It is easy for the blinded oppressor, from an ivory tower of privilege, to look around at the burning world and declare, “everything happens for a reason.” It is easy for the white slack-tivists, who reap the reward of systemic oppression, to ponder quietly the
Today we hear it used to shout down and bully school boards during their public meetings. Nurses, school teachers, flight attendants, and people just walking down the street have heard it used by people while the shouter assaults them. It seems to be an excuse
Part of an occasional series celebrating Whosoever’s Silver Jubilee. (Author’s note: I use the term “queer” throughout this essay for consistency, even when it is anachronistic.) If I remember correctly, I saw a print edition of Whosoever at a newsstand near my college. I was excited
I had just finished my Master’s in Biblical Studies, and with an emphasis on Near Eastern archeology was on a summer tour working on archeological sites from Turkey to Lebanon to Egypt and from Jordan to Israel. I was so single-mindedly focused on the past
There’s a long history of using guilt and shaming — I mean going as far back as we have a human written record. People and institutions soon became experts at spreading guilt among those they felt needed their control. It’s been quite an effective tool
Immigrant rights are too often pushed to the margins of concern in American LGBTQ+ communities. The past year of political hatred targeting transgender people and the past decade of institutional violence against immigrants have left me sickened at the toxic positivity contained in the phrase
The Stonewall uprising of LGBTQ+ people in June 1969 was nothing like the Pride fests of this month that are often more like gay expos than remembrances of the real-life fights for equal rights that continue even today. There is nothing wrong with celebrating even
The U.S. Supreme Court, in laying down its unanimous 9-0 decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, loudly proclaimed that the basic human and civil rights of LGBTQ people are superseded and trumped by the “deeply held” religious beliefs of bigoted groups and individuals. The
I know this one thing to be true: You do not need to forgive a person who has hurt you in order to free yourself from the pain of negative emotions. You can even reach a place of love and compassion for the wrongdoer without
I am writing this as a person who has a target on her back, a transgender woman. As such, I feel the depths of scathing pain each time one of my trans sisters, brothers, or relatives is murdered. Whether through overt murder or subtle forms