Queer Joy Interview #15: Avery Miller
Avery (She/Her) and I met on 7/7/25 in Kilgore, TX to talk about Queerness in the deaf community, escape rooms, and Pride festival traditions.
“Queer joy is feeling accepted and happy to be yourself. It's walking into a space and feeling from head to toe that you’re you. It’s like joy but better. Queer joy feels like you’re on top of the world, on the highest mountain in the world and you’re just looking at all of these happy little rainbows. That's how it feels to me, just the most pure form of sunshine. Ya know when you wake up in the morning and you get to see the beautiful sunrise and the sun is shining through the clouds, it’s like that, it’s like pure sunshine.
Cathy, a really important person in my life, I call her Mama Cathy, gave me a rainbow bead bracelet and said “I want you to wear these and always feel safe. Know that I love you and I’m here for you, wherever you are, feel safe” it was such a nice feeling.
The necklace I got at a pride festival, this person selling it said '‘you can have it if you can guess what the acronym means.” The acronym is “WWTGGATD”, which stands for “what would the girls, gays, and theys do.” I had to have a hint, but I got it. The person who made the necklace was so excited, he said “oh my god, you know my jewelry!” It was really pure Queer joy, seeing him so happy about his art, he said “you can have it, don’t pay anything just take it, I want you to wear it with pride.”
Those are two items that make me have a lot of Queer joy because I feel represented and loved when I wear them.”
-Avery Miller (She/Her)
