They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. -President-elect Donald J. Trump at his campaign launch, June, 2015 I’m weeping for my country. It has stepped decidedly backwards. Change. Hope. Progress. All dirty words. Obstructionism won the day. Now that … Continue reading
The other day, I listened to Kate Bush in the car on my commute to and from work, specifically tracks from The Whole Story. This album has a special place in my heart and history. I first heard it, and … Continue reading
I’m a long-time reader of the comic strip pages in newspapers. Peanuts and Doonesbury were favorites growing up. Nowadays I like Luann and Pearls Before Swine. And of course I’m thrilled that Berke Breathed has revived Bloom County. Even back in the day, I tried … Continue reading
The homophobia that Joe Morgen, Duke Ellington’s publicist, possessed only reflected the homophobia of the society at large in the late 1950s. Around the time the New York Times ignored Strayhorn in its review of Such Sweet Thunder, a move … Continue reading
Self-haters gonna hate. Earlier this week, gay Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana made harsh statements about same-sex couples raising children. We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one… No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: … Continue reading
“Love him, and let him love you.” – James Baldwin Out of nowhere, my friend started making loud, “Eww!” sounds. Over and over again, “Eeeeewwwww!!!” I was like, what? He said he saw two men on the TV, kissing. I … Continue reading
[Originally published in February 2012.] When I was about 13 I had to endure a week at Reverend Schlep’s Summer Camp for Men and Boys. It’s a right of passage in my family. My grandfather took my father. My father … Continue reading
Art Spiegelman’s masterpiece Maus deftly illustrates the slow descent into chaos experienced by European Jews as the Nazi menace took hold over their lives. The nightmare did not hit all at once, but in slow, dreadful paces. During the descent, … Continue reading
This is an easy one. On the one hand we have Orson Scott Card, an award-winning science fiction writer, who is also a raging homophobe who lives in his own little world of homophobia-land. On the other hand we have … Continue reading
Dear Mormon Temple of Oakland, Hi. You don’t know me, but we’re neighbors. As such, I thought I’d give you some neighborly advice in regards to marriage equality – you know, that whole gay marriage thing that you got so … Continue reading