Hunter Huckabay, Contributing Writer
New York Magazine Features Writer Brock Colyar said America, specifically the LGBTQIA+ community, has changed a lot since the legalization of gay marriage. “Trans identity took center in the culture wars, new identities emerged, and generational differences in the community became apparent,” Colyar said, and the realization of this change is what fueled Colyar to write their upcoming novel “Gender Bender.”
Colyar is currently a writer for the New York Magazine, where they have written highly regarded articles such as “The Cruel Kids Table”an insightful piece of investigative journalism discussing the rise of the young right-wingers, and “It Must Be Nice To Be A West Village Girl,” an exploration of Gen Z’s transformation of the West Village in New York City. Colyar also started the newsletter “are u coming?”, which largely focuses on nightlife ranging from sports bars during March Madness to a night out on the town with Candace Bushnell, the inspiration for Carrie Bradshaw. In 2023, Colyar was the recipient of the ASME Next Award for Journalists Under 30.
“Gender Bender” is an exploration of different queer identities throughout America. In each chapter, Colyar explores a queer identity in a specific city. In the talk at the McGriff Alumni House, Colyar read two chapters from their book; one about their journey with nonbinary pronouns and another about asexuality, specifically in Chicago. The passages explore how complicated sexual identity can be and the misconceptions many people have about different identities. Colyar understands that examining sexuality through a black-and-white lens does not provide an accurate depiction of what it’s like. Instead, they understand that sexuality is complicated and even messy.
Colyar emphasizes that cities play an important role in shaping queer communities. When deciding what city to research asexual individuals in, they chose Chicago because queer people who live there are going against the grain by not living in New York or LA, two cities that have much more established queer communities. Colyar also considers Chicago to be a “quirky” city, which is fitting for a sexual identity which is regarded as being so different, even within the queer community. In another chapter in their upcoming book, Colyar will be focusing on bisexuality in Los Angeles as the city can often feel alienating due to its sprawling nature, and bisexual people often feel alienated within the queer community.
For “Gender Bender”, Colyar interviews a wide variety of people about the nuances of their sexuality. Many people have faced scrutiny for their sexual identity when it does not fit heteronormativity’s confines, and Colyar has honed their skills on approaching these sensitive topics. One of Colyar’s first jobs was with Peggy Orenstein, the author of the books Boys & Sex and Girls & Sex. For this job, Colyar was tasked with going to frat houses at Northwestern University (their alma mater) and interviewing “frat bros” about their sex life.
Colyar hopes that “Gender Bender” is beneficial to the queer community, where individuals within it are often “more unalike than similar” due to its vast size. For this reason, Colyar is approaching this book with the mindset of making sure that it is not an academic thesis, but rather a “fun, sexy and relatable” book that anyone can pick up and understand.