She pulled a weathered scrapbook from beneath the bar. It wasn’t filled with professional photos, but with blurry Polaroids: drag queens in mid-twirl, couples holding hands in shadowed parks, and protest signs painted on cardboard.

Regina’s laughter was like gravel and silk. "That’s the trick they play on you, Leo. They want you to think you’re the first one to ever feel this way. If you think you’re the first, you’re alone. If you know you’re part of a lineage, you’re an army."

"This is LGBTQ culture," she whispered. "It’s not just the parades and the brand deals. It’s the way we took care of each other when the hospitals wouldn't. It’s the 'House' mothers who took in the runaways. It’s the slang we invented just so we could talk to each other in public without being caught."