Celebrating International Lesbian Visibility Day: Honoring Our Sapphic Sisters

Every April 26th, we pause the chaos of the world, turn our hearts (and playlists) toward love, and raise a toast to the women-loving-women who continue to inspire, challenge, and redefine what it means to be visible. It's International Lesbian Visibility Day, baby—and it’s time to celebrate every fierce, funny, complex, tender, and unapologetic lesbian out there.

This day isn’t just about rainbow flags and reposting iconic memes (though don’t you dare skip those)—it’s about recognizing, uplifting, and honoring the visibility of lesbian voices, especially those who have been silenced, erased, or overlooked.

Because visibility? Visibility saves lives. And honey, it’s about damn time we let the sapphics shine. 💖🌈

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🌹 Who Are We Celebrating?

Let’s be crystal queer: the lesbian community is not a monolith. It’s a rich, dynamic tapestry of identities and expressions. We're talking about:

• Butch dykes who swagger with style and strength.

• Soft femmes who slay with glitter and grace.

• Nonbinary lesbians, gender-expansive cuties who proudly claim their space in the sapphic spectrum.

• Trans lesbians—yes, babes, trans women are women, and many are proudly lesbian.

• Disabled lesbians, Black and brown lesbians, neurodivergent lesbians, elders, and baby dykes finding their voices.

Visibility means seeing all of them. Not just the ones with big followings or cute couples' selfies. All lesbians deserve to be seen and celebrated—not just tolerated, not just represented as side characters in someone else’s narrative, but centered, amplified, and adored.

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📖 A Little Herstory

Did you know that the first documented lesbian rights organization was Daughters of Bilitis, founded in 1955 in San Francisco? These queens were organizing, advocating, and building chosen families decades before “lesbian” was even uttered on mainstream TV. And don’t get me started on Sappho, the ancient Greek poet whose name is literally the root of "sapphic." That girl had bars and babes—centuries ago!

Lesbians have always been here: marching, loving, protesting, writing, singing, and serving looks while fighting for justice.

From Audre Lorde’s revolutionary poetry to Martina Navratilova’s sports domination... from Cheryl Dunye’s cinematic brilliance to Kristen Stewart’s “vampire but make it gay” era... from Wanda Sykes to Roxane Gay to Hayley Kiyoko... lesbians have carved out space in every corner of culture, often against all odds.

And let’s not forget the community heroines we don’t see on TV—the ones organizing mutual aid, writing fanfic, creating safe spaces, mentoring queer youth, or just living their truth in a world that still tries to make that hard.

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💥 Why Visibility Matters

Visibility is more than just being seen—it’s being understood, respected, and celebrated. For so long, lesbian identities were flattened into caricatures: the lonely spinster, the hypersexual fantasy, the angry man-hater. (And listen, sometimes a little rage is righteous, but we contain multitudes, baby.)

When lesbians are visible in all their diversity, it gives others permission to exist authentically. It gives that closeted teen in a small town a reason to keep dreaming. It tells someone navigating their first crush that what they feel is valid. It shows the world that lesbian love is soft, fierce, complicated, joyful—and always worthy.

And let’s be real: visibility isn’t just about being seen in safe ways. It includes the messy, sexy, raw, and radical. Visibility includes the kinky, the poly, the leather dykes, the stone butches, the soft dommes, the scissoring ladies you joked about (yes queen, we love a good sapphic trope as long as it’s ours to reclaim 😘).

We celebrate all forms of lesbian love and desire today.

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💌 How You Can Show Up for Lesbians Today

If you’re a lesbian: Baby, this day is yours. Take up space. Love loudly. Share your story. Wear your pronoun pin, rock your carabiner, repost that selfie from Pride '22 where you looked like a damn dream. Your existence is a revolution.

If you’re not a lesbian: Today’s your day to uplift and celebrate. Here’s how you can show up:

• Share stories and art by lesbian creators.

• Donate to organizations supporting lesbian visibility and rights.

• Reflect on your biases—are you really listening to all lesbians, or just the ones who match your aesthetic?

• Tell the lesbians in your life how much you appreciate them. Send a text, buy them a drink, write them a love note, whatever feels right.

And always—always—defend lesbian spaces and lives. Whether online, in politics, in publishing, or in your friend group, make sure lesbians are heard and honored, not tokenized or erased.

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🌈 Final Thoughts from Your Favorite Queer on the Mic

International Lesbian Visibility Day isn’t just a hashtag—it’s a call to see, to honor, and to fight for lesbian joy, safety, and truth.

To every lesbian who’s ever had to explain herself, closet herself, defend her love, or carve out space in a world that didn’t want to make room—this day is for you. And we love you, deeply and deliciously.

Keep scissoring through time and space, babes. The world is so much gayer because you’re in it.

Happy Lesbian Visibility Day. 💖

In Solidarity, Always

- Ryder

Ryder Tombs Heat Scale: Why I Made My Own, and Why Heat Levels Matter in Romance

Romance readers are many things—loyal, curious, emotionally feral. But one thing they aren’t? Mind readers. And when it comes to steam levels, a little clarity can make all the difference between a favorite reread and a hard pass.

That’s why I created my own heat scale.

Not to oversimplify the wildly diverse landscape of romantic storytelling, but to give readers (and myself) a clear, intuitive shorthand. Whether you're into yearning glances that never quite land or you want to know exactly who’s doing what, where, and how loud it got—your expectations deserve to be honored. And let’s be real: consent starts with clear labeling.

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🔥 So… What Are Heat Levels?

In the romance world, “heat level” refers to how much sexual content is included in a story—and how explicit that content is. It’s about tone, detail, emotional intimacy, and how sex weaves into the arc of the characters. Is it the emotional climax? Is it part of the chaos? Is it sacred? Is it nasty?

Heat levels aren’t about shame or snobbery. They’re tools—for both the writer and the reader. They help guide the tone, the vibe, and yes, the degree of sweat required to read a scene without blushing in public.

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📚 Why the Standard Labels Didn’t Work for Me

You’ve probably seen the usual terms floating around: closed door, open door, fade to black, steamy, spicy, sweet, erotic, sensual. And while they all mean something, they also often mean different things to different people.

One reader’s “steamy” is another’s “that’s it?” One person’s “tasteful fade to black” is another’s disappointment.

As someone who writes queer romance that shifts between tender yearning and moral-compromising lust, I needed something more specific, more intuitive—and honestly, a little more me. Something that didn’t sound like it came from a corporate focus group or the back of a Hallmark DVD.

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✍️ Why I Made My Own Heat Scale

I write queer stories full of tension, tenderness, kink, chaos, and catharsis. Some of them smolder. Some of them combust. And some of them politely fade to black while still wrecking you emotionally.

So I created a scale with three simple tiers—enough to capture range, but clear enough to never confuse:

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💙 Slow Burn

Friction implied, not described. Emotion comes first. You’ll feel everything… except the thrusting.

No on-page sex here—just tension so sharp it could cut you. Kisses that feel seismic. Stares that last too long. For readers who like to ache with their protagonists, who live for the quiet devastation of a touch that never quite lands.

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🔥 Soft Focus

Clothes come off. Beds get messy. The camera pans away, but we all know what happened.

There’s sex, but it’s not the anatomical breakdown kind. It’s sensual, emotionally loaded, and more about what it means than how it’s done. Think indie movie vibes: implied moans, tasteful lighting, messy sheets, and a lot of feelings.

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🚿 Full Steam

Explicit, no euphemisms. All fluids accounted for. Proceed with hydration. May or may not involve broken furniture and moral compromise.

This is where it gets graphic. No metaphors, no cutaways—just a front-row seat to all the action. Kinks? Maybe. Regret? Optional. Carnal detail? Absolutely. This is the tier for readers who want it hot, honest, and possibly unholy.

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📎 A Note on Transparency — and the Graphic You’ll See Everywhere

To make things even easier for readers, I designed a visual infographic version of this heat scale—and I’ll be including it in every book I release from now on. Whether you’re reading digital or physical, the heat scale will be right there to help set the mood.

In addition, I’m adding a heat level disclaimer to every story summary, right up front with the blurb. That way, you know exactly what to expect before you ever crack open a chapter. Whether you're here for soul-deep tension or wild, sweaty chaos, you’ll never be caught off guard.

I’ve included the infographic in this post below—it leans more gay than dark academia (aesthetic goals aside), but honestly… that’s kind of perfect. It reflects me, the stories I tell, and the community I write for.

Because your time, your boundaries, and your turn-ons? They matter.

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🎯 Why Heat Levels Matter

At the end of the day, this isn’t about limiting stories. It’s about honoring the experience. Steam level isn’t just a tag—it’s a promise. One that says: “This is the kind of emotional and physical intimacy you’ll find here. Enter accordingly.”

For readers, it builds trust. For writers, it builds intention. For me? It’s a way to embrace the full spectrum of queer storytelling—from quiet yearning to loud moaning—without ever losing the thread of consent, clarity, and care.

I’ll always write what feels honest, messy, intimate, and sometimes a little unhinged. But I’ll also always let you know what kind of unhinged you’re getting.

Three tiers. No confusion. Just vibes.

-Ryder

Asexuality Is Real, Valid, and Worth Celebrating—Every Damn Day

Today is International Asexuality Day, and I want to use my voice—not to speak for ace folks, but to stand with them. I’m not asexual. I’m gay. But being part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella means showing up for the whole acronym—not just the letters that apply to me. 

Asexuality is one of the most misunderstood and overlooked identities in the queer spectrum. And let’s be honest: it’s not because ace folks aren’t trying to be heard—it’s because too many people are unwilling to listen.

So let me be crystal clear:
Asexuality is real.
Asexual people are not broken.
They are not confused.
They are not "just shy" or "late bloomers" or "waiting for the right person."
They are complete, whole, and valid—exactly as they are.

Too often, ace folks are erased from conversations about pride, identity, love, and belonging. Too often, their experiences are interrogated or dismissed with the kind of smug certainty that only ignorance can fuel. That’s not okay. It never was. It never will be.

And if you call yourself an ally—or part of the LGBTQIA+ community—and you’re still side-eyeing ace folks or treating them like an afterthought? It’s time to level up.

Being ace isn’t about lacking something. It’s not about what someone doesn’t feel. It’s about who they are—and how they navigate a world that often demands attraction, romance, or sex as proof of humanity. And yet ace people show up in that world every day, carving out space, demanding recognition, and living their truths out loud. That’s courage.

So today, I’m celebrating ace joy. Ace pride. Ace resistance. I’m honoring the beauty of self-knowledge, of people who live authentically in a world that constantly tells them they’re “not enough” just because they don’t fit the expected mold.

To my ace friends, mutuals, readers, and strangers: You are more than enough. You belong here, not as a footnote, but as a full chapter in the queer story. And if anyone tries to erase you, I’ll be standing next to you with a permanent marker and a bullhorn.

Let’s celebrate asexuality with the love, dignity, and pride it deserves—not just today, but every day.

In Solidarity, Always

- Ryder

From Silence to Strength: Why We’re Done Being Quiet

Once a year, students across the country used to go silent. Not because they had nothing to say—but because they were screaming with silence. It was called the Day of Silence, a powerful act of protest started in 1996 to highlight how LGBTQIA+ students were being silenced in schools. And let’s be clear: that silence was not peaceful. It was about survival. It was about making visible the way queer youth were (and still are) bullied, erased, and pushed into the margins.

But now? We’re done whispering. We’re done staying silent.

Welcome to the Day of (No) Silence—GLSEN’s radical reimagining of what this movement is about in 2025 and beyond.

This shift isn't just a rebrand. It’s a rebellion.

Because in a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is cropping up faster than Pride flags in June, when books about queer lives are being banned, and when trans kids are being denied healthcare and dignity, silence is no longer enough. The time for quiet mourning is over. We’re using our voices—loud, proud, and unrelenting.

The Day of (No) Silence is about speaking truth to power, whether that’s in your school hallway, on your feed, in the streets, or across dinner tables. It’s about refusing to let shame dictate the narrative anymore. It’s about visibility, about rage, about celebration. And yes, about refusal—refusing to be erased, censored, or ignored.

We honor the history of the Day of Silence. We remember the weight of that silence and what it meant. But this evolution? It’s necessary. Our silence brought attention. Our voices will bring change.

So shout, sing, chant, speak, post, write—whatever it is, just don’t be quiet. Not now. Not ever again.

📢 Say it loud: we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re done being silent.

In Solidarity, Always

- Ryder

Trans People Exist, and That’s Not Up for Debate

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, but let’s be real—visibility isn’t always safe. Visibility means risk. It means being seen in a world that too often wants you erased. And yet, trans people continue to exist, to thrive, to fight, to love, and to live authentically despite the constant backlash. That’s not just courage. That’s a revolution.

We are living in a time when politicians and bigots treat trans lives like a debate topic, when headlines question whether trans people deserve the same basic human rights as everyone else. Newsflash: They do. Trans people don’t need permission to exist. They don’t need approval. They don’t need to justify their identity to anyone, least of all to those who have no understanding of their experience.

Visibility is not enough. It never was. Being seen is not the same as being safe, and representation in media or on corporate Pride merch doesn’t mean much if trans people are still being banned from healthcare, fired from jobs, attacked on the street, and demonized for simply being who they are.

So today, if you say you support trans people, back it up with action. Donate to trans-led organizations. Call out transphobia when you see it. Protect trans kids. Vote against politicians who push anti-trans legislation. Support trans artists, writers, and creators—not just today, but every damn day.

And to every trans and nonbinary person out there: You are real. You are worthy. You are not alone. Your identity is not a question mark—it’s a fact. And no law, no insult, no act of hate can change that.

In Solidarity, Always

- Ryder