Commentary

I don’t understand this whole philosophy that exists by some in the gay community that doesn’t tolerate any sort of weakness when it comes to a gay celebrity. This whole thing that says if you’re gay, and you’re any sort of celebrity, or have any sort of power, it’s your responsibility to pave the way for every other gay person in the world. I don’t believe its Jodie Foster’s responsibility to make my life easier. I don’t believe it should be the job of any celebrity to make my life easier…

The truth of the matter is there is misinformation about what is happening at Salem and what allowing an openly-transitioning student to remain at Salem would mean. Regardless of whether a student is considering transition or not, such a decision is in no way the concern of the college administration, Board of Trustees, or alumni but a private and personal decision of the individual and their medical professionals that should be respected…

What is it about your spirituality, your religion, that you feel you have the absolute right to judge another human being? It certainly can’t be from the teachings of the Jesus I know who simply said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

I see nothing there of judging or intolerance – only the commandment to love one another. Period.

Dear Bob, As we enter this new year, full of promise and possibility, I realized that I could not in all fairness properly close out the old without first repaying a major debt. One that I owe to you, dear reader, for quite literally saving my life. … You likely had no idea, when you reached for the book, that the very act of reading it could so profoundly affect me, and all for the better. How could you know, after all, that while I’d long envisioned a life for myself as a writer, until you contacted me, I’d begun to consider stopping altogether?

Rather than use his mandate from winning re-election to reward his key constituencies, President Barack Obama has poked a stick in the eye of the LGBT community by turning to former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary — a man who had an abysmal voting record in Congress and drew criticism for using anti-gay slurs back in 1998.

The Pope has stated that gay families pose a “crisis” in which “the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost”. Meanwhile, I was taking my gay family on a trip to Disneyland. On the day we went, so did 40,000 other people. I thought about what the Pope could see if he had been there with us. We were as any other family in the park — we were photographed together, kissed and hugged each other when moved to do so, held hands, and laughed a lot…

Since the introduction of The Violence of Women Act in 1994, the bill has passed in a bipartisan manner – until now. Eric Cantor didn’t like it – so he killed the bill. He killed the bill because he and other House Republicans didn’t like the portions of the bill that had been expanded by the Senate to cover immigrants, members of the LGBT community, and the Native American community living within tribal jurisdiction.

Gay activists like Spencer Cox were consumed by AIDS for so many gruesome years that many of them were shocked, once the war abated, to see how little around them had changed. Climbing from the trenches, they saw a gay culture that must have seemed ludicrous, packed with the same drug addictions, sexual compulsions and soulless shenanigans that AIDS, in its singular act of goodwill, had arrested for a decade or so.

The Sage Smith story (or lack thereof) underlines in many ways the uphill struggle transgender individuals still face, even as gay people and lesbians make welcome strides in terms of equality. … Moreover, neither the media nor the public seem to be entirely sure how to discuss transgender individuals; a 2008 GLAAD study found that only 1 in 8 respondents reported being acquainted with someone who was transgender.

So, let me see if I have this correct… if I use Equine Assisted Psychotherapy – which is sessions involving the stroking of horses – this will aid in the “curing” the “addiction” of my homosexuality. So says Raymond Bell, the Pastor of the Cowboy Church of Virginia. (I can’t make this up!)