Metro Weekly invited OutWrite 2020 participants to submit excerpts of their work for publication in the magazine’s third annual Literary Issue. We hope they exhibit the broad array of literary styles that will be on hand at this weekend’s all-digital affair. And what better way to read them than in our all-digital issue?
Feel free to browse through on your device of choice, or download for reading later at a time of your choosing! So sit back, pour a nice cup of hot (or iced) tea, and enjoy a good LGBTQ read.
Click the cover below to enjoy all of this year’s submissions!
Contents:
Elatsoe (Excerpt) by Darcie Little Badger p.25
Anura (Excerpt) by Imani Sims p.26
The Twilight Hotel (Excerpt) by Ruth Joffre p.26
COAL by Jewelle Gomez p.27
Wall Women (Excerpt from Blue Talk and Love) by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan p.28
boy if (Excerpt) by Carlito Espudo p.28
Imitation by Dena Rod p.29
The Far Side Mines (Excerpt from When We’re Done Here: Stories at the Edge of the World) by Paula Molina Acosta p.30
Monsters in the Closet // Scream (Excerpt) by Charles Jensen p.32
That Version of You by Christopher Gonzalez p.33
Friends never really ask about fathers (From the collection WHO’S YOUR DADDY) by Arisa White p.34
Stone and Steel by Eboni Dunbar p.35
Coconut Smoothie — A Collection of Poems written During The Pandemic (Excerpt) by Regie Cabico p.37
Joseph LoGiudice, the founder and clinical director of Manhattan's Liberation Psychotherapy, an LGBTQ-centered practice, has been indicted on charges of sexually assaulting two patients, including allegedly raping a man in his 30s in his office.
According to prosecutors, the patient -- who was attending therapy to cope with a sexual assault -- told LoGiudice he did not want to have sex because he was recovering from anal surgery.
At an October 1 bail hearing, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Claudia Khoury-Yacoub alleged that LoGiudice began sexually exploiting the patient shortly after he joined the therapy group in fall 2022.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned the voluntary manslaughter conviction of a man who killed a Black transgender woman, ruling that a lower court "erred" by preventing him from using the victim's transgender identity in his self-defense claim.
Samuel Ward Jr. fatally shot Paris Lee at her home in Cordova, Tennessee, on June 29, 2022. A Shelby County jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter in May 2025.
In testimony presented at trial, Ward's account was that he had gone to Lee's home and gotten into a verbal altercation with her, during which she asked him to leave. According to the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, he claimed Lee pointed a gun at him while they were at the top of a staircase, causing him to fall backward. He told police that he drew his own weapon and fired upward from the bottom of the stairs, striking Lee.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, has reportedly paid at least 29 accounts with histories of promoting anti-LGBTQ rhetoric for posts ahead of this year's midterm elections.
According to reporting from Uncloseted Media and The 19th, Meta pays these creators through Facebook Content Monetization, a program launched in 2024 that allows eligible creators to earn money based on the performance of their public Facebook posts, including text, Stories, Reels, longer videos, and photos.
Many creators celebrated the program's launch, with some reporting a major increase in their earnings. But critics say the program encourages inflammatory posts and so-called "rage bait" to increase engagement.
