Qmmunity: Ding-Ding-Ding

A farewell to Pride Month and a hello to July. Austin continues to be hot, humid, and full of queer stuff, so your humble editor returns to my usual column mode. Thanks to everyone I interviewed for being delightful conversationalists even though our correspondence was me sending you emails. An email can be a conversation, right? 

But in more pressing news, auditions for Austin’s gender diverse drag troupe Boyz of Austin are open! Through July 4, aspiring Boyz can apply through the Google form in the troupe’s Instagram bio, with the caveat that only 10 performers will be chosen for the July 15 audition show. With the theme “Boyz of Anarchy,” the troupe encourages creativity among auditioners: “We invite your rage, your joy, your anger, your laughter, and whatever else you wish to bring to the stage for the theme and the show.” Check out @boyzofaustin for more details.

Austin’s gay voices are on the big-ish screen with recent Waco Independent Film Festival Best Texas Short nominee “This Is Texas.” From filmmakers John-Carlos Estrada and Zak Zeh’s film studio Arco Iris Creative House, this LGBTQ+ short follows our own Austin Gay Men’s Chorus in the lead-up to performing at GALA Choruses Festival. While this isn’t Estrada and Zeh’s first doc in the WIFF lineup – that honor belongs to 2024’s Barbette + Fontaine – their new short’s entry is, as their Instagram relates, “especially meaningful” as a sign that “communities across Texas continue to embrace, engage with, and support these stories.” Consider taking the day trip on July 18 to catch the short when it drops at Waco Civic Theatre, 12:30pm. 

Ding-ding-ding: That’s me ringing the alarm that OUTsider 2027 submissions have opened! Actually, they opened mid-June and I was off in interview-land – away from my alarm and unable to ring it. Better late than never! This year’s theme is “Dreaming US Into Being,” which focuses on “the power of queer and trans creatives who are inspired by – and who inspire – radical acts of worldbuilding.” That means applying artists’ work should consider, well, creation from far-out futures to simply livable queer communities. Drop your submissions into the internet box via outsiderfest.org/2027-theme anytime before July 20.

Indie and underground film distro Muscle Distribution may have its location as Brooklyn, N.Y., but once upon a time, founder Elizabeth Purchell was an Austinite. (And she technically still programs the nifty and niche series Queer Cinema: Lost and Found over at AFS.) Her company’s been slinging great restorations and first-time releases of queer films from all around the genre pool, from queer Brazilian soccer feature Onda Nova (1983) to Louise Weard’s viral trans anthology series Castration Movie. Now they’re asking all y’all cinephiles to help fund an underseen but important quadrant of 4K restorations from the Seventies and Eighties: Pumping Iron II: The Women, Sparkle’s Tavern, Screamplay, and Off the Wall. Their goal’s $60,000, and at time of writing, they’re halfway there with 30,937 buckaroonies. Learn more about Muscle, their goals, and how to contribute to their Kickstarter at muscle-distribution.com.

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This article appears in July 3 • 2026.

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