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OUT! Queer Proms As Organizing Tools, Not Veneers of Safety
- A recurring column - An event that started nine years ago as a fundraiser for a local community radio show has become a staple of the Pilsen neighborhood, and a tool for organizing and connecting young people to resources. But its existence and longevity is not proof that young LGBTQ people of color are safe, on the contrary, it is a reminder that the ...
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LETTER Marine to representatives on marriage
- Dear Representatives: Will Davis Mary Flowers LaShawn Ford Eddie Jackson Chuck Jefferson Andre Thapedi I'm a Marine Corps veteran and I need your help. I hear we're only a few votes away from achieving marriage equality in Illinois and if the six of you voted yes on SB 10, I'm certain it would give us the votes we need ...
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LETTER A taxing situation; bad raise
- Dear Windy City Times, Cardinal Francis George, in a desperate attempt to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage here in Illinois, is relying on a group of Chicago-area Black ministers he thinks he can count on to halt the gay-marriage movement. His efforts fly in the face of a growing number of African-American leaders—including ministers and the former head of ...
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VIEWS State-run health insurance; Why AFC opposes HB 3227
- The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) recently made the difficult decision to oppose legislation pending in Springfield that creates a state-run health insurance marketplace. We base this decision on the poor consumer protections in the bill. House Bill 3227 (Senate Amendment 2) is backed by our partners, including Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC), and is sponsored by Sen. Dave ...
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LETTERS Angela's bashes; Crime registry; Catholics; Madigan
- Angela's bashes I gagged as I read Yasmin Nair's account of activist Angela Davis insulting LGBTs who desire the right to marry. Davis says these LGBTs are motivated by a desire for "bourgeois respectability." But most equal marriage-rights activists I know simply desire the same rights that heterosexuals take for granted, rights that are particularly useful to working class LGBTs ...
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A Queer Agenda: Good news and bad news
- A recurring column - After Cemia Acoff's brutal murdered, transgender activists stood up against inaccurate and insensitive reporting by Cleveland daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer. Reporter John Caniglia used the wrong pronoun for Acoff, called her feminine attire "odd," and referred to her body as "it." He then launched into a description of Acoff's arrest record, adding insult to injury by including her mug ...
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Letter to the Editor: On Davis and marriage
- I gagged as I read Yasmin Nair's account of activist Angela Davis insulting LGBTs who desire the right to marry. Davis says these LGBTs are motivated by a desire for "bourgeois respectability." ( View coverage of remarks by Davis here: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Angela-Davis-speaks-on-Feminism-and-Abolition/42667.html. ) But most equal marriage rights activists I know simply desire the same rights that heterosexuals take for granted, ...
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We are Family...aren't we?: Searching for community
- Cultural Q's, a recurring column - Cruisaboo is closing. That is, the Caribou Coffee on Broadway and Aldine in Lakeview, aptly nicknamed for its lively reputation as gay cruising spot and social center, will soon be transitioning into Pete's Coffee. I wonder what changes will come. According to WBEZ blogger and commentator Nico Lang, the shop, extraordinary as a commercial space that has been reshaped in ...
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LETTER Living the truth
- To the Editor: While Chuck Colbert's recent article, "Tensions emerge as AGLO marks 25 years," raises some good questions about AGLO's mission and its need to be identified within the physical space of a Catholic church and its authority, we at Dignity see this whole situation differently than what has been reported here. Dignity/Chicago respects the right and the need ...
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VIEWS Jason Collins: The great Black hope
- The professional sports world has been waiting for a Jason Collins moment—a gay athlete currently playing in a major league to come out publicly. What you may not know is that the subtext is that it was hoped the moment would star an African-American male. The African-American community, not to mention the sports world, desperately needed an openly gay current ...
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VIEWS Google car could help the blind
- If I want to go anywhere in Chicago Illinois my methods of transportation are very limited. For someone who's blind and has cerebral palsy, taking public transit is beyond difficult. In order for me to go to the movies, on a date with a gorgeous guy, to interview someone for a journalistic endeavor, or to go to school, I have ...
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LETTER Phoney "reform" and the Deporter-in-Chief
- Last year the United States deported more immigrants than in any other year of its entire history. If the current trend continues, President Obama come next January will become the biggest deporter of immigrants of any president ever. In six years, he'll have surpassed what the previous Deporter-in-Chief, George W. Bush, took eight years to do. But when the so-called ...
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VIEWS Gay and Catholic?!: Eros chained
- Open To Thinking, a recurring column by Nick Patricca - I am often asked: "How can you be Gay and Catholic?" Sometimes I want to respond by saying: "How can I be a philosopher and Catholic?" For me both of these questions are essentially related because at their heart they both ask how a thinking person can belong to a community of faith. To my questioner I most often respond: ...
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LETTER: AGLO in the dark; Liberals two-faced on immigration
- AGLO in the dark LGBT rights are moving at rapid rates across the globe. It is if a paradigm shift is taking place in western society to include elements of South and Central America. Here in the United States we are witnessing the rapid change at a dizzying effect. Even in Illinois we now expect same-sex marriage to be passed ...
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Long-term HIV/AIDS study shows large return on investment
- When AIDS first appeared among gay and bisexual men in most U.S. urban centers in 1981-82, the first diagnosed patients were near death from multiple opportunistic infections and a previously rare cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma, and their immune systems were totally nonfunctional due to the lack of any CD4 lymphocytes, the "conductors" of immune response to infection. It was immediately ...
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VIEWPOINTS Finding hope in Boston
- I never thought I'd be writing about tragedy again so soon. The Boston Marathon bombing on April 15 was yet another blow to my already damaged sense of security as a parent, coming as it did only four months after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. What hope do we have of our children growing ...
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OUT! Coming Out as a Deportee
- If Juan Carlos Vera had not come out as a person in deportation proceedings, today he would be living in Mexico. Although Vera is not queer, his story is relevant because it was the strategies developed by LGBT immigrant youth that were able to get him out. Vera, 25, has lived in Chicago most of his life, and in March ...
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GUEST VIEW: AIDS remembered
- The following is the speech given by Robert H. Neubert, director of catering sales at Hilton Chicago, in accepting the AIDS Foundation of Chicago Lori Kaufman Volunteer Award at the 2013 AFC gala April 18. So what do you get when you cross an interior designer with a Broadway producer? For me, it was my introduction to this life-changing ...
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Langbehn speaks out on the marriage rights fight
- By Deanna Duff - The April 9 incident of a Missouri man, Roger Gorley, being forcibly removed from the hospital bedside of his husband, Allen Mansell, once again brings into focus the consequences of laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 federal law restricting marriage benefits and cross-state marriage recognition to same-sex couples. Same-sex married couples are denied more than ...
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VIEWS: Revisiting the Queer Agenda: A honeymoon gift
- Organizations that poured millions into the Illinois marriage campaign are approaching the finish line, and I need to ask: Where to next? When I came out in Massachusetts, same-sex marriage was legal. While the marriage fight was ramping up elsewhere, my community wanted jobs and healthcare. Ten years after winning marriage, Massachusetts boasts a thriving movement including LGBTQ prisoner support, ...
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GUEST VIEW A Father's Love
- Nadine Smith - An unexpected and hopeful thing happened just this past week that gave me greater hope about how quickly our country is turning toward marriage equality. After a surprising call from my father I wrote a column that began this way: My father, who is in his late 70s, called me following the two days of U.S. Supreme Court testimony. He ...
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Longterm HIV/AIDS study shows large return on investment
- Guest View by David G Ostrow, MD, PhD, LFAPA - When AIDS first appeared among gay and bisexual men in most U.S. urban centers in 1981��—'82, the first diagnosed patients were near death from multiple opportunistic infections and a previously rare cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma, and their immune systems were totally nonfunctional due to the lack of any CD4 lymphocytes, the "conductors" of immune response to infection. It was immediately ...
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LETTER: Bond backs marriage
- Illinois Unites for Marriage sent out the following letter from Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the NAACP's national board of directors, April 5 in support of marriage equality in Illinois: I've spent my life as a civil-rights activist, working to make our society more just and fair for all of us. It is that commitment to equality that has led ...
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In praise of Downton Abbey's Thomas and complex gay images
- Cultural Q's, a recurring column - "I am not foul, Mr. Carson. I'm not the same as you, but I'm not foul." Thus, Thomas Barrow, the skulking, scheming, snippity and sometimes just plain unlikeable servant on PBS's Downton Abbey, makes his claim for gay self acceptance and complexity in this show's recent episode leading to the third season finale, which aired on Sunday, February 17, 2013. ...
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VIEWPOINTS: Open transgender military service: Time to get started
- Essay by Allyson D. Robinson - Now that he's no longer Secretary of Defense, I imagine that Leon Panetta has very little to worry about, least of all his legacy. Panetta's announcement just weeks before leaving office that he would bring an end to the policy of excluding women from combat assignments surprised, well, everyone. To call this move historic is to put it mildly. Not ...
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VIEWPOINTS Into A Memory
- When I was little, I did not wander as a cloud. I floated on one. I have to admit, when the assignment was given to me, a 23-year-old college student, to write about a poem, I did not think I would find one that would capture my interest or my memory. For days, my ears would burn the table of ...
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NAACP's Julian Bond backs IL marriage equality law
- From a press release - Illinois Unites for Marriage sent out the following letter from Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the NAACP national board of directors April 5, in support of marriage equality in Illinois: I've spent my life as a civil rights activist, working to make our society more just and fair for all of us. It is that commitment to equality that ...
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VIEWS Parenting books show need for racial justice, LGBT equality
- In his second inaugural speech, President Obama linked "Seneca Falls, and Selma and Stonewall"—the birthplaces of the women's, Black and LGBT-equality movements, respectively—and reminded us of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words that (as Obama paraphrased) "our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth." Two new books about LGBT parents, one a personal memoir ...
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VIEWPOINTS: Silence of Chicago's Puerto Rican/Latino reps
- Let's get this clear, for the longest time my position on gay marriage was one of apathy. I always felt I did not need the acceptance of religion nor approval of churchgoers when it comes to the ceremonial act of commitment in front of a group of witnesses to the man I loved. But in time I realized this was ...
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VIEWS Open To Thinking
- Does the Pope Wear Prada?: Meditating on Power, Accessories, and the Shoes of the Fisherman - Wikipedia, the Vatican, and GQ inform me that Benedict 16's Moroccan Red Leather Shoes were not made by Prada, as many have mistakenly claimed, but hand-made by a Peruvian artisan in Rome. (However, my niece did espy Benedict coming out of Prada on Madison Avenue in NYC as she was stuck in traffic because of his security entourage.) Now that ...
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LETTER: A letter to the pope
- His Holiness Francis Apostolic Palace 00120 Vatican City State, EUROPE Your Holiness: The purpose of this communication is to call on you to open a dialogue with the Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) on how best to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ outside of the ancient taboos and personal biases that have been directed at the international LGBT community by ...
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VIEWS Why immigration is an LGBT issue
- A few months ago, my dad and I had one of the most remarkable conversations ever. This was the first time that I had ever taken the chance to actually talk to him about what he thought about my sexual orientation. Prior to this conversation, my father had always been a silent supporter—I knew he believed in equal rights for ...
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Ask Lambda Legal: Immigration reform is an LGBT issue
- Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - Q: Why are LGBT groups working on immigration issues and what does the recent debate about comprehensive immigration reform have to do with the rights of LGBT individuals and families? We often hear that our immigration system is broken. But too few people understand how this terribly broken system disproportionately harms many hardworking LGBT people and people living with HIV. ...
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LETTER: Catholic turmoil
- Dear Editor: As LGBT Catholics struggle to find their own identity in the Church surrounded by an environment of homophobia, opposition to that homophobia and self-identification are key to integrity. Not only is this a concern for LGBT Catholics, but some in our broader LGBT community are expressing similar concerns. I believe this not to be motivated by anti-Catholic bigotry, ...
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VIEWPOINTS Lobbying for marriage--with my daughter
- My daughter, Braiden and I just got back from the Illinois state Capital in Springfield. We spent two days walking around and visiting with House members and explaining to them why the marriage equality bill (SB 10) is so important to our family. We felt that it was very important for them to see the faces of families that will ...
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VIEWPOINTS Was McMillian killed because he was Black or gay?
- Marco McMillian was a trailblazer, and the pride of the Mississippi Delta. In his twenties, Ebony magazine (in 2004) hailed him as on the nation's 30 leaders under the age of 30. And in his thirties the Mississippi Business Journal hailed him as one of the "Top 40 Leaders under 40." But at age 34, McMillian's life was mysteriously cut ...
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LETTER: Wed case
- (Note: This letter was originally addressed to state Rep. LaShawn Ford.) Dear Rep. Ford: You know me because of my leadership position with the South East Oak Park Community Organization (SEOPCO). You've attended the annual Barrie Fest that SEOPCO sponsors in Barrie Park. I am also a gay man. In April, my partner Bruce Broerman and I will celebrate ...
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New Pope must represent new moral voice of equality
- VIEWPOINT from Faith in America - HUDSON, NC - March 12, 2013 - Faith In America expresses its deepest hope and desire that the successor to Pope Benedict XVI will end the immense harm the Catholic Church has caused and continues to cause to innocent LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, especially vulnerable teens. While Pope Benedict's tenure has been marred by his erroneous treatment ...
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VIEWPOINTS Reviewing in the dark
- In a movie review you might find fleshed out descriptions of the whizzing visuals on screen or the tickle of a green screen effect. After all, reviewers write what they see in a movie. A film has everything from vibrant camera work to catchy credits with high-class animations. My attention, however, isn't focused on the shiny effects, the green screen ...
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LETTER Down on the lift
- Dear Editor: I oppose the Boy Scouts of America lifting its ban on gays. Yes. That's right. You heard me say it. I opposed the Boy Scouts lifting the ban. "What's going through this fag's head?" you must be wondering. Well, I have a pretty good historical precedent for this. Many of you reading this article are too young to ...
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VIEWPOINTS Will the Supreme Court Be Left Behind on Gay Marriage?
- This article was originally published at thenation.com and is re-posted here with permission. See http://www.thenation.com/blog/173182/will-supreme-court-be-left-behind-gay-marriage . In case you haven't noticed, the biggest question facing the Supreme Court when it decides the gay marriage cases this spring has become whether it can rise to the level of LGBT rights ferocity already achieved by American business leaders, moderate Republicans and the ...
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ASK LAMBDA LEGAL Religious exemptions
- VIEWPOINT - Q: I live in Illinois and have been eagerly waiting to see if we become the next state to win marriage. I was reading about an issue with religious exemptions. Can you tell me what that means? A: In addition to Illinois, Colorado is considering a civil-union bill and Rhode Island and Hawaii are reviewing marriage measures. As we work ...
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VIEWPOINTS It's time for a queer-friendly pope
- Just hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his unexpected resignation, a bolt of lightning struck St. Peter's Basilica. Many say it's unequivocally a sign from God. If so, I'm hoping it's an Amen moment signaling the end of an oppressive era of LGBTQ bashing as the church now moves forward. "With the pope's impending resignation, the church has an opportunity ...
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VIEWPOINTS: IL needs federal funds to fill the Medicaid gap
- Diverse constituency releases statement - We strongly encourage the General Assembly to accept new federal Medicaid funding that will be made available to Illinois in 2014 to fill a historic gap in the Medicaid program and provide health care coverage for hundreds of thousands of the lowest income uninsured Illinois residents. The measure will strengthen the financial health of our hospitals and other health care ...
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VIEWPOINTS Bradley Manning and the cowardice of Gay, Inc.
- In Failing to Support Bradley Manning, Gay NGOs Betray Their Own Mission Statements and Fail to Promote an Inclusive Justice Agenda One of the signature traits of LGBT subculture in the United States is its adoration of celebrity. If a well-known person voices the most milquetoast notion that gays are human beings, let alone deserving of legal equality, banner headlines ...
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VIEWPOINTS My family and marriage equality
- Love is important! It doesn't matter who people love, as long as they are happy. Everyone should have the right to marry who he or she wants. You may not like two men being married, but for them, it's normal. My two dads should be able to be married and have the same rights as any married couple. How would ...
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VIEWS: Does Oprah have her OWN problem with LGBT equality?
- Why Oprah's network is two-sided on LGBT rights - Oprah Winfrey certainly knows how to bring people together. Her show, interviews and programs on her OWN network bring together diverse audiences to watch shows such as Oprah's Next Chapter and Fix My Life, Iyanla. The family-friendly and therapeutic shows are often empowering and entertaining, especially her shows with gay icons Lady Gaga and Neil Patrick Harris. She has shown ...
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VIEWS: Gay suicidal 'logic'. Stop making sense
- Eric James Borges, 19 years old. Kenneth James Weishuhn, 14. Jay "Corey" Jones, 17. Brandon Elizares, 16. Jack Denton Reese, 17. Josh Pacheco, 17. As we passionately discuss differing opinions about Jodie Foster's (not) coming out, our differences are bridged in the cultural relevance of mainstream gay representations and a mourning and deep sadness for these lives, alongside the far ...
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VIEWPOINTS How we're winning respect in sports
- Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - If you heard about San Francisco 49ers player Chris Culliver's Super Bowl press conference, you learned that he was "just kidding around" earlier in the week when he made shocking homophobic comments. The 49ers were quick to repudiate Culliver's earlier remarks and Culliver did apologize, but perhaps the most important thing about Culliver's story is how seriously out of step ...
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LETTER Wed case
- Dear Editor, The LGBT community of Illinois is on the verge of gaining the right to marry for same-sex couples. Many in our community and allies worked tirelessly to get us to this point. Without the fine political leadership we have representing us in Springfield, we would not be at this point. I also wish to recognize the long and ...
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VIEWPOINTS Where God put me is where God put me
- Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - In his speech, President Obama said, "The Patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people". Inauguration for me was a reminder that the people attending the event was ...
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The coming epidemic: Is HIV really what killed Spencer Cox?
- VIEWPOINT - Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o isn't the only man with a dubious online love interest: I have an imaginary Facebook boyfriend, too. I'm pretty sure mine is an actual person. Felipe and I both like to post YouTube videos in an invitation-only Facebook group for gay men into esoteric, heterodox pop music—twee, shoegaze-y, alt-rock electro/techno small-label releases. He "liked" my ...
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VIEWPOINTS Bad Bromance: Campus Pride and Chick-fil-A
- Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - I was shocked when I saw a Huffington Post piece titled, "Dan and Me: My Coming Out as a Friend of Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A." I clicked the link and immediately looked for the byline to see it was written by Shane L. Windmeyer, who bills himself as a "nationally recognized LGBT leader in higher education; bestselling author; executive director, ...
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VIEWPOINTS Obama linking Selma to Stonewall splits Black community
- President Barack Obama's inaugural address was the most inclusive speech a president has ever given. It was delivered on the 27th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the president honored King's legacy when he eloquently spoke of how the many U.S. liberation movements, both current and historic, are interconnected. "We, the people, declare today that the most evident ...
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VIEWPOINTS Loving the lepers
- Special to the online edition of Windy City Times by Timothy Villareal - During his recent annual Christmas address, Pope Benedict charged the world's gays and lesbians, along with transgendered persons, with destroying the "very essence of the human creature." If satire is the weapon of the powerless, surely defamation is the weapon of defanged religious leaders. Ensconced in his papal enclave, without the raw geopolitical power that popes once held, Benedict XVI, ...
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LETTERS Protest; Water Reclamation leadership
- Supporting the protest To the Editor: The Rainbow Sash Movement supports the call for a demonstration outside of Holy Name Cathedral on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 10:30 a.m., primarily because we believe that the Catholic Church, under the leadership of Cardinal Francis George and the other members of Illinois Catholic Conference, is on a collision course with state over the ...
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VIEWPOINTS: State of the union: Young Black gay America
- - Seventy-six entries were submitted from across the country for National Youth Pride Services' annual State of the Union For Black Gay America essay contest. This was the winning entry—and the official state of the union for National Youth Pride Services. Black SGL young men across the nation are in a serious state of crisis at the back of the line. ...
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VIEWPOINTS Women already in combat, military policy catches up
- - The lifting of the Combat Exclusion Policy that denied women the right to serve in combat units is a natural and just evolution for the armed forces of a nation that honors justice and equality for every citizen. Women Soldiers and Marines have already been serving in combat for some time. Over the past decade 140 women have given their ...
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Letter: Cardinal Francis George
- Dear Editor, The LGBT community of Illinois is on the verge of gaining the right to marry for same-sex couples. Many in our community and allies worked tirelessly to get us to this point. Without the fine political leadership we have representing us in Springfield, we would not be at this point. This has been a bruising journey for many ...
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VIEWPOINTS: MLK Day reflection on LGBTQ justice
- This Monday, we marked 27 years of observing Martin Luther King Day. Some states began honoring King Jan. 20, 1986. King would have been 84. He was gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., by an assassin on April 4, 1968. If he were alive today, he'd see how much has changed in our nation. ...
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VIEWPOINTS The private war that killed Spencer Cox
- "My most courageous self, the best man that I'll ever be, lived more than two decades ago during the first years of a horrific plague… I miss the man I was forced to become."—"Once, When We Were Heroes," 2007 AIDS did not kill Spencer Cox in the first, bloodiest battles of the 1980s. It spared him that. The reprieve allowed ...
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Michael Jackson: Talking about gender fluidity
- Cultural Q's, a recurring column - Michael Jackson saved my life or, at least, he helped me figure out how to live it. This September, Sony released the 25th-anniversary edition of Jackson's seventh album, Bad. What I hope we remember about Jackson and this album are the ways that he presented a palette of choices for how to be in the world, especially in terms of ...
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VIEWPOINTS Queer street youth need OUR love
- As a queer person there is much to be proud of as 2013 begins. Last year was an unprecedented year of progress in the LGBT-rights movement, with greater LGBT visibility and support for marriage equality gaining huge momentum. And that momentum doesn't seem to be slowing, as it looks like the state Illinois will soon legalize same-sex marriage. Yes, in ...
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VIEWPOINTS Marriage equality: Nothing to fear in Illinois
- Eight years ago, the citizens of Massachusetts were given a long list of fears by some as to the predictions of what would happen to marriage now that same sex couples had been given the legal right to marry. Now—15,000 couples later—not only has nothing bad happened, and none of those fears realized, but also we have come to experience ...
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Letter: Catholic Conference in marriage-equality debate
- Dear Editor, The recent maneuvers of the Catholic Conference in Illinois only highlight its diminishing importance in the marriage-equality debate. One confused bishop in Illinois (Daniel Jenky of Peoria) even compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Stalin in the marriage-equality/HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] debate. He exposed the most basic rule of debate, when you bring in ...
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VIEWPOINTS Not a banner, but a historic LGBT year
- Do you appreciate the watershed moment in LGBT history we are witnessing? If any of you doubt that we are living in historic times for LGBT equality, just note what you're about to witness in the next few weeks and months. The first president of the United States who campaigned openly and often on the issue of LGBT equality and ...
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LETTER Church values
- Extended for the online edition of Windy City Times - To the Editor Yet another anti-gay "ministry" has popped up about a block west of Halsted Street, where pylons and plaques celebrate LGBTQ community members. Purveying hate under the rubric "love the sinner, hate the sin," the (Southern Baptist) Chicagoland Community Church is plying vulnerable street kids with free food, clothing and the experience of community to replace the rejection ...
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VIEWPOINTS A holiday wish for ENDA progress
- Usually, Christmas-week columnists wax poetic about the holidays or what religion means to humanity, but let's talk the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the possible executive order on nondiscrimination by President Obama until Congress passes such legislation. Oh, and for good measure, let's add in the fiscal cliff and Republicans. All of this is related in passing nondiscrimination for the ...
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VIEWPOINTS After East Aurora: The next steps
- Every so often, we're confronted with how badly something can go wrong. Witness what has happened in Aurora, Ill. In October, the East Aurora school board tried to be conscientious in extending the same rights every other student enjoys to trans and gender-nonconforming kids. Three months later, that positive step has been repudiated after the school board surrendered to the ...
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LETTER Church values
- Extended for the online edition of Windy City Times - To the Editor Yet another anti-gay "ministry" has popped up about a block west of Halsted Street, where pylons and plaques celebrate LGBTQ community members. Purveying hate under the rubric "love the sinner, hate the sin," the (Southern Baptist) Chicagoland Community Church is plying vulnerable street kids with free food, clothing and the experience of community to replace the rejection ...
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VIEWPOINT: America the senseless
- Twenty children and six adults were announced dead Dec. 14 after an open fire shooting spree at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Parents and loved ones waited outside anxiously to see if their child was one of the casualties. At 3:15 p.m. ET, the president of the United States wiped away tears as he delivered an address to the ...
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VIEWPOINT: MOMBIAN In the wake of tragedy
- This was going to be a very different column. Then 20 children died in Connecticut. A gunman opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, leaving 20 children and seven adults (including the shooter) dead. As the mother of an elementary school student, school shootings were already one of my nightmares. Having grown up and ...
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VIEWPOINTS Exterminating gays in Uganda: Not a spectator sport
- Hi, it's from Kampala, Uganda. What advice do you have for me, you know we are discriminated here and our country is about to pass a law in parliament to sentence anyone who is a gay and lesbian? Yours, As a prominent writer/editor in the United States, I receive letters like the one above more often than I would ...
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VIEWPOINTS Pennsylvania's gay Republican? A good thing
- A Republican Christian right-of-center state representative from a conservative Pennsylvania district has come out—and some in our community have reacted like the sky has fallen in. This is a good thing! Let's look at the issues one at a time. Rep. Mike Fleck is the first out Pennsylvania state lawmaker. At the same time, Rep.-elect Brian Sims is the first ...
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VIEWPOINTS For 2013, resolve to be a 'Ms. Fit'
- This summer's London Olympics were dubbed "The Women's Games." Indeed, in 2012, more women competed than at any previous Olympics including, for the first time, athletes from Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar. On Team USA, women grabbed the majority of medals, including 66 percent of the gold. There were also more openly gay and lesbian athletes participating, among them two ...
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