Opinion

It’s official: I’m history. Just saying that I am humbled is not enough: It is an honor of a lifetime. By the title of this column, I’m not talking about my age, but something that I’m still processing. There have been many...

It's been a month since the announcement of the latest iteration of the GOP administration’s ban on Transgender service in the U.S. military, jeopardizing up to 15,000 currently serving US troops as well as possibly preventing future Trans volunteers. What’s...

This week I had a great honor. While we in the United States are concerned with the state of our struggle for equality, and worry each day how the Trump administration wants to dismantle the gains we’ve made, I had...

A whole bunch of us queer folk, our organizations, our allies, family, and friends fought hard for decades for the simple, basic, human right to marry. On June 26th, 2015, we thought we had finally attained that right for all...

I doubt very many of us thought 2017 would be a banner year in terms of civil rights gains in our community. I also highly doubt many of us saw coming the bizarre, chaotic, and cryptic direction of this administration...

OK, someone has to say it. We’ve survived the first year of the trump administration, but it has done damage to both the country’s reputation and our community. And if you feel that way, 2018 is your year to correct...

When I was young, about 11, Jewish kids didn’t acknowledge Christmas as anything other than just another day, but we appreciated that it meant something important to our Christian neighbors. The reality was, since our neighbors were Christian, it was...

Approaching the holidays, it’s not hard as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community to run afoul of non-affirming faith based ideas, groups, and people. As someone raised in a small Southern Illinois town who kept any remote thought of my gender,...

I am an openly gay man, so you might say you hate the sinner part of me but love me as a person. You also might tell me my civil rights are special rights that infringe on your beliefs. But...

Much has been made of the lack of attention to human rights by President Trump on his recent excursion to Asia. This, by and of itself, represents the United States giving up the mantel on this subject since we first gained...

Is it not obvious by now who is controlling President Donald Trump and his anti-LGBT crusade? Vice President Mike Pence, who made a national name for himself as governor of Indiana by pushing “religious-liberty” laws to allow citizens to ignore...

I’m going to take a liberty and break one of my major rules about LGBT publishing that dictates that all coverage must be about or for the LGBT community. That rule is typically in place because we have mainstream media for...

I came of age in the 1980’s, a decade of immeasurable loss in the gay community. I watched and lived through the often painful march towards (more) equal rights in the workplace, in social services, in media and in the...

I’ve been traveling out of the country for the last couple of weeks, and with what seems to be so much disagreement in our community on a range of issues, and the ongoing doubts about where our struggle is leading,...

Donald Trump and his fake excuse and misdirected attack on the NFL players who are kneeling for social justice have some people saying it’s a sign of a leader cracking down on the First Amendment, which leads to an authoritarian...

I saw a picture today of a young gay couple standing next to an older heterosexual couple. Then, I noticed that the two men were holding up their hands to show their wedding rings and the older couple must be...

This month, NLGJA: The Association of LGBT Journalists has its annual convention, held this year in Philadelphia. The organization and its membership may not be what you expect. For the most part, the focus is not on LGBT media, but...

A few weeks ago, at a campground in southeastern Missouri, I eavesdropped on a group of middle-aged gay men reminiscing about their criminal pasts. They told of police officers in parks, highway rest areas, and public restrooms, masquerading as gay men...

It’s the last week of August — or what are known as the lazy, hazy last days of summer. Soon schools will open and, as many of us will recall, many teachers will ask their assembled students, “What did you...

To the entire LGBT community: Let’s begin as a community to state the truth without putting lipstick on a pig. Personally, it sickens me when I see someone from GLAAD or HRC on television calling conversion therapy “praying the gay...