There has been significant turmoil at my church for several years, and it finally reached the point where I felt compelled to resign my membership. That decision was clear to me, but the subsequent steps weren’t so clear. Initially I assumed that I would simply
During the course of their lives, many intelligent people drift away from the religion in which they were raised. Why would they do that when they obviously care about spiritual matters? Are faith and critical thinking mutually exclusive? Do we have to check our brains
The Story of Richard and Rachel I have vivid recollections of cross-dressing since the age of five. Virtually every reference I heard or read was derogatory, so it seemed prudent not to tell anyone. Instead, I attempted, unsuccessfully, to submerge my feelings and drive them
I have recollections of cross-dressing from age five. Virtually every reference was derogatory so it seemed best to hide the truth. I attempted to submerge my feelings and drive them out of my life but those efforts failed and the secret became unbearably heavy. In
Humans have always longed to change our bodies: to become swift as horses, hard as bulls, high as eagles, as if the purpose of life could be found by bending the laws of nature and stepping into a world where imagination becomes reality. The desire
He seemed to be just another blue-eyed boy, an ordinary American kid who grew up, went to MIT, got married, and had two children. Just another blue-eyed boy-except that he wanted to be a girl. At age four, he asked his mother to buy him
When I was twenty I climbed onto the roof of an abandoned building with two friends on an October day and a few moments later we were surrounded by thousands of starlings, all migrating to the South. We had not expected to find birds in
“Gee Mr. Peabody, what is that big machine?” “It’s called the Way-Back Machine Sherman, and I’m taking us to the 1950s for a history lesson.” “What was happening then?” “Well Sherman, society and the church were consumed with a big issue. It seems that a
Editor’s note: So much has changed — largely for the better — since this article was written. While its subject appears to have vanished from the Internet, the transgender literary scene appears to have positively exploded in the meantime. As a starting point, we commend
Mental illness. Why does that term create unease in so many people? By what justice is a diagnosis of cancer met with an outpouring of sympathy and support, while a breakdown or admission of a psychiatric condition is too frequently met with silence, distance or