An Interview with Lesbionyx Blog Founder, Javonne Crumby

Queer culture has changed immensely since the rise of the internet. Message boards, blogs, and social media offer us a way to foster community and begin relationships with individuals around the world. However, a handful of popular sites exert dominance over the queer blogosphere, often to the exclusion of racial and gender minorities within the community. Luckily the internet also gives us all the opportunity to create our own more inclusive spaces and Lesbionyx is one such space.

Javonne Crumby created Lesbionyx in response to the lack of representation apparent on popular blogs for queer women. “The decision to start the site came from a buildup of frustration,” she explains. “You look at these other sites and they cover stuff you can’t relate to.” Rather than create a space for queer women that simply included women of color (WOC), Crumby decided to make Lesbionyx WOC centered. “I wanted readers to understand that they are not an afterthought here. Lesbionyx is more than just posting a WOC-centric article every so often.”

Lesbionyx stands out with the intentional inclusion of all LGBTQ+ WOC. Mainstream queer blogs tend to focus on the femme experience, leaving bois to fend for themselves. In contrast, Lesbionyx hosts a section, “Boi Meets World,” specifically geared towards highlighting stories from and by WOC who identify as bois and/or prefer “they/them” pronouns.  

There’s no question how important it is to Crumby that all queer WOC feel welcome on Lesbionyx. In fact, she’s always accepting articles from WOC who want to be heard: not only does she have a core writing squad which changes from time to time, but she also accepts contributions from guest writers. This allows Lesbionyx to run pieces from women across a wide spectrum of identities.

In starting such an inclusive site, there are unexpected struggles that sometimes arise. Finding stock photographs of WOC can be a challenge, one Crumby solves creatively. She reaches out to artists on Instagram to secure permission to use their work and turns to mega-site Pinterest to find other options. As Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Crumby also oversees the editing for every piece run on the site. It’s an overwhelming amount of work, but a workload she’s willing to handle for the success of Lesbionyx.

Her commitment to this community is clearly paying off: in the fifteen months since Lesbionyx launched in October 2017, the site has managed to build a tight-knit community of readers. “Our community is what I’m most proud of,” Crumby tells me. “We have people who comment on all of our posts and share our stories with others. I’m really looking forward to building this community and reaching a larger audience.” With the care and dedication Lesbionyx offers queer WOC, I have no doubt that the blog and the community will only get stronger with time.

Be sure to check out Lesbionyx and follow them on Instagram and Twitter!