Author: Bisma Farzansyed

Hey there, Lavender Phoenix Community! 🌈 My name is bisma/phul; I’m LavNix’s Cultural Strategy Organizer, and writer of many newsletters that you may have received since June 2022.  I am coming to you live—soaking the warm sun while sitting on my back patio on Ohlone land (aka Oakland)— as I am knee-deep in my transition

On the eve of my 18th birthday, in the starting-to-become-summer month of May of 1980, I got to sleep in the arms of my boyfriend Danny. Having spent an overnight with him, in a friends spare bedroom, making love (before AIDS), away from the prying eyes of our families and the ‘fag bashing’ we feared,