President Trump’s approval rating hovers near 40 percent. Polls of the generic congressional vote show Democrats leading by eight points. Historically, those conditions predict Democratic gains of 20-30 seats in the House of Representatives and four to five seats in the Senate in 2018. Democrats have been openly optimistic about winning the 24 seats they…
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore is one of the best sheriffs in the nation and has been a longtime friend and supporter of the LGBT community. He has changed the jail protocol for the arrest and detention of transgender people making sure they get the respect and equal treatment they deserve. He established an…
“I want to be heard.” It is really as simple as that. I just want to be heard. More specifically, I want to be heard in my healthcare. I want my healthcare delivered to me to be personal, derived specifically for me, and the exact opposite of community-wide healthcare. I don’t want to be a…
The Unabomber miniseries on The Discovery Channel has brought back uneasy 1994 memories. Unabomber Ted Kaczynski had sent 14 bombs by the end of 1993 and another deadly bomb in December 1994. I was a government official in the summer of 1994 when Republican North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms (1921-2008) bashed me in a speech…
One day, out of the blue, I received an email from well-respected writer Renee Bess. In her thoughtful, elegant style, she asked if I would be interested in working together to produce an anthology about the role gay bars have played in our lives. I was on board before I finished reading. A gay bar…
Jaclyn Backhaus’ “Men on Boats” has come to the Speakeasy Stage Company in Boston. And, for 100 minutes the audience experiences a hilariously thrilling adventure with imaginative staging and over-the-top theatrics of the retelling of Major John Wesley Powell’s 1869 daring exploratory trip down the Colorado River through present-day Grand Canyon. The trip was the…
What Do You Do When Your Child Tells You They Are Transgendered was the name of the keynote address at the Hope Gathering, 2012, given by Dr. Marc Dillworth. He’s a marriage and family counselor and self-identified Christian who specializes in reparative (also known as conversion) therapy for gender dysphoria; his keynote address was given…
The nature of family is inherently unique, despite a snapshot from the 1950s and numerous conservative groups claiming otherwise. My favorite course in college was an American Studies class simply named: Families in America. Already out and proud, I reveled in the way our professor educated about family structure throughout history, disproving the nuclear family…
Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program started by President Obama in 2012. DACA allows undocumented immigrants who came to the country as minors and who do not have criminal records (among other criteria) to live and work in the United…
This Friday begins the annual National Hispanic Heritage Month. As I have often said, “The Golden State is turning brown” and San Diego is also, with Latinos soon becoming the majority. Monday, Sept. 25 there will be the first organizing meeting of the San Diego County Latino LGBTQ Coalition. The meeting will be held at…
