Rachel Gold’s 2025 Recap: Highlights and LGBTQ+ Insights
For many in America, 2025 was a year that stretched on for a very, very long time. So many things happened that it feels like it will be an overwhelming chapter in a history book one day.
And Rachel and I were no less busy. Throughout 2025, we wrote blog posts, released new resource pages, and tackled the Big Themes of current LGBTQ+ politics. Check out some of the highlights of the year below.
Table of Contents
Resource Hubs for Resilience & Education
One of our most intensive 2025 accomplishments was the release of six new resource pages, each dedicated to a different topic important to us. These pages contain a mixture of accessible educational resources, fiction suggestions, and further media that brings us joy, comfort, and understanding.
Of course, we also have the crisis resource page for those who are in immediate need of guidance and resources to navigate tough situations.
Each of these hub pages is a living page, and will be updated as we encounter new resources that we want to share. If you know of a resource you think belongs on one of these pages, reach out to ash@ashtonrosewrites.com, and we’ll take a look to determine if we want to add it.
Check out the hubs here:
LGBTQ+ Blog Posts and Interviews
Of course, as Rachel’s thing is writing LGBTQIA+ Young Adult fiction, and we’re both queer and trans, much of our work centers LGBTQ+ topics. These posts are some of our top picks from this year, but not definitively the best ones.
Following the cultural moves by corporations away from supporting Pride and queer communities in 2025, Ashton read Carlos A. Ball’s Queering Corporate America over the summer. In a series of two posts, they explored first what we can learn from our history of working with corporations, and then the cautions that come with playing within the bounds of capitalist America.
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With transphobia once again on the rise, a focus on narratives—the ones we tell ourselves, the ones we’re exposed to, the ones we have about others—seems an essential tool. Rachel explored the science behind transphobia. Why might people be resistant to gender nonconformity? How does understanding their perspective help us cope and maybe even change minds?
Another important tool is remembering that we’re not the first to be having these experiences. There are hundreds, thousands, of LGBTQ+ elders who came before us, and more taking on that role each year. Our queer/trans elder reading list highlights some of the ones most influential for us.
Community is also valuable to us. Without supportive community, we wouldn’t be doing the work we do. We were lucky to be able to feature some of that community on the blog last year. Read our interview with Stephanie Burt about Super Gay Poems and her poetic tastes, or our conversation with Penny Mickelbury about her novel Payback and the vitality of community.
Lastly, 2025 was a year focused on experimenting with adaptation and accessibility. With the rise of AI as a tool used by many businesses and creatives, Rachel has been experimenting with it as well. They wrote about their experiences with it and how it can be assistive when they struggle with writing.
More 2025 Moments
A quick roundup of other moments and themes that made our 2025 great:
- We were able to send books to multiple LGBTQ+ resource centers and libraries who can share them with people in need!
- Rachel was at the annual GCLS conference in July, as well as Stephanie Burt’s release party for Super Gay Poems. Both were fantastic moments of LGBTQ+ community and connection.
- Rachel also attended Gaylaxicon in October, with even more sharing of the love of LGBTQ+ literature.
- We dove deeper into neurodivergence and its overlap with being LGBTQ+, exploring the topics in tandem.
- Rachel co-edited an issue of Sinister Wisdom focused on lesbian stories, which released in October.
- Our work was able to highlight and support a focus on nourishment, healing, and sustainability, three invaluable aspects of staying afloat right now.
We did a lot more in 2025, but that’s a pretty good roundup of the highlights. Stay tuned for what comes in 2026 and beyond, as we continue to find ways to add just a bit more hope into the world. Thanks for being a reader.
What other posts from last year did you adore? I’d love to hear from you! Let me know in the comments on this post if you’re so inclined.
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