Voices
I arrived at Creating Change, the annual winter gathering of LGBTQ and ally activists organized by The National LGBTQ Taskforce, feeling broken and frightened. I worked hard for Hillary and felt shattered by the election. Every Donald Trump cabinet appointment since then confirmed my fears of coming harm to so many. And now he is…
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“Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let Earth receive her King!” It’s everywhere this time of year—in storefront windows, in the faces of little children as they write detailed letters to Santa, in the elderly couple on our street celebrating the holiday with their host of children and grandchildren, in the eyes of…
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Ever since November 9, I have been a in a state of disbelief, not because of the electorate’s decision to select the Republican Party’s candidate, as the President elect, but at the events that have occurred since. There have been a spike in hate crimes, even more divisive rhetoric being spoke and unfortunately there is…
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As I prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am reminded of the autumnal harvest time’s spiritual significance. As a time of connectedness, I pause to acknowledge what I have to be thankful for. However, as one who resides at the intersections of multiple identities—gender, race, sexual orientation, class, to name a few—this Thanksgiving will be…
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As a young seminarian in the late 1970’s, I enjoyed being a graduate student on the campus of a major university in the Midwest. The big library and vast intellectual community were a thrill, but the greatest joy was attending Sunday services at the university’s chapel, an elaborate modernist/Gothic building on the edge of campus.…
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Living today in New York City, my hometown of Calhoun, Georgia, often feels far away. But when I go home for the holidays and spend time with my friends and family, I’m easily transported back to my childhood, revisiting the house and the town where I spent my most awkward teenaged years willfully ignoring my…
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By now you have likely heard the tragic news of the Josh Duggar scandal. Here’s a quick recap: The eldest son of the Duggar family, the stars of TLC’s television series “19 Kids and Counting,” has admitted to sexually abusing some of his younger sisters and other children as a teenager. As news of the…
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There’s a scene in the first season of the television show “The Fosters” in which Lena, one of the mothers in a lesbian relationship, helps Jude, her foster son, remove polish from his nails after some kids at school harass him over it. She sits with him and explains that there are times when she…
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Four years ago, beginning in October of 2010, we in the United States saw a rash of gay teenager suicides—Asher Brown, age 13, in Houston; Seth Walsh, also 13, in California; Billy Lucas and Justin Aaberg, both 15, from Indiana and Minnesota; and Tyler Clementi, age 18, a freshman just beginning his studies at Rutgers…
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