Seen: Stories about becoming yourself

In honour of National Coming Out Day on October 11, we're sharing two stories about queer journeys, self-discovery, and what it means to finally become your authentic self.

Part 1: Every time Billie Sainwood is intimate with a partner, she loses consciousness—a medical mystery that makes dating difficult.

Part 2: Kelsea Best is sleepwalking through graduate school until an unexpected encounter with a postdoc at a brewery forces her to confront feelings she's spent a lifetime trying to ignore.

Billie Sainwood is a poet, performer, and trans menace living in Atlanta. Her work has been featured in Had Magazine, the Atlanta Fringe Festival, and she was recently one of Bloodletter Magazine's 2025 Trans Voices in Horror. Her poetry collections WHAT WAS EATEN WAS GIVEN and 36 VIEWS OF MY BREASTS are available from Kith Books.

Kelsea Best is an Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University where she researches topics related to climate justice and equitable climate adaptation. She is a native of Nashville, TN and has been in Columbus for almost three years. She lives with her spouse, Ash, dog, Henry, and cat, Dany. When she isn't teaching and conducting research, Kelsea enjoys horseback riding, exercising, gardening, and reading everything from murder mysteries to fairy romance novels. She is a proud queer woman and nature lover.

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