When I moved to Dallas in 1992, I volunteered for several nonprofit organizations: I stacked food on the AIDS Resource Center food pantry shelves. I was an HIV counselor at the Nelson Teredo Community Clinic. I created four monthly newsletters. I sat on the boards of the Dallas Gay & Lesbian Alliance, Couples Metro Dallas […]
Category: Commentary
Posted inTop Stories
In praise of Drag Story Hour
Drag Story Hours have really come to the fore in our political consciousness in the last few years, as the radical right has strategically targeted events raising the visibility of individuals who are gender-nonconforming, transgender or nonbinary. I’m glad to say I’ve been to a Drag Story Hour (DSH). It was a joyous, but innocuous-seeming […]
Posted inTop Stories
Acknowledging queer women during Women’s History Month
They say history is told by the victors, and history in the United States is told from the perspective of white, cisgender, straight men. Our schools teach this narrative but then take the opportunity during certain months to tell the history of “the other,” showing that we are not the ones whose history is the […]
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Breaking down the LGBTQ ‘monolith’
We’ve heard this phrase a lot lately: The LGBTQ+ community is not a monolith. It gets used whenever the assumed homogeny of the community is called into question, serving as a reminder that not all LGBTQ+ share the same views or priorities. In politics, for example, one might stereotypically expect LGBTQ+ people to automatically support […]
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The power of queer obituaries
I enjoy reading the obituaries. You’re likely thinking, this person is a wackadoodle. I get why this strikes many as morbid. Yet, strange as it probably seems, few things are more life-affirming than obits. Particularly, for the LGBTQ+ community. Obituaries are far from dole, death-obsessed dirges. They are (pun intended) lively stories of lives: Composer […]
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What we lose when an LGBTQ+ bar closes
Shortly after the new year, I was stunned after learning another neighborhood business was closing. I was surprised by the abrupt message handwritten on a sign outside – and perhaps ironically revealed on Instagram–Harvey’s, an LGBTQ+ bar in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district announced its last day before closing for good. Once ground […]
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The next evolution of queer media is branded content
It’s no surprise that, as the decades have passed, media has evolved. Print journalism still serves its purpose, and there’s still something very soothing about sitting down with coffee and reading a magazine or newspaper. But we’ve officially entered the age of digital and branded content. The Meta Branded Content Project defines branded content as “any […]
Posted inCommentary
LGBTQ+ candidates are there as Chicago politics prepare to shift
The exhausting Chicago election cycle continues. Once the midterm and gubernatorial races were resolved, the Windy City was already midstream in campaigning for the 2023 municipal elections Feb. 28 (with runoffs April 4). Chicago could very well see a significant pivot in its municipal politics in 2023. A contentious term, not to mention some campaign […]
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6 up and coming LGBTQ+ politicians to watch in 2023
A record number of openly LGBTQ+ politicians won their elections in November 2022 and they’re taking office this January. One can only hope that this record number “rainbow wave” of LGBTQ+ candidates is a promising sign of growing progress. Despite a tough legislative fight that lies ahead for some cities and states, many queer and […]
Posted inCommentary
A new year and a new era of LGBTQ+ journalism
A new year brings with it the attempt to keep your New Year’s resolutions and start new projects. For me, there are no new resolutions, since years ago it became apparent that any resolutions I made usually didn’t make it through January, much less the entire calendar year. But there is that second item, new […]
Posted inCommentary
New year, still here, still queer
2023 has dawned. With a quick look back, let me definitively say newspapers did not die. I field that specific question all the time. My response is steadfast. We are here, we are queer. I add to that, newspapers and niche market media are still alive and well. Jeff Bezos has not knocked on the […]
Posted inCommentary
Make drag queens illegal? It’s happened before
The growing campaign to criminalize drag performers may seem quixotic given the mainstreaming of drag in popular culture. Indeed, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its spinoffs threatened to make drag passé, except for the most extravagant, outrageous, and outlandish. But perhaps it was inevitable that a backlash was due, because anti-drag hysteria is nothing new; in […]
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The youngest victims of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination
On Dec. 13, the Ohio State Board of Education voted 10-7 in favor of a non-binding resolution opposing proposed changes to the federal government’s Title IX protecting LGBTQ+ students. It was just one more blow for LGBTQ+ young people, who for much of 2022 have unwittingly found themselves at the center of one controversy after […]
Posted inCommentary
Respect in death for our trans siblings
Another mass shooting, another act of violence against our community. We’re numbed to it, deadened to the daily nature of murders of our siblings and only the largest, shocking numbers grab the headlines now. This is why we honor Trans Day of Remembrance, to make sure no life goes unremembered even if their story didn’t […]