In times of crisis, their gaze is a summon from nature to take action.
Confetti Westerns
Confetti Westerns is a column by Miles Griffis that explores the queer natural and cultural histories of the American Southwest.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
Flow like the San Juan
If western rivers have been recognized as legal persons, they must be queer and disabled persons.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
The enduring appeal of nude desert self-portraits
Posing as rocks and trees, photographer Laura Aguilar influenced others by becoming one with the landscape.
Posted inIssues
A legendary desert bird helped liberate me
A roadrunner inspired a writer to adorn himself with earthy pigments and strike a pose.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
How blue jeans got their sexy reputation
The artist George Quaintance painted some of the first erotic depictions of denim.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
What a 9,000-mile butterfly migration taught me about queer survival
‘Painted ladies’ go through extraordinary journeys, kindred to that of many LTBTQ+ people.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
Learning how to live and die with long COVID
The late artist David Wojnarowicz’s work has brought me back from the dead.
Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground
The desert’s Radical Faeries
How a gathering of gay men in the Sonoran Desert started a worldwide movement rooted in nature.
Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023
How the New Mexico whiptail became a gay icon
All members of the lizard species are female and reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
What the gray jay taught me about myself
The authenticity and playfulness of the naughty, queer bird is something to celebrate.
Posted inJune 1, 2023: Seen and Unseen
The flamboyance of wildflowers
My Pansy Craze Expedition commemorated an important era of queer culture before it was trampled like a super bloom.