Since the election of Donald Trump, most Americans on both sides of the political aisle feel American democracy is under siege. The infighting going on in both the Democratic and Republican camps has cast a pall on the country’s future. And neither party, at present, can tamp down the support nor enthusiasm some have for…
Boston-born White House chief of staff John Kelly’s recent remark on Laura Ingraham’s new Fox News show reopened a divide so deep in this country about slavery that I am reminded of American novelist William Faulkner’s quote “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Kelly told the conservative media television host that he…
2017 is a year of open but not new revelations about Whitney Houston. Five years ago, on Feb. 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton Hotel room on the eve of the Grammy Awards. Allegations at the time surfaced that pop superstar Whitney Houston was murdered. These allegations flew…
Winston Churchill once said that “History is written by the winners.” When the Stonewall Riots occurred in 1969 the history of more than a century-long oppressed people finally got national attention. And, since that historical moment, the suppressed and closeted oral histories of our fierce and courageous LGBTQ brothers and sisters began to be documented…
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…
Since the intentional misreading of the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19 in the Bible where the twin cities were supposedly destroyed because of homosexual depravity, the causes of natural disasters always find ways to be placed on the backs of LGBTQ Americans. It has become an easy go-to explanation. And, usually by Bible-thumping…
Fifty years ago, this summer an urban rebellion took place. One hundred and fifty-nine riots erupted in African American cities across the country. The civil unrest took place in cities like New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Birmingham, and Boston, to name a few. The worst riots that summer were in Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan. The movie…
This week LGBTQ Americans received a one-two punch from the Trump administration. The first punch was President Trump’s ban against transgender service members. In his inimitable style of communicating to the American public the order came in the form of a tweet: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United…
With the Catholic Church being the largest Christian denomination in the world the fight for the dignity and inclusion of its LGBTQI parishioners is a fight for the church’s soul and moral integrity. DignityUSA since its inception has asserted that God loves the LGBTQI community equally. This year DignityUSA held its 23rd biennial national conference in Boston from July 6-9. Its theme was…
In this political climate hate speech is becoming common use. And there has been an uptick of the use of the n-word, even from the mouths of people one would not expect. While it came as no surprise to most people of color in Boston when in May Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said Fenway fans hurled…
