Rae Theodore's Blog

Swagger: A Celebration of the Butch Experience

We want your butch stories for an upcoming anthology.

Anthology to be published by Flashpoint Publications, a publisher of LGBTQIA+ stories.

What does being butch mean to you? We want to know about your experience of living and loving as a butch. Tell us about the complexities and intricacies of your butch identity, gender presentation and representation—the good and the bad. We want to know everything—from the moment you saw the possibility of your future self in someone else to the day y...

For the notorious RBG

I dreamt I saw RBG in the grocery store

pushing a cart
down the canned food aisle
in a black Adidas tracksuit
Her crocheted collar
a white flower
blooming in her chest

I told her I was sorry
we had asked her to hold on
for so long

She smiled and nodded
then went back to work
filling her cart
applesauce
sardines
blackberry jam

#RIPRBG

I’m still here

Philly Pride flag

I started thinking that I didn’t have anything to say.

Or at least that no one needed to hear what I had to say.

I heard the whispers of old ghosts telling me that my story isn’t relevant.

So, I was quiet. I worked. I listened. I planted flowers and a cherry tomato plant and rescued a jalapeño seedling that the cat had mostly eaten except for the stalk.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I read the the new Ivan Coyote book and lots of poetry, especially poems pen...

Words of wisdom

The Petco clerk tells me shes like a cockroach.

Ive see everything, honey. This aint gonna kill me.

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Who wore it better? Bieber or the lesbians?

She wears a pair of one-size-too-big jeans cinched at the waist by a thick brown leather belt. Her hair is styled like Justin Biebers circa 2012. Her laugh is loud like shattered glass.

And if it does, Ive got news for you. Were all gonna go sometime.

For some reason, her bravado makes me feel better.

Mr. Rogers said in times of crisis to look for the...

A birthday, bread pudding and Sheila E.

Your favorite butch had a birthday on Monday. I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t you have one of those last year? And why is this blog always about you?

Anyway, I’m getting over a cold, so it was a quiet celebration. W took me out to dinner at a local pub, and we brought home a chocolate bread pudding that we shared in bed while watching The Office. I highly recommend this activity.

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Shelia E. is in the house.

The day before my birthday, I had purchased tickets to see Sheila E. at City Winery...

Living the life

[image error]Last night, I attended a wine tasting and poetry reading hosted by my book group at a local independent bookstore.

We sipped wine and ate chocolate and gabbed. I shared a poem called “Boomerang Valentine” by spoken word poet Andrea Gibson and a poem I wrote that was just published in a collection of gender-neutral love poems.

In between wines, I boasted about some pieces I’ve written that will be published later this year.

“I’m living the life,” I joked.

And then I wondered, what if I am...

It’s your boi R-Bango

[image error]A few weeks ago, W and I spent the weekend in the Big Apple with friends.

On Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed slices of New York pizza, visited a used bookstore and saw Network on Broadway starring Bryan Cranston and the lovely Tatiana Maslany.

In the evening, we caught a burlesque show at a place called The Slipper Room in the lower east side. It was hot and crowded and almost impossible to get a drink, but as W said many, many, many times, “Naked girls are always good.”

On Sunday, we had a la...

Gender musings

[image error]I took my cat to the vet for a wellness check this week. Her name is Magic the Cat and she is nine years old and she is beautiful and she is my best friend.

“Hello, tiny man,” the vet said to Magic, who is obviously a tiny lady cat.

She called Magic a “tiny man” two times.

This was worrisome on multiple levels because Magic is a girl and a cat and not a man at all and where did this vet study veterinary medicine?

Perhaps projecting my own feelings about being misgendered onto Magic, I was too...

The Flannel Files is Dyking Out

[image error]The Flannel Files has a new obsession (besides Bryce Harper, Captain Marvel and my new Instant Pot). It’s a podcast called Dyking Out hosted by New York City-based comedians Carolyn Bergier and Sarah York. You had me at Dyke, Carolyn and Sarah. On each weekly episode, Carolyn and Sarah invite a guest to “dyke out” with them about a topic relevant to the LGBTQ world. But if you ask them, it’s really just another way to advance the gay agenda. Dyking Out is smart and fun and bingeable, much...

Praying to Saint Bryce

I’ve been in a funk lately.

Not the good kind of funk like Prince’s “Housequake” or Rick James’ “Superfreak.”

But the other kind.

Let me put it another way. My mood has been Orange Is the New Black, Season 5, which everyone knows is the darkest of all six seasons.

I haven’t been blogging or doing any other kind of writing. I haven’t been doing much at all, besides watching cooking shows. For some reason, I find them comforting.

[image error]The Phillies had their home opener yesterday.

I lit a candle like...