Over a quarter of a century ago, in January 1975, the American Psychological Association urged “all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the sigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.” On August 14, 1997, it adopted a
When children return to school, most will be safer there than at home. In spite of all the nostalgic attempts to keep us believing “the American family” is an idyllic refuge, statistics say that home is the most dangerous place for children. It’s hard to
On June 28, 1969, a group of street people and drag queens in Greenwich Village enacted the “Bunker Hill” moment of the movement for equal rights for transgender, lesbian, gay male, and questioning people in the U.S. This motley crew didn’t decide to hold a
The murder of George Tiller, on May 31, 2009, marks the eighth person and fourth doctor since 1977 killed in attacks on people working at women’s health clinics by people spouting formulaic right-wing rhetoric. Expect more attacks on representatives of a variety of “liberal” institutions
When President Obama told a press conference in Turkey in April that, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation,” the usual suspects reacted in the expected ways. Those of us who value the ideal of our people’s civil rights and privileges not tied to
The student in my office was really convinced that as a male he was going to get a raw deal all around. He’d been accused by a female student in my largest class of stealing her I-Pod, and she had reported it to the police.
I hope by the time this appears, everyone in the LGBT community will have taken deep, cleansing breaths and realized that the blame for the success of California’s Proposition 8 does not belong to the African American community. I hope they’ve paid attention to the
“Day Without a Gay” on December 10, 2008 was a predictable flop. Beginning somewhere as a last-minute protest against California’s Proposition 8, people were asked to call their employers to tell them that they’d miss work because they’re gay. Then, the theory went, everyone would
“Are you excited about Connecticut?” While waiting to enter a radio studio for an hour of give-and-take on hot political issues affecting the LGBT community, it was a question another panelist found central. It was certainly of interest to the program’s listeners. But, surprisingly, I
I don’t care if Barack Obama changes the name of Bush’s “White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” to a “Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” I think most of the thirty evangelical leaders he sat down with in a private downtown Chicago meeting