rebel against your parents, stuff like that. You’re always so dramatic because it’s always the first time you’ve experienced anything, and you’re just kind of this mess, all jumbled up into this one little package.”

OFM is looking for an aggressive, dedicated sales executive who believes in our company, our potential, and our products to take us to the next level and beyond.

Send cover letter and resume to jobs@outfrontmagazine.com

o ut fr o ntm a g a z in e.co m 49

OFM music

by Veronica L. Holyfield

“

Everyone really seems to like these linear narratives, but that’s not realistic.

Lafemmebear

”

Embracing Her Queer, Transness and Transcending the Negative Narrative

by Veronica L. Holyfield Photos courtesy of Lafemmebear

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or those who dare enter the entertainment industry, there must remain an element of illusion, and even delusion. The hustle is real, and the struggle can be more than most may be willing to bear, but if even a moniker of success is acquired, it may all be worth it.

While the typical hardships of a musician are taxing and tumultuous, add being a queer, trans woman of color to the mix, and we have ourselves a compounded, intersectional medley of invalidation.

LeahAnn Mitchell, aka Lafemmebear, is finally watching her star rise after years of dismissal, rejection, and downright discrimination. Releasing her first single at the age of 14, she spent years building a long list of noteworthy credits to her name, from songwriter, engineer, and producer credits working with musicians like Boyz II Men, The Jackie Boyz (Madonna), and Polo Molina (Black Eyed Peas).

Additionally, as a remix artist to creative soul, her hand was in a dozen projects at any given time, finding years of hard work turning into a rapid trajectory of success. However, once Mitchell came out as a queer, trans woman, all it took was an A&R rep saying some vulgar, nasty things on social media, and she was blacklisted from the music industry. All those opportunities ceased overnight.

“Everyone really seems to like these linear narratives, but that’s not realistic,” Mitchell says. “I was burned and my heart needed to heal, but it pushed me to create a different narrative in my mind than what other people have put out there about who I am.”

The rapper, singer, and soulful vocalist took a big step back and a major break from the music industry, even admitting that it took close to four years to be able to put pen to paper again and revisit music. When she did, many of her friends were shocked because they’d never heard her play, write, sing, or even express interest in music.

F

This is not the first time, and won’t be the last time, that Mitchell has stepped into her queer, Black transness as a suit of power in a public format. She teamed up with Peppermint and Mila Jam to create the trans anthem “Be Optimistic” that dropped during Trans Awareness Week in 2020. And what keeps Mitchell optimistic is that she gets to have honest, vulnerable, and genuine conversations about her experiences, her highs and lows, and her tenacity as a way to instill hope in the young folks who may not be allowed to live in their authenticity.

While she is still human and experiences both elation and devastation, Mitchell believes wholeheartedly that to stand in one’s truth is of the utmost importance and a battle that’s worth fighting every single day. She says that, in spite of the fear she may face, she faces it head on and chooses to make this life work for her, rather than allowing it to work against her.

“Fear will always be a thing. You’re going to get nervous; your hands are gonna shake; you’re going to be scared; do it. That’s literally what I was taught and so that’s what I try to live out in practice,” Mitchell says. “The reality is, you will see me show up; I will make it happen. It’s important for me to exist in this skin in a way that feels content for me and no one else. At that point, I can then go out and show love and spread love and give of myself to folks because I’m not pouring from an empty cup. I think it’s a strength to not focus on the strength all the time.”

As Mitchell fills her cup by playing PlayStation, living in nature, and leaning into her softness, she is able to create art that defies all the odds. In her directorial debut, We See You: Black Trans Living Legends, she focuses on the stories of Black, trans, queer elders who made this world that we see today. Noticing that rarely do we see our elders, our trailblazers, our brave predecessors receive the accolades, recognition, and space to tell their stories, Mitchell again took a step forward in her power and created a platform to elevate their voices.

Assembling a team, Mitchell bought a camera, started researching, and set up conversations with the elders who had beautiful legacies that needed to be documented. What started as one conversation turned into a multitude, and thus the creation of the documentary miniseries We See You was born.

Whether it’s expressing her own story through song, uplifting the stories of others through film, or inspiring hope through her collaborations, Mitchell continues to create a narrative that is of her mind, body, spirit, and soul. Lafemmebear transcends and prevails.

OFM music

In 2019, Mitchell resurfaced as Lafemmebear and was beginning to rebuild her life in the industry that had taken everything from her. Releasing the EP, Blaq *A Note to the World, followed up by the full-length Blaq: The Story of Me, the melodic, hip-hop, soulful tracks span over genres of music just as they do eras of her life. With signs that feature vulnerable lyrics that touch on subjects of her childhood in “The Beginning,” overcoming the pain of her past in “Be a Mess, Cry!,” and embracing her beauty and strength in “I.L.T.S. (I Luv This Skin),” listeners are taken on a lifelong journey of love, self-acceptance, and strength.

While Mitchell had found a beautiful and authentic existence, it wasn’t without difficulty and overcoming adversity was becoming a daily battle. While in preparation of headlining at a Utah Pride festival, and on the heels of a feature in Billboard, Mitchell had an incident inside an In-NOut restroom that resulted in a lawsuit and an unacceptable settlement offer. In an op-ed for The Guardian she wrote about her experience, shortly before U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether it should be legal to discriminate against people for being trans during the Trump administration, she spelled out exactly what it’s like to face daily reminders that she is a queer, trans Black woman navigating the world.

Her daily authentic existence makes her stand out as different, yet she continues to create cathartic art that mirrors the struggle of those underrepresented voices that are just like hers. Like so many of us, overcoming imposter syndrome can feel impossible; having honest conversations with creative allies around her can be challenging, and showing up each and everyday feeling empowered is not always her truth; she has the lyrics, the melodies, and the beats to take her away into a world that is fruitful, bountiful, and plentiful.

In 2021, Mitchell was tapped on the shoulder to create a remix of the Reba McEntire song “I’m a Survivor,” which was the title track of the hit show, Reba.

Growing up both a country music fan and a fan of the TV show, Mitchell was in shock and yet managed to write the remix, record it, and produce/master it in less than four days. Most significantly, besides working with the legendary Queen of Country, Mitchell is able to leave her own stamp on the country music genre.

“I know what genre is, like, cursorily; I understand that we have them, and I get why culturally the differences are there, but I also know that Black music is all music because we gave everybody most of the popular music to listen to. Name a genre, and it can be traced right back to us,” Mitchell explains. “I want to make a mark on every part of this work that I can; they need to know that we are here, and we do amazing things as Black, queer artists.”

outfrontmagazine.com 51

OFM music

OFM NEW MUSIC This month’s must-catch new releases from the artists you already love and the musicians you need to know.

Years & Years

The Lumineers

Orlando Weeks

Brightside

Hop Up

The third studio album by Years & Years, the solo project of British musician, songwriter, actor, and screenwriter Olly Alexander, kicks off the year. The thrilling new chapter for the artist is inspired by the imagery of the muse: a beautiful, beckoning lure of love, fantasy, and sexuality.

Being marked as one of the world’s most trailblazing modern pop stars, Night Call pushes the boundaries of mainstream with fantastical songs about pleasure and seduction. Escape with the new Years & Years tracks, and sink into the bliss of sin.

The Colorado-based, American folkrock band The Lumineers release their latest, full-length studio album with Brightside. Naming it their “most joyous and spontaneous piece of work thus far,” the band sings of love, glory, and heartbreak as they transcend the loneliness of isolation and social distancing. Incorporating the signature blues stylings paired with reverberating, bluegrass guitars, the vocals ring tried and true from track to track and envelope listeners into a warm embrace of sentimentality and desire.

The Maccabees lead singer, Orlando Weeks, releases his second solo album and explores brighter and lighter themes than the previous release.

Hop Up features upbeat and infectious songs full of joy. Wanting to fill in some of the blanks from his first solo effort, Weeks had a newfound intention and makes bold choices that strongly pay off. With his well-known, throaty vocals and undeniable melodies, the songs create a vignette of a life journey that is positive, self-reflective, and life affirming.

Underoath

Aurora

Pinegrove

Told through the narrative paradigm of Greek mythology, the new, 15track album by Aurora features an exploration and correspondence to the different gods and goddesses. The Norwegian singer, songwriter, dancer, and producer navigates a tricky terrain as she unveils the relationship between human and faith. Questioning the role of religion while seeking the divine connection, The Gods We Can Touch takes a look at suppression, beauty, war, death, and redemption alongside the perfect imperfection of the human condition.

Indie-rock five-piece Pinegrove ring in the new year with the new album, 11:11. Featuring an ethos of unity, collectivity, and community, the new songs are given as a gift to listeners to create space, dig in, and feel. Guided by guitar-driven riffs and messages of challenging the statusquo, the tracks metabolize the grief we’ve been wrestling, condense it into something sweet, and return with songs of greater understanding of the need to let go and dance it out.

Night Call

Releases January 2, 2022.

Voyeurist

Metalcore veterans Underoath have returned to the studio and produced their most collaborative and emotional collection of songs yet. Voyeurist features tracks that lean into the unmistakable sound of manic drumming, hardcore screaming, and headbang-worthy metal while also exploring depths of rhythmic, haunting melodies.

While there is nothing obviously sweet about these songs, there is a beauty in the anthemic hooks and a raw flowyness that is surprising and welcoming.

Releases January 14, 2022 .

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Releases January 14, 2022.

The Gods We Can Touch

Releases January 21, 2022.

Releases January 14, 2022.

11:11

Releases January 28, 2022.

How to be Queer in Metal and Not Have a Meltdown

OFM music

Metal Meltdown

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

“I had to change out of my Slipknot shirt, didn’t want anyone to think I was a fag.”

“There are clean vocals on the album? GAY ! He sounds like a chick!”

“I don’t care what you say about my favorite band and what they believe. I’m not listening to their political opinions—It’s all about the riffs.”

Those are just three of the most common phrases you might hear splattered across conversation at your typical metal show. While it’s true that, in some ways, metalheads are the biggest, most accepting family you’ll ever have, there’s another harsh truth in there too: They can also be the most culturally insensitive.

While some in the metal community actively work to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, queer-affirming, and allaround good people, there are others who, though on paper they may claim to be “woke” without a racist or homophobic bone in their bodies, still use “faggot” as a term to describe something that’s not metal and make excuses and exceptions for bands with problematic ethos because “they still shred.”

I’m currently working on a book on queer folks in metal, and I’ve already written one on women in metal. I also have a colleague, Laina Dawes (I highly recommend her work) who has written about being Black in metal. Some of the feedback that gets thrown around is, “Is it really important to highlight women in metal at this point? Aren’t we past that, in this postgender reality? Do we NEED to point out when there is a Black person in a band, or, in 2022, should we just accept it as a given?”

Well, after being in a metal band for a few short months, not even necessarily out there highlighting my queerness, mind you—just as a woman—I’ve been

the only woman on the lineup for all the shows I’ve played so far. There were also a very small number of POC at these shows, even in the audience, and very few out, queer-seeming folks, even at the show that took place in a communal, queer space.

I’ve also experienced a handful of microaggressions, from folks assuming over and over that I’m just “with the band” to it being a surprise when I actually get on stage and play well. And this, again, is as a straightpassing white woman, so after this experience, my answer is a resounding, “Yes: Conversations about women, queer, folks, and people of color are still very needed.”

But there’s good news: There are also tons of folks in the metal community who are queer, women, POC, or allies to all those groups, trying to make the scene a safer place. Everyone in my band is committed to those ethos, as are most of the people I associate with.

So, this column is going to celebrate that. It’s going to highlight the queer folks in these spaces who are taking a stand to celebrate the community. Will it also be a space to bitch and moan about how problematic metal can be? Absolutely, but it will also be a celebration.

Hails, and until next time, keep it brutal, inclusive, and intersectional.

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OFM style

Beauty Beat

faves New Year New Skin

by Angel Rivera

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Are you lacking firmness? Dealing with dull skin? Even acne and uneven tones? Well, Estee Lauder has you covered! This miracle in a bottle will bring back fresh and radiant skin every single night. This specially formulated serum has hyaluronic acid, a special bioferment filled with good bacteria to help the skin’s microbiome. The patented “chrono lux power signal technology” helps visibly improve skin renewal. I could go on and on, but this serum will change the way you love your skin! Did I mention it is also oil free? This is an amazing new add-on for all skin types.

MAC Studio Fix Mattifying 12-hour Shine Control Primer If you love matte makeup, you probably hate shine.

If you can’t get rid of that tiny slick spot on your forehead or the look of giant pores on your nose and cheeks, look no further than this mattifying primer from MAC. Formulated with autoionic acid and algae extract, this special formula keeps the skin hydrated while smoothing pores and improving the wear of foundation. If you try anything, try this primer, and keep your skin glowing, not glistening.

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Each year, people around this little blue rock decide that the new year is for new beginnings, meaning new resolutions. Whether or not those resolutions stick, I want to help you all find some new beauty staples to make sure you always look your best. Ranging from skincare to makeup, anyone can find something here to enjoy.

Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint.

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Its natural finish and amazing blend ability will take you from natural beauty to Glamazonian with a stroke of a brush. Let Fenty Beauty wow you again with its new formulation.

Truly Buns & Boobies Kit Vegan brand Truly has created a special kit for anyone who wants to do a little self-care for your butt and boobs, all packed up neatly in an adorable baby blue lunch box. This set includes the “Nice Melons Whipped Boob Butter,” “Nice Melons Boob Serum,” the “Berry Cheeky Butt Polish,” and finally the “Berry Cheeky Butt Serum.”

This mixture care routine will make sure the skin on your butt and boobs is smooth to the touch, while also firming and tightening the areas! Give yourself or someone you love a self-care routine that is sure to “tighten” your bond and “affirm” your relationship.

Bare Minerals Skinlongevity Long Life Herb Serum If you are dealing with aging issues and sensitive skin, you may want to stay away from retinol, but Bare Minerals has you covered. This special serum can be used day and night to help visibly fight signs of aging while also restoring the skin’s moisture barrier. Packed with antioxidant-rich California poppy and a special “long life herb” ethically sourced from Okinawa, Japan, there is no other serum that will take your skin from creased and deceased to age-defying.

Get the look

Josh Miller

Photo courtesy of Josh Miller

by Angel Rivera

designer Gunnar Deatherage (of Project Runway fame). Creating custom pieces for the Kentucky Derby helped him realize his knack for fashion through art, supported his journey as a queer person.

He was additionally inspired to think about the potential for his creations, invoking his love for fashion and design and belief that power comes with clothing and accessories that let people express themselves. As an artist, he says learning new ways to express your artistry through different mediums is valuable.

To Miller, wearable photos are a transformative way of bringing two-dimensional images into the third dimension through fashion design and artistry.

“When I’m talking about ‘wearable photos,’ I’m talking about the intersection of fashion design, photography as an artistic practice, and a different way of presenting artwork that would generally be exhibited in a 2-D form,” he says—truly a fashionforward way of thinking.

Many designs are myriad prints and monogramming, but Miller seeks to bring reality and memories to life through clothing.

“Beyond fashion as art—which I believe it is—(is) the combination of multiple artistic practices in a form that’s wearable as part of someone’s stylistic expression,” he adds, with fashion and art as the heart of the Wearable Photos Collection.

This collection is not only dedicated to connoisseurs of photography, but to all fashion lovers and tastefully designed garments, for all types of people.

“Body shapes differ so much, no matter how you identify. My first collections focused heavily on square prints because they could be worn and draped in so many ways, and that allows people with different bodies to wear them in different ways—and that’s important,” Miller says.

The Wearable Photos Collection is a new way to see the beauty around you and on you.

Make sure to visit josh-miller-ventures.myshopify. com to snag yourself one of these unique pieces.

OFM style

Wearable Photos and the Mind Behind Them

W

hether or not you have taken a moment to drink in the wonders of the world around you—be it nature, architecture, even the way light reflects off your surrounding—someone has stopped to look for those things. All the beauty we see in our everyday lives gives us humans purpose. We compile these memories, these photos in our brains for ourselves waiting to free them.

Josh Miller, the creative mind and designer behind, Josh Miller Ventures has created a collection of garments that represent the way he sees the world through an artistic lens, dubbing them the “Wearable Photos Collection.”

From cardigans to dresses and scarves, the wearable photos collection is the world through Miller’s eyes.

Moving from Louisville, Kentucky to Denver, Miller began photographing his daily treks around the state during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic (socially distant, of course).

“Moving to Colorado encouraged me to focus even more on photos out in nature, with a large focus on the mountains,” Miller says.

“They are so awe-inspiring and a challenge in and of themselves.”

Miller gained inspiration from the photos he would take. “I started doing more and more longexposure photography, and the images just screamed at me—WE ARE WEARABLE PHOTOS!” He continues, “I started prototyping with two different companies, printing my first samples on chiffon, which led me to produce the collections I’ve created so far.”

As an artist. Miller makes sure to visualize how garments will look on bodies. He loves to think about how wearable photos will look when they are wrapped, folded, tied around someone, but not every photo is meant to be worn, and that’s part of the challenge.

“I tried a few prototypes for this collection that are beautiful images but didn’t translate to being wearable photos once I got them printed,” he says.

For some time back in 2017, Miller began collaborating with fashion

outfrontmagazine.com 55

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Have you ever gotten so stoney you had a vision? Well, if you’re looking for a way to gain insight into your new year, or gather the strength to take it on, we have some must-toke products for you to dig into.

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CALIFORNIA CORNER PLUS Sleep Gummies As we continue to learn about additional cannabinoids, like the non-psychoactive CBD and CBN known to aid sleep, edibles and cannabis products are following suit. Enter the PLUS sleep gummies. Each package has 20 gummies, and they offer two varieties: Cloudberry (with 5mg THC, 1mg CBN, and 1mg CBD per gummy) and Lychee (a less psychoactive 1mg THC, 2mg CBN, and 3mg CBD). While veteran cannabis consumers might find the dosing to be too tame, these are great for a slow-and-steady or novice consumer and anyone who might want to look further into cannabinoids like CBD and CBN as a sleep-aid alternative!

Fun Uncle Cartridges These carts from Fun Uncle are a great, discreet vaporizer option for the concentrate consumer. On a single-setting battery, each hit was smooth and controlled, and I could clearly taste some of the piney and citrusy terpenes without feeling any harshness that cartridges sometimes come with. Just a few hits had me nice and toasty, but given the one-gram size, there was still plenty to come back to as the night went on!

Deli Dimes The cannabis gummy is a staple of the edible variety, and what’s even better is a sweet treat packing not only potency but flavor! We tried out the Fresh Watermelon flavor (Deli Dimes also have Black Cherry and Red Berry options), and it was exactly what the doctor ordered: distinctly watermelon, sinfully sweet, and no trace of a dreaded hashy or weedy flavor. Not only that, but even as a moderate consumer, the 10mg single serving clearly had an effect. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from eating more, just because they were so tasty! outfrontmagazine.com 57

OFM thoughts

Establishing a Baseline for the Nonbinary Experience

by Keegan Williams

W

ell, hello again. I have lost count of the times I’ve introduced and reintroduced myself to OFM readers in my three-and-a-half year tenure at the magazine, but here we are again. I’m Keegan; I’m the copy editor and a regular writer at OFM, and my pronouns are they/them/theirs.

I wrapped my 2021 column “OFM Mods” in December, frankly feeling like I would be doing a disservice to readers if I pressed on with the niche topic of queerness and body modification.

I’m moving into 2022 focusing my attention on another facet of myself, and an abundance of people in the LGBTQ community: my nonbinary gender.

This month marks the one-year anniversary of my coming out as a nonbinary person, and for this first column, I aim to establish a baseline for the term “nonbinary” and the context of my experience as the writer of this column.

Nonbinary is an umbrella term that refers to gender identities that are neither female or male, genders falling outside of the binary; as the name implies, it more describes what one’s gender is not. I find the widely-circulated graphic, which literally shows three umbrellas, to be one of the 5 8 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

more helpful in understanding— nonbinary and binary trans genders (trans women and trans men) sit next to each other under the larger trans umbrella.

Not all nonbinary people consider themselves trans. I do. The term transgender, while often thought to reference “transitioning” gender, truly recognizes “transcending” gender; “trans” is a prefix meaning “across” or “beyond.” I empathize with nonbinary folks who feel

fraudulent using the label; I’ve been there. However, my gender is different from what I was assigned at birth, and my experience with gender does not fit with my binary birth assignment, so it fits.

One element many often misunderstand as more nonbinary people come out and live authentically in the world: It is not a “third gender,” but rather a rejection of the binary altogether.

Nonbinary people are far from a monolith. I’ve phrased it to cis

OFM thoughts

family and friends, “If I asked you what it means to you being a (man or woman), or how you know you ARE your gender, without referencing your anatomy, your answer is going to differ than that of another person of your same gender.”

The same holds true for nonbinary people. If I were to explain my gender, I’m sure it would be far different than what another nonbinary person would say about theirs.

I have lived my whole life not feeling like I fit into either binary category. I was assigned male at birth, though it always felt fraudulent as I identified as a boy, or later in life, a man. For a while, I thought it was just part of my queer sexuality, though the feeling didn’t go away as I explored life as a queer man in predominantly maledominated spaces. If anything, I was frustrated that I still didn’t feel like I was in the right spot.

It took me a while to come out, in part because I only sometimes experience gender dysphoria. While I love to flirt with androgyny, femme fashion, and makeup, I also like sporting a mustache and frequently feel most comfortable in elements of my presentation society codes as “masculine,” and I am regularly cis-assumed.

(Fun side note and mental exercise, when you really break down what we consider “masculine” and “feminine,” you start to realize it’s ALL a construct. Cis women grow facial hair. Most bodies produce body hair unless we shave. Why do we consider a dress feminine, or a short haircut masculine? Why is makeup gendercoded? It’s all fake. Not to mention that the sex binary is also fabricated, but let’s not bite off more than we can chew.)

Let’s remember that binary and nonbinary transgender folks sometimes experience dysphoria, for which they might look into gender-affirming surgeries or hormone replacement therapy to live more authentically and comfortably in their bodies. Though, some trans people have dysphoria only about parts of their bodies, fleeting dysphoria, or little dysphoria at all.

The misconception that all trans people are looking to transition began when trans people looked to access gender-affirming care, and at a time when these conversations were fresh in the medical field, those institutions needed a baseline to allow for treatment.

So, “transgender” was associated solely with gender dysphoria because it was a measurable requirement for trans people to seek the care they needed.

We are moving beyond that, though the new assumption in regard to nonbinary people is that we are all androgynous aliens, exclusively using they/ them pronouns, with names like “Spronk.” Of course, no expression is incorrect; that’s my point.

Gender identity and gender expression are not mutually exclusive for cis and trans people. I’ve met cis men and

Beyond the Binary women who defy gender expectations all the time—the same is true for binary trans people—and in that same way, being nonbinary does not mean all nonbinary people are just smack dab in between male and female in their gender expression. It’s far more expansive than that.

I’ve seen a sentiment that suggested, rather than looking at gender as a straight line between male and female with nonbinary in the middle, a more accurate representation is looking at a color spectrum, like when you’re in MS Paint or photoshop and drag and drop to find any color of the rainbow.

How can we encourage the embrace of authentic gender-expansive expression and then scold people for not performing their gender identity “correctly?” There is no right or wrong answer.

There are nearly 8 billion people on this Earth, so how is it that we are still trying to frame all of those vastly different individuals and experiences on the basis of two categories?

We’re conforming to this rigid set of modern, arbitrary rules that are a product of colonialism and Westernization, and when we look globally and historically, we can see that humans have regularly embraced genders beyond the binary and continue to do so.

I know. I’ve crammed an abundance of ideas and concepts into this debut column. But, if reading this taught you something, made you think about gender in a way you hadn’t, or if you are just interested in reading more, keep up with me as I explore these topics and more.

My hope is to create a better understanding of nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people and how we show up in the world, and I encourage all people, gender aside, to look at themselves and the world at large to examine these constraints and how we can collectively break free from them.

outfrontmagazine.com 59

OFM thoughts

Q&A

Queer

with Eleni Stephanides

“Queer Q&A” is a new, monthly column where we explore questions from you, our readers!

What queer media would you recommend my new girlfriend and I watch? Nothing against the heteros, but we’d like to see ourselves mirrored in what we’re reading and watching as well.

I’m so glad you asked! I want to start by acknowledging how far we’ve come in this past decade or so.

Back in 2003, the only movie my still-closeted self knew of with a lesbian in it was The Truth About Jane—which happened to be on when, channel flipping through my family’s boxy, 90s TV. At the age of 12, I first realized I was gay—not in words, but on a cellular level. (The words would take years to catch up; internalized homophobia kept them at bay in the meantime ).

In many of the films I watched in the years thereafter, almost all of the lesbian relationships seemed, in some way or another, fraught or tragic. That, or the two girls were doomed to premature death after a brief series of clumsy, shameridden experimentations behind closed doors.

Queer women seemed to be killed off at disproportionately high rates, which a March 2017 DIVA article described as “a parlous hit rate given that lesbian and bi characters were as rare as ostrich burgers at a lesbian potluck until recently.”

This was frustrating to see when you consider that, beyond serving as mere entertainment, movies and television help us to live our lives; many of us look to them for guidance and mirroring.

“Once certain stories get embedded into the culture, they become master narratives—blueprints for people to follow when structuring their own stories,” wrote Julie Beck in an article for The Atlantic.

6 0 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

This is arguably difficult to do though when we don’t see ourselves reflected in them.

I don’t have an exact year, but I want to say around 2014 or 2015, I noticed this trend start to change.

First there was Orange is the New Black. Then, shows with queer women characters were exploding: Casey on Atypical, Michelle on Dead to Me (played by Natalie Morales).

Netflix shows from the Haunting of Bly Manor to Mind Hunters added more to the mix. Suddenly there were so many I ran out of hands to count them on (where before, they could fit on two). The LGBTQ women also weren’t just token characters anymore, but richly drawn and well-fleshed-out.

I recall commenting (excitedly) to a friend recently about how movie and show plots these days don’t revolve entirely around the character being gay anymore.

“Their queerness is casually slipped in. That’s how things get normalized!” I exclaimed.

An example: In an episode of the show Grace and Frankie, the woman working at the nursing home says: “ I’m not a fan of working here, but Invisi-lines don’t pay for themselves, and my girlfriend says I need them.”

In that one simple sentence, this otherwise “straight-passing” woman reveals to viewers that she is in a lesbian relationship. I loved it.

All that’s to say, dear reader, there are a plethora of offerings available to you and your new girlfriend.

Here are some of my personal picks: romantic comedy Lez Bomb (think Meet the Parents, but with two lesbians) features plenty of funny and relatable scenes for anyone

who’s ever struggled to come out to their family.

Snapshots is probably one of the most poignant movies with lesbian characters that I’ve seen. In it, a girl’s grandmother reminisces to her about a woman she once fell in love with at her lakeside vacation house, while the two of them were both married to men.

There was something Titanicesque in its wistfulness, old timey feel, and portrayal of a passionate, impossible love cut short too soon.

In Cloudburst, it was nice to see two older lesbians, whose stories are not told as often. And the documentary Bean, about a young woman who donates her kidney to her immunocompromised girlfriend, will be sure to warm your heart.

Admittedly, we’re not fully there yet when it comes to encountering more humanizing representation in the media. “Even as queer characters start to get bona fide love stories, there are still subtle codes that reinforce the implication that we’re always a little bit less than worthy of true fulfillment,” wrote Erin Tatum in Everyday Feminism.

Still, this queer right here is beyond excited about the advances. She and my teenage self are dancing in gleeful circles with one another, while rainbow fireworks burst through the sky above and Fletcher’s revamped ( far more empowering, improved) version of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” blasts in the background.

The year 2022 will continue to bring more richly drawn LGBTQ plotlines—which means, reader, plenty more opportunities for date nights wherein you’ll see yourself mirrored.

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OFM astrology

Horoscopes January 2022

by Alanna L.P. Welcome to Alanna L.P.’s Uplifting Horoscopes. These are very general readings that will resonate with many but not all of you. That’s OK! Take away what makes sense, and leave what doesn’t behind. If you want a deeper understanding of what to expect this month, read your sun sign, your rising sign, and your moon sign. You can find what these are by going to cafeastrology.com and get a free birth chart reading.

Aries This month could bring a faceoff with an authority figure, Aries. There are a lot of emotions here, but be the bigger person and talk about your feelings honestly. During Venus retrograde, people and patterns may show up for a second round. Don’t let this shake your confidence because you’ve come a long way in your emotional growth.

You’re grounded enough in your self-worth to know what is worth your time. This is the time to walk away from what doesn’t suit you and. Your independence awaits you.

Mantra: When I’m gone, I’m gone.

Taurus Check your ego this month, Taurus, if you don’t want to get burnt. You may find yourself being called to try new things in the bedroom during this Venus retrograde. Don’t be shy; drink in that experience. Submit if you want to, it’s all fun and games. You’ll get lots of attention in the community, so step out and shine.

Mantra: I can have it all.

Gemini Presto Chango! Poof ! Suddenly you may feel like someone else. This may lead you to make some revolutionary changes in your life this month.

People who have known you for a long time may be wondering if they knew you at all. This could lead to the end of some important relationships but honesty is always the best policy. Take comfort in learning something new. This new knowledge will serve you well in stress management for years to come. You may want to express more masculine than feminine energy this month. This will give you a vision that could expand for miles.

Mantra: Is this love worth a war?

6 2 OFM JANUARY 2 0 2 2

Cancer You may be feeling particularly restless with the humdrum of your daily life. If rinse, wash, and repeat has gotten to be too much for you, it may be because Venus retrograde is causing you to crave new experiences in love and relationships. Satisfy these urges with what brings you the most joy.

Exploring new philosophies will blow some doors wide open for you. If you’re dying to take that trip, now is the time. Deep secrets will be revealed if you have the courage to answer the call to adventure.

Mantra: Variety is the spice of life.

Leo You may want to get down and dirty this month.

You’ll find your passions leading you to the right place. Sensual experiences may be exceptionally exciting during this time. You’re not the type who usually enjoys monotony, but Venus retrograde could bring unexpected joy in the simplicity of daily routines. There could be drama in your community, so it may be best to take time to keep to yourself and enjoy the little things.

Mantra: Doing it over and over again feels good (and it makes me look good too).

Virgo There may be problems at home that could shake your foundations this month, Virgo. This is because Venus retrograde will make life feel like a never ending party. It’s fun for a while but that kind of excitement may get old fast, especially for Virgos who appreciate routine. Even though the fun could turn to fire fast, this will show you new ways in which to view your relationships. The mask may come off, and you may see someone’s true face. How you deal with that is up to you. If you are looking for a partner, try to get that cute Libra’s attention.

Mantra: Stability is a state of mind.

Libra Venus retrograde is bringing up old patterns, Libra. People-pleasing can’t always be in style.

Even though all you want to do is keep the peace, sometimes you must take a side. If conflicts arise with family or within your neighborhood, zoom out to see the big picture, including your own faults and shortcomings. This is not a time to party or indulge because your luck is being tested, so stay on your toes. The real change will come from getting a better look at how “the little things” can turn into “big things” when ignored. If you are looking for a partner, there may be a Virgo that is admiring you, talk to them. It could lead to something special.

Mantra: It takes two to tango.

Scorpio There may feel like there’s a war raging inside you. It’s a Scorpio’s nature to be deeply introspective, but the chaos is coming from an outside factor this time around. You may want to talk to a professional if you feel issues from your childhood resurfacing. Go out and have a good time if you’re the pressure is just too much. Dance, laugh, eat your favorite foods and remember to smile. Life isn’t as serious as it seems.

If you do this, you’ll find a new kind of freedom and happiness you never knew existed.

Mantra: It’s all outside my head.

Sagittarius First impressions matter, so if someone offends you right off the bat, it’s only because Venus retrograde is challenging your vision of yourself. It’s time for you to turn within and pay attention to your best friend: yourself. Consider your relationships with your neighbors, siblings, family, and your parents to expand your vision of who you actually are. This will lead to a clarity you’ve been searching for.

Mantra: I know who I am, what I want and what is best for me.

Capricorn If you lose yourself, you lose it all, Capricorn. The sun comes home to Venus retrograde illuminating the truth about your core identity. If you realize who you are does not match the opinion of others, it’s time for you to take a look at how your actions and reactions may appear. The people who care about you may share some insights are worth a listen. This may change the fundamental way you do things, but it will be for the better.

Mantra: I’m ready to compromise.

Aquarius A transformation is occurring in the way you organize your life, Aquarius. You’re not wrong to be confident in yourself.

Your luck is about to turn around, so get ready to celebrate!

People in your community may look to you for guidance and leadership. Now is the time to share what you’ve always known you have.

Mantra: I’m ready for success.

Pisces You might not get off on the right foot with someone new. It’s too bad this relationship may be doomed from the start but don’t let it get you down on yourself. Where your attention really needs to be this month is in matters of the home. Don’t take your frustrations out on the people you love. There are a lot of changes happening in the world that you can’t control, so ride those waves.

Mantra: I’m just gonna go with the flow.

Alanna L.P. is the owner of Magdalena Tarot, an occult lifestyle brand.

She is known best for her internationally renowned predictions based on tarot, numerology, and astrology. She was also the resident psychic for Witch Way Magazine from fall, 2015-fall 2016 and interned with Biddy Tarot. If you enjoy her horoscopes, check out Magdalena Tarot Magazine on Amazon. She lives in Denver, Colorado. outfrontmagazine.com 63

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TIGHT END BAR 1501 E. Colfax Ave. (303) 861-9103 tightendbar.com

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DOWNING ST.

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CHARLIE’S NIGHTCLUB

$2 Taco Tuesdays with $5 House Margaritas

829 E. Colfax Ave. Denver (303) 832-2687 xbardenver.com

255 S. Broadway St. Denver (303) 733-1156 Facebook- @lildevilslounge

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oty walked into the dimly lit room with his friends, poking and prodding him in the side to proceed. It was his 30th birthday, and at the behest of his friends, he’d reluctantly decided to go see a fortune teller to see if there was a special someone waiting for him in his future. As he made his way through the space, he saw all manner of crystals and zodiac-themed jewelry. Despite his best efforts to believe, all he could hear were the words of his mother: “You know all that stuff ’s a crock, right?” she would say. Somehow though, throughout his entire life, everyone he’d ever met had a strong belief in astrology, fortune telling, and all manners of spirituality. Not much of it rubbed off on him.

In the corner of the building behind a beaded, purple fringe curtain, he heard a deep lull beckon him inside.

“Koty, come on in, dearie. I promise I won’t bite,” the voice said.

Koty did as he was beckoned and pushed his way through the beaded curtain.

“Sit, sit,” the voice commanded. Koty and his friends did as they were told.

“Welcome to Sir Lin’s House of the Seeker, where all who enter have been fated to seek their ultimate truths … whether they’re comfortable or not. My name is Sir Lin. I’ve been waiting for the four of you for quite some time.”

Koty and his friends began to look around at each other, still waiting to see the disembodied voice that was addressing them. Suddenly, a bookcase on the wall flipped, and Sir Lin walked slowly toward them. He was a bald and pale man with a long, bright blond beard that made Koty think of Vikings. His lips were covered in yellow and red lipstick, and his eyes were surrounded by a dark black eyeshadow that made the green-purple color of his eyes pop.

“Koty, Darren, Samitha, and Siobhan—I’m glad you’re here. Let’s get started,” Lin said.

“Well, Koty. We brought you here for a reason; step right up!”

“No,” Lin interjected abruptly. “From what I’m understanding of the four of you, Siobhan, you always have the need to be first, so I’ll honor your wishes. Come.”

Siobhan’s cheeks flushed red from the embarrassment of being called out on what everyone in the group already knew, but she would never admit. Koty watched as Siobhan stepped up, pulled all her jet-black hair to the front of her right shoulder, and approached Sir Lin. He grabbed her hand and closed his eyes. “You need to learn to listen to those most unable to speak. There is something on its way to you, and if you don’t pay attention, it will consume you and cause Sparkles a great deal of hurt and confusion.”

Sir Lin then dropped Siobhan’s hand and made his way to Darren. “The object of your affection is not your friend, but they do adore you for reasons you won’t comprehend until it’s too late. Be aware, those six-inch heels have been used for more than the mere act of walking” Samitha was next. “Be cautious. Your obsession with plant life just might be the death of you. Don’t forget that despite the static appearance, they too are beings with needs … some more unnatural than the others.” Samitha, being the most stubborn of the group, rolled her eyes, and Sir Lin made his way, finally, to Koty.

“Hm. Your future has not yet been cemented. Nevertheless, the tale weaves itself as we speak. I see desolation and loneliness forthcoming. Please do try and keep your three friends close … without them, you have so little.”

Koty scoffed. His life was great. He had an amazing job. He was surrounded by his favorite people, and he was sure they had no plans to go anywhere or abandon him.

“Come on, y’all, let’s get out of here. This guy is obviously just making things up to creep us out,” Koty flippantly remarked. So, they paid Sir Lin $500 and left, laughing and creeped out by how strange Sir Lin was. Before they passed the threshold Sir Lin shouted.

“Remember! It was foretold.”

Months passed. The first to disappear was Darren. He’d gone on a date with someone from his office, but no one ever heard from him again. His date swears to this day that Darren stood him up. Then was Siobhan. She made a complete 180 from the person she was, got rid of her dog, Sparkles, whom she had always referred to as her daughter; moved across the country; and simply vanished from what remained of their friend group. And then last was Samitha, and this one hit Koty hard. Samitha murdered her boss. They found her sitting in a large pile of leaves clutching Sharon’s body. To this day, she says she doesn’t know what happened or have any memory of the event.

And now, Koty rarely leaves the house. Sir Lin’s last words to him constantly echo in his head: “Remember, it was foretold.”

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