Heretic
from the Editor
June 2025
When I was asked to guest edit this Issue of Queer Majority, I instantly knew what theme I wanted: Heretics. For a long time, LGBT people were heretics by their very nature. Every advance we’ve seen in LGBT rights and acceptance is because of brave rebels who dared to challenge societal norms and the powers that upheld them. And yet today, now that LGBT culture has become mainstream, the LGBT community has made it a habit of persecuting its own. Then as now, in a climate where orthodoxy is rigid and the price of dissent is exile, a heretic is one who still dares to think for himself.
I know what it’s like to be exiled for heresy. The experience had such an effect on me, I wrote a whole book about it. Maybe you, too, know what it’s like. You’ve said the thing you’re not supposed to say. You’ve asked the question that makes the room go silent. You no longer feel welcome in a place you used to call home. There’s a strange grief in that — but also a kind of liberation.
This Issue is for all the apostates out there, whether you’ve shouted your heresies from hilltops or whispered them alone in the dark. May the courage of our contributors inspire each of us to bring our heterodox beliefs into the light.
We open the Issue with our cover story by Julie Bindel: “I Wasn’t ‘Born This Way’, and I’m Proud of It.” Bindel challenges one of the most sacred narratives in LGBT politics — the idea that sexuality is purely innate. For her, being a lesbian was and is a political choice. It’s a gutsy, brilliant piece, and exactly the kind of perspective this Issue was built around.
Lisa Selin Davis explores “The Agony and Ecstasy of Heresy”, a moving reflection on the allure of heresy and the pain of being cast out of your own milieu. Gay writer David Link examines “The Problem With Queer”, revisiting a Reason Magazine piece he wrote 32 years ago called “I Am Not Queer.” Philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith questions whether gender-critical speech is truly “hate speech” — or just inconvenient. And the sociologist Musa al-Gharbi reminds us that queer elites, despite the branding, are still elites.
Glenn Belverio takes us back to the ‘90s, when aligning with Camille Paglia could get you blacklisted — especially if you were a drag queen with a camcorder. Debbie Hayton argues that biological sex matters, but so also does the perception of sex. Cori Cohn writes about how progressive churches found Jesus in trans activism. Shannon Thrace offers a fierce feminist defense of drag. And QM Managing Editor Jamie Paul takes us on a tour through history as he traces culture war prudery back to its Puritan roots.
For her My Body and Other Adventures column, Talia Squires reflects on joy as a form of resistance in these tumultuous and too-online times. For our Artist Feature, Bradford Nordeen profiles British playwright Chris Thompson, whose tell-all podcast, Two Foreskins Walk into a Bar, celebrates the sacred delights of the profane.
The Heretic Issue also includes a Painted Story about the incomparable Brian Belovitch, who tells the deeply personal tale of life as Natalia, a transwoman in the New York club scene, and his retransition back to living as a man, paired with original mixed-media artwork by Karthik Aithal. In addition, all of the essays feature cover designs inspired by my vision for the Issue and wonderfully brought to life by QM’s production coordinator and lead designer Karina Ramos.
In our Business of Sex profiles, we get two different takes on erotic entrepreneurship — from Boy Butter founder Eyal Feldman and the “neocon kingpin of gay porn” Michael Lucas.
Finally, I had the chance to sit down with the iconic Andrew Sullivan, whose name has become almost synonymous with gay heresy. Whether or not you agree with him, you have to admire his insistence on saying what he believes, even when — especially when — it’s unpopular.
This issue is personal. For me. For the writers. Maybe for you, too. It’s about making room — for nuance, for disagreement, for deviance, in every sense of the word. Because if there’s no space for heretics, then all we’re building is a new closet.
Check out Ben's website to order his book Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic (2025).
