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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of lgbtq+ short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

1740+ Lgbtq+ Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover incredible works of queer fiction right here, on this page of fresh new LGBTQ+ stories.

Lgbtq+ Short Stories – Page 2 of 117

Blood Orange

Submitted to Contest #292

I stare at myself in the mirror. The faint music is dooming through the room as I grip the sink so hard my knuckles turn white. What am I doing? Why can’t I just be happy and enjoy this? I hate this so much. Why did they throw this stupid party? I mean, I know why, but why? I hate parties; I thought I made that clear.No, no, it’s okay. They’re your friends, Xander. They could have ignored your accomplishment altogether. I screw my eyes shut, letting out a groan. I need to be grateful for this, my new position as team captain, for this party,...

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The Color Of Life

Submitted to Contest #292

The color of life is rich, dark, and beautiful, covering every centimeter of one’s existence without the deep realization that it is even there in the first place - it covers the ground where man has not marred it with their cruel creations, it dances behind eyelids when one is exposed to too much light.  And for me?  It sits in the head of my most beloved, life most jovial, accompanied by a smile so bright, so rare that one could go a thousand lifetimes and never get to see the beauty that I am lucky enough to awaken beside every ...

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Rainbow of Love

Submitted to Contest #292

Red. The color of my blood as it dripped down my arm. Their ice blue eyes, fully dilated, followed the trail of crimson beads dribbling onto the ground. For a vampire, they were quite self-controlled. I’d been injured before in their presence, of course. It never caused a problem. But it was not their hunger that was problematic. It was mine. I didn’t believe love at first sight existed until I glanced upon their face. An androgynous mix of features unique to them and them alone. I pined in secrecy, knowing that a creature as beautiful as th...

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The Frame of Grandma's Past

Submitted to Contest #292

Ella pulled up outside her grandma’s house and sighed. The house was a beautiful 1904 built colonial in a village in Upstate New York. Ella had grown up coming to this house every summer and school break, it was her second home. She wasn’t ready to clean it out and get it ready to sell, but her grandma had died over a month ago, and it was time.She got out of the car and walked up to the house. She could hear her cousins, Matt and Ryan talking loudly over the music blasting through their grandma’s built-in speakers. Their grandma, Josephine,...

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Caught You Looking

Submitted to Contest #292

Clarke I fidgeted nervously with the hem of my jacket. Who wears corduroy jackets? Hello, the seventies are calling and they want their clothes back. At least my olive-coloured shirt, with the semi-normal looking collar, didn’t scream I don’t know how to dress for a date! Too late. Too goddamn late. When I’d left home this morning, I’d been convinced I’d chosen the perfect clothes to impress the adventurous soul who’d agreed to go on a date with me. Because hookup apps were all the rage. He’d used an avatar of a koala bear, which he’d claime...

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Dear Blue, I hate you.

Submitted to Contest #292

Dear Blue, Blue used to mean something. It was a name for things that behaved like blue things—reliable, distant, inarguable. Ocean, sky, and the bruises on my knees after I tripped in front of the laundromat. But then you happened, and the word fell apart. Blue. Even writing it down feels like a betrayal. My white blood cells have spent the time repairing the damage, and here you are, peeling off the scabs. Blue. I hate you. I hate you, Blue. Reason 1 why I hate you.The Fall I hated you from the moment I met you, but I misread the signals. ...

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Brushstrokes and Blushes

Submitted to Contest #292

With a giant stretch towards the heavens, Amelia wriggles her fingers and slowly lowers them to the plate before her. The pillow-like touch of the burger and the gentle scrape of sesame seeds brush against her skin. There, from the contact alone, she could feel her magic flow from her core to the burger resting on the porcelain plate. Her golden eyes flutter shut and her lips mov out of instinct, a familiar pattern of magic and art as she threw intention toward the food before her. It leaves with a final zap, visible in a golden arch of ligh...

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Gray is the Color of a Runner's Ghost

Submitted to Contest #292

In the end, I trace it all back to my cousin's obsession with the history of literature. My cousin Daisy and I were born one day apart, and a few hours later, her mom died. Daisy and I grew up eating Lucky Charms together on Saturday mornings in front of a repeating cycle of our favorite Scooby Doo episodes. She was the first person I told when I realized that my crush on Fred from the movie meant something more than I was brave enough to admit. So when the casting call was put up for our school's musical production of Romeo and Juliet, I le...

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The Ares Express

Submitted to Contest #291

"Boosters dislodged," said the tinny voice of the Ares Express as an almighty but familiar lurch shook the shuttle. I watched the boosters, already two little toothpicks, zipping back down to Earth, where they would land on the launchpad for repairs and refuelling before the next launch. The Ares Express shuddered as we exited the atmosphere. I stared expectantly out the window as the haze thinned around us, then gasped. There they were, winking at us almost teasingly. The stars. I laughed breathlessly. This may have been my sixth time seein...

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A Tale of Two Prisons

Submitted to Contest #291

I woke up to another day. The hours between now and sleep weigh on me like a thousand ton's of paper, all of which gather potential like dust, but for their mass I hide from them never knowing what wisdom, knowledge or power is contained within them. I don't want to know. Opportunity and variance are gaping maws looking fast on my routine. Without which, what even am I? I spin to leave my bed, my solitary bed with my baby blue bedspread my mother gave me when I was a teenager and which I have rotated with my slate grey one for 32 years....

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The Fate That Feeds

Submitted to Contest #291

Pain makes even the innocent man a liar, but I was no man, and I’d forsaken innocence in pursuit of something greater.Whatever becomes of me tonight will forever be who I am, but if it is not she who is beside me, let death be kinder than I ever was.─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───The Tree from which wicked roots grew started as a myth among the Shadehaven’s feminal diaspora – if entered, there was no guarantee of exiting without being… changed by it in some way. It was awfully vague, and amateur in style; no more a fable to keep us dutiful first years at th...

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Shepherd's Pie

Submitted to Contest #291

It’s raining. It always is. This city is burning itself into extinction like a cigarette dying in the embrace of yellow-lighted streets. I sit in my empty office with a bottle of cheap booze in my hand, pretending I don’t hear the footsteps in the hall. My eyes quickly flock to the portrait of the Mayor hanging on the wall. Thomas Kingsley and his ever-watchful gaze. Over me.And then his spitting image is there, leaning against my doorway wearing a leather jacket. Like I never let him leave.“Hello, Jack.”Hearing my name i...

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A THREAT TO DECENCY AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Submitted to Contest #291

This story is set during the Lavender Scare, a real historical event in which thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals were investigated, fired, and blacklisted from U.S. government jobs as “security risks.” This piece is based on extensive historical research to ensure accuracy in language, government policies, and cultural attitudes. The quote from the 1950 Senate report, “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government,” is taken directly from historical documents and has not been altered or fabricated. While the characters are ...

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The Kiss

Submitted to Contest #290

“Hey Auntie, why aren’t you married?” My niece asked during our family’s yearly Christmas celebration as she was playing with a toy barbie and ken she got for christmas. “Sweetie, it’s not okay to ask someone that.” My brother-in-law said, surprised that such a thing would exit a sweet little child’s mouth. “But mommy said that people who aren’t married by their thirties will grow up to be sad lonely cat ladies” My niece recalled her mother say. “Well, your mother isn’t always right. I’m not lonely, and I don’t have a single cat. At least fo...

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For the Names I Dare Not speak

Submitted to Contest #290

My fingers trembled as I typed ‘PLEASE READ ALONE’ in the email title. I didn’t want to write an email. I’d written the letter twice already, first in pencil, then in ink. My hands hurt. My heart hurt. Every letter I typed hurt. It was a resignation to our friendship, the final nail in my coffin. But I couldn't wait another week to hand over the carefully written letter. It felt so impersonal—an email. It was time to unfollow Thalia on all her social media. I didn’t want to see any reply from her. I couldn’t. Or maybe I could and that was th...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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