Opinion

Dear Equality Supporter, This past Tuesday, Governor Nixon issued Executive Order 15-04, directing state agencies to implement the Obergefell decision and ensure ALL married couples have access to the same rights and benefits. On that very same day, Governor Brownback of...

Last week, my phone rang and the voice on the other end very apprehensively said their name and then, “I’m the one who has been in a ‘conversion-therapy’ camp.” Then, they began to cry. Here’s how this saga began: A friend...

There is a national spotlight on the 50th anniversary of the first LGBT demonstrations in front of Independence Hall that took place every July 4 from 1965-69. While it was a pivotal change in the struggle for equality, some are...

Republicans, it’s no longer 1950. But, if you continue to take positions that are held by only those born in 1950, like opposition to marriage equality, you are destined to go the way of the dinosaur. So how are the...

I was an altar boy while I was growing up in Hicksville, Long Island, NY. I attended St. Ignatius Catholic School and went to Mass at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church. Starting in the fifth grade, becoming an altar boy...

Visibility is so very powerful. Seeing individuals who reflect and represent you and your ideas and identities is so very important. I would argue it is as vital to the transgender rights movement as it is to the gay and...

I made it through the first 11 minutes and 4 seconds of the Jenner-Sawyer interview. From a societal perspective, I saw a typical interview. The questions were exactly the inquiries Americans have been demanding for weeks now. ...

Some moments in life never lose their power. There are two moments, two short hours, that I will always, ALWAYS, remember. And both came together on the evening of Sept. 11, 2014. One memory remains as clear as it...

I started performing drag over five years ago. I guess you could say it was my little in into the St. Louis LGBT Community. I was young and naïve and at the time a self-identified lesbian. I named myself “Sum...

The Human Rights Campaign announced on July 30th that it would publicly support efforts to end the anti-trans “intention” of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (the intention is the policy to exclude trans women from the festival on the grounds...

The “T” has been silent for way too long. This year we will change that. As I attend events put on for the “LGBT community,” I notice the intense relevance of the "LGB" community and the stunning lack of “T”...

In early 2013, my partner Allan and I began hearing talk that nine of our friends and acquaintances were thinking of filing a lawsuit against the State of Arkansas challenging the ban and non-recognition of same-sex marriage. We were eager...

A few years ago I asked Judy Shepard how she felt about Fred Phelps, the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church which had picketed the funeral of her son Matthew in what was to become the seminal event that...

When you read this column, once again I’ll be on a plane 35,000 feet in the sky on another trip I never expected to be taking. A few weeks ago I thought I’d be in New York this Sept. 9 for...

The last couple weeks have saddened those of us who love the freedoms this country offers and who have tried over the last few decades to make those freedoms inclusive — but there is a silver lining. Masses of people...

This week, I’m writing about an issue that sheds new light on a subject we all think we know: Stonewall. Earlier this week, my husband Jason, who teaches creative writing at Boston University, handed me an anthology of the best...

I’m writing this column on Jason’s and my third wedding anniversary. Since marriage is something new for our community, and us, I thought I’d share what has been a learning process. As everyone says, marriage is an institution that takes work....

This column could be filled with the names of those in the LGBTQ community who expect or should be considered for position in the Biden/Harris administration. But there’s something even more important at the moment that needs to be addressed....