LNmag.
We used to be a handmade zine passed around WA & CA — read about the relaunch and subscribe →

Hello, Nation. <3

LNmag is an independent magazine for lesbian, queer, and non-binary women — covering culture, lifestyle, news, and community with the depth that a scrolling feed doesn't leave room for.

Two women laughing and embracing on a sunny city street, one holding a bouquet of white hydrangeas.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels

The Radar
Reading

Queer book club picks are trending toward short story collections this season — easier to finish between everything else going on.

Listening

A wave of new queer-hosted interview podcasts are skipping the origin-story episode entirely and starting mid-career. Refreshing.

Watching

Sapphic subtext is out; sapphic text is (finally, slowly) in. More on this in an upcoming Culture feature.

Hot take

The group chat has fully replaced the group text, and no one under 30 will explain why to anyone over 30.

LNmag, Vol. 1: Digital Relaunch. Est. Washington & California — handmade roots. Featured contributor
Vol. 1

This volume's featured stories, browsable by beat below. We're web-only right now — there's no print edition yet — and numbering it this way lets each volume hold together as its own thing, with room for an advertiser to sponsor one. Any writer can pitch any beat; see Contribute.

Where Did All the Lesbian Bars Go?

The number of dedicated lesbian bars in the U.S. has fallen by more than half in three decades. The people trying to bring them back are rethinking what a bar even needs to be.

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The Divorce Nobody Warned Me About

Leaving a marriage is hard enough. Leaving a marriage that took years to be legally allowed to have complicates the grief in ways straight friends don't always understand.

Sherri Jackson (Guest Essay)
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Your Gyno May or May Not Know What's Best

Most medical schools spend less than an hour total on LGBTQ-specific care. Here's what to ask for, and how to find a provider who already knows.

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Softball, Reimagined: Inside the New Wave of Queer Rec Leagues

Long before dating apps, rec league softball was where lesbians found each other. A new generation is bringing it back — with a lot less pressure to be good at softball.

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The Patchwork Problem: Why "LGBTQ Rights" Depends Entirely on Your Zip Code

Legal protections for queer women vary enormously by state and country — sometimes down to the county. Here's why that patchwork exists, and why it isn't going away soon.

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The Travel Guide Nobody Reads You As a Couple For

Planning a trip as a same-sex couple still means a layer of research straight travelers skip entirely. A few questions worth asking before you book.

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When the System Doesn't Show Up, We Build Our Own

Long before "mutual aid" was a hashtag, lesbian networks were quietly running informal safety nets — rides, meals, rent money, childcare. That instinct never really went away.

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Suiting Season: Tailoring for Bodies the Rack Was Never Built For

A guide to finding — or altering — suits that fit across the masc-to-femme spectrum, without paying alteration fees that outprice the jacket.

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The Non-Monogamy Conversation Nobody Has Before They Need It

Ethical non-monogamy isn't a personality trait, it's a set of skills. What the actual conversations sound like — and where they overlap more with traditional partnership than either side likes to admit.

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At Home With: A Loft Built for Two People Who Refused to Compromise on the Bookshelves

A studio-tour profile of a couple's shared 650-square-foot space, and how they split it into two distinct personalities without a single argument about the shelving.

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What Gay Bathhouse History Can Teach Today's Disappearing Community Spaces

A general-interest look at how one part of LGBTQ history dealt with losing its physical spaces — and what every part of the community can learn from it now.

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The Quiet Return of the Community Center

After years of community life moving almost entirely online, a handful of cities are seeing renewed interest in physical LGBTQ community centers — not as nostalgia, but as infrastructure.

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The Celebrities Who Stopped Explaining Themselves

A new generation of out actors and musicians are done doing media training on their own identities. That shift is changing what press coverage of them looks like, too.

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Small Print Is Having a Moment Again

As legacy lesbian magazines close or fold into bigger outlets, a wave of tiny independent zines and mailers are filling the gap — mailed, not posted, and proud of it.

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Apps R Us

Dating apps, community boards, safety tools — a running look at the tech that's built with lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in mind, and the tech that just says it is.

The Editors
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Your Neighbor's Dog Learned Your Name, and Other Small Wins

A running, unserious collection of the small good things happening in queer life right now. No analysis required.

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The Bar Nobody Wrote Down

Before there was an app for any of this, there was a phone number you had to already know. A start at collecting the community history that mostly never got written down in the first place.

The Editors
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A Lesbian Elder Who Keeps Showing Up For Us

Lisa Hartouni has spent four decades photographing the people institutions overlook. She's also a lesbian elder this community owes real, ongoing support.

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Upcoming
Pride Season
Major Pride festivals run nationwide from June through November — see our Events page for the big ones, or the full national calendar.
Ongoing
Monthly queer women's meetups — search Meetup near you
Building this
Community submissions are just getting started — see what's posted or tell us about your event