Qstack Readers Select | April 2025
Queer Substack favorites - with guest Jerry Portwood of The Queer Love Project
Welcome back to Qstack Readers Select, a bi-monthly, curated selection of queer Substacks—chosen by Qstack readers—highlighting and celebrating the enormous talent of our queer writers.
Previous Editions:
For this edition, Jerry Portwood of The Queer Love Project has selected five newsletter writers who display ongoing commitment to the queer community and great writing.
I’ll admit, I was a Substack skeptic at the beginning. As the Digital Editorial Director at Rolling Stone until 2021, I was miffed that people would pay individual writers a subscription fee (some of them our long-time contributors), yet they wouldn’t do the same for 50+ years of our magazine’s archives.
Then I started following a few publications that had excellent writing—including Sari Botton’s Oldster Magazine and Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Open Secrets —and I submitted essays to them to see what the process was like. It convinced me that the community and engagement was legit. When I decided to launch my own indie pub last year, I chose to do it here. Now, I’m fully converted.
The Queer Love Project has only been around eight months so far (we launched in August of 2024), but the response has been overwhelming and the support inspiring. We publish an original personal essay by a new writer every week—think of it as “Modern Love” but queer—and pay our contributors. On top of that, we have the QLP Questionnaire and have had dozens of folks share their experiences to build an archive to help others see how we put ourselves together in creative ways (even QStack’s own Troy Ford!)
Just as one should be a good literary citizen and buy, read, and share books—especially those from small, indie presses—I believe we should support others when we can and have subscribed to many to spread the love.
One of the first was Zachary Zane’s BOYSLUT since I was already familiar with his work. Not only has his recommending QLP brought in hundreds of subscribers, I even stepped out of my comfort zone and published a nonfiction piece of erotic writing with him—and it was a great experience!
Erin Reed’s Erin In The Morning produces excellent journalism and has allowed me to stay current with all that is going on with the trans community in these precarious times. (**Erin was featured in the December edition of Qstack Readers Select.)
I just discovered Queer Archive Fever and love it so much, and my old friend and colleague Mark Blankenship is giving us the deep cuts at The Lost Songs Project.
It was difficult to choose just five to highlight, but I picked the following since I have come to rely on them and look forward each time I see them pop up in my inbox or refresh on the app.
Hope you’ll check them out and enjoy them as much as me!
Ty Beaver | Sitting Queerly
I’m starting with one of QLP’s earliest readers and supporters. I noticed Ty (He/Him) liking and sharing Notes about our stories, so I reached out to him to see if he’d be interested in contributing. He quickly agreed to answer our questionnaire. I’ve learned a ton from Sitting Queerly: about being in a mixed orientation marriage, about bisexual erasure, about living with depression and much more.
We haven’t met in person yet—he lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States—but when I saw one of his Notes about a creative dry spell, I invited him to join a writing group I organize via Zoom. Now I’ve read parts of his in-progress novel and received great criticism on my own novel, essays, and short stories. And I can’t wait to read or experience his work—in whatever format it arrives!
Here’s a snippet from I Still Get Things Down From High Places:
“Finally, at the beginning of June last year, I worked up the confidence to tell my wife in no uncertain terms that I needed to explore my sexuality, I needed to experience physical intimacy with a man. Not right now, not in a month, I don’t have a man waiting in the wings (or the sheets), but it’s something I need. I told her I still love her and enjoy sex with her and will place our relationship and the needs of our kids as a priority regardless. What I seek is supplementary, not replacement; no one person can completely meet the needs of another, and while that is taboo in our culture when it comes to sexual behavior, there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t apply to it. I stressed that we didn’t need to discuss at length now, more that I wanted her to know where I am at so she wouldn’t be blindsided.”
Ben Greene | Good Queer News
After the November election, and especially after the inauguration, I noticed so many people were floundering—and rightly so. Many felt like they couldn’t muster the energy or enthusiasm to write, let alone publish. Enter Ben Greene’s Good Queer News. A trans author who published the book, My Child is Trans, Now What? A Joy Centered Approach to Support, Ben is an advocate and activist who’s helping organize the resistance. The ebullience and verve for promoting the positive—not just the bad, ugly, and scary—is infectious. In a good way! And I’m here for it…
A taste of Nothing but Good Queer News!
“Hey folks! This week has been a great one for queer victories! Lots of really great movement in the courts, as well as some amazing stories of folks truly listening to the stories of trans folks and beginning the journey to allyship. It is so crucial to remember that no matter how things might feel, no matter how much bad-news-only reporting floods at us from all sides, there are always good things happening. You just have to choose to look for them.”
Molly Booker | Magic in the Mess
I learned about Molly Booker’s Magic in the Mess when she submitted an essay, The Mixed Tape That Led Me Home, after I published an open call for music-related essays. And I’m so glad she did! Full of inspiration and raw, unfiltered insights, Molly describes the space she’s creating as “a community, a playground, and a sanctuary for those who are ready to stop searching outside and start finding the magic within.”
A bit from Have you ever felt alone… while lying next to someone who was supposed to love you?
“I thought if I could just have a man, be chosen by one, that was already a win.
I thought love was supposed to hurt a little.
I thought sacrificing my own needs was noble.I let men use my body even when it didn’t feel good, loving, or right.
I felt shame for how I allowed myself to be treated—and for how deeply I longed to be seen.
I was always asking, “Am I a good fit for him?”
It never occurred to me to ask: “Is he a good fit for me?””
Brandon Kyle Goodman | Messy Mondays
I don’t use TikTok and try to restrain myself from going down the IG Reels route, but Brandon Kyle Goodman’s Messy Mondays is what I feel I can handle when it comes to being extremely online. His enthusiasm! His whims! His thirst traps! So much fun, I can’t help but smile when I’m scanning a post, looking for the mix of outrageous and inspiring. He even includes a glossary so you understand the nomenclature! You’ll never forget the uses of heaux…
A sample from How to identify your turn ons!
“I ask Pussy what should people know about sex? She responds, ‘This may be surprising coming from me darling, but sex isn’t just about genitals. It should be an exploration of pleasure!’ She goes on to say, ‘You know some people don’t even know what turns them on.’ Her line is completely inspired by our Heauxmmunity. Over the last few years of Messy Mondays, something I’m always asked about is how to figure out our turn ons and identify what brings us pleasure. As Pussy says, ‘sure [people] might say blow jobs, getting eaten out, a big dick, a phat juicy ass…but turn ons can be so much more.’”
Aidan Wharton | Gay Buffet
One of the most popular newsletters in the LGBTQ+ space, Aidan Wharton is an actor and creative and so damn friendly, he manages to charm just about anyone to his progressive POV. And he LOVES being gay! I also took the initiative to reach out and commission him to write a piece for QLP, and Dating a Throuple Is Like a Martini Glass remains one of our most popular. We still haven’t met in person, although we both live in New York City, but he’s going to read his essay at an upcoming event in the East Village, so I look forward to giving him a big hug.
The way Aidan curates and aggregates Gay Buffet is breezy and accessible: a “Tasting Menu” (roundup of headlines), a “Main Course” (something meaty and filling that is typically more personal), and a “Sweet Treat” (a rec or some sort of endorsement). Lately, he’s added Gay Gourmet as a new weekly vertical for paid subscribers in which he offers advice on dating, relationships, sex, and more. Delicious.
An amuse bouche from Man, Do I Love Women:
“Thank you to the women who are there with us through adulthood. To the best friends who are there with a snuggle on the couch. To the ones who fly in and come straight to your house to gab. To the ones who come over when you just need a good cry or the ones who text you when they know something is wrong but that you don't have the strength to reach out by yourself. Maybe they've been friends since childhood, maybe they're coworkers, maybe they're new friends, but their presence makes the world and our lives immeasurably better.”
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Thanks for curating this short list of queer voices to check out, Jerry (and Troy) ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I don't know whether to be more flattered that someone finds my writing worth sharing with others or that they find it worth sharing alongside so many other powerful voices. Thank you, Jerry!