Every culture has them. And we know what ours are. They’re the stereotypes, the popular definitions, the expectations, the images of what a lesbian, gay man, bisexual person, transgender person, queer person, or any of the others in that alphabet are supposed to be. They’ve
Each year Valentine’s Day encourages a whole season of love, whatever that means in American culture. At least it means that the new year begins with stores overflowing with candy, flowers, cards, stuffed animals, jewelry, and other paraphernalia needed to show how buying proves we’re
They still can’t quit it It’s no wild prediction to say that the year ahead will see even more of the “culture wars” ginned up by religionists who use their religion the way any addict uses their preferred addictive substance or process. They’re primed to
When you weaponize bigotry, it’s only a matter of time before someone picks up a weapon It was another deadly mass shooting in Colorado at an LGBTQ+ nightclub on another American day that will live in infamy as did the shooting six years ago at
The true cost to veterans? 44 daily suicides According to just released Defense Department data, suicides among active-duty service members increased by more than 40 percent between 2015 and 2020. The numbers jumped by 15 percent in 2020 alone. A 2021 study by the Cost
“I just figure that when I’m that age Social Security and Medicare will be gone.” That’s what one of my students said to me after a class lecture on early Chinese thinkers and their views on human nature and government’s role in people’s lives. “Why
An answer to a question I keep getting asked There are couples, relatives, and friends who’ve gotten along well when they disagree about politics. They’ve often just agreed to do their best to keep such discussions out of their relationship. These last political seasons, however,
Watching U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) skedaddle as fast as he could out of the U.S. Capitol — as the insurrectionists he had previously inspired with his famous raised fist (displayed while safe behind the lines of protection that Capitol police provided him) began destroying
Recent Supreme Court decisions and state legislative actions have brought to the fore the tried and true idea that the variety of oppressions are all related. The forcing of women to give birth, the threats made by Supreme Court justices to end marriage equality and
No surprises here The recent release of that 300-page report of widespread sexual abuse and its cover-up by leaders and ministers in the Southern Baptist Convention (America’s largest Protestant denomination) is only a surprise to people who’ve been in denial about the millennia-long history of