Straight Parent, Gay Kid
I Can’t Imagine Larry Kramer Ever Resting In Peace!
The LGBT community is indebted to activist and author Larry Kramer. “The fire in his belly” led him in the 1980’s to wake up the complacency of this country into dealing with with AIDS as a public-health emergency. A founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first service organization for HIV-positive people, Kramer discovered that his…
What to Expect From a PFLAG Meeting
In the book When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know, co-author Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D., writes that “in my practice, I have noticed that parents feel better when they realize that they are not alone and that there are people like them who are experiencing similar thoughts, feelings, and reactions to having…
May Is Mental Health Awareness Month. Are Your Kids Mentally Healthy?
Life is not easy for the LGBTQI community. Youth.gov reports that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth have: much higher levels of suicidal ideation, i.e. 15.1% to 34.3% of lesbian and gay high school students have attempted suicide at least once as opposed to Heterosexual students who account for 3.8% to 9.6% of attempted suicides. More…
GLSEN’S Day of Silence to Speak Volumes
Every April, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), a U.S.-based education organization whose mission is to end LGBTQ+ discrimination in K-12 schools, holds its DAY OF SILENCE. This year, the DOS will be held on its twenty-fifth anniversary, Friday, April 24, 2020. A Day of Silence may seem like the antithesis of what schools need…
What Did The Gay Community Inherit?
I was lucky to see “The Inheritance” before Broadway theatres shuttered its doors on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the next day. Playwright Matthew Lopez’s play, an import from London where it received an Oliver Award, is a “dramady” (part comedy, part drama) about gay culture now and in the time of AIDS. It was an…
School Is Out, But The Cyberbullies Can Taunt Your LGBT Child
God only knows when schools and college will discontinue shuttering their doors. Just because your LGBTQ child isn’t face-to-face with the school bully doesn’t mean he isn’t being harassed online, 24/7. We’ve all heard about cyberbullying resulting in suicides for those who are being abused on-line. GLSEN that studies the climate for LGBTQ students…
Gay couple cooking in the morning
What Traditional Couples Can Learn From Gay Marriage
Almost four years ago, when gay marriage was legal, a reporter named Christopher Katis from an LGBT publication QSALTLake,” interviewed me about whether kids of gay parents fared better than those raised by heterosexual parents. His curiosity was stoked by a study by the University of Melbourne that had released the first official results from…
The moon shines behind the capitol dome in Pierre, SD
What the Defeat of the HB Bill 1057 Means to Trans Kids in S.Dakota & Other States
South Dakota’s House Bill 1057 that sought to block physicians from providing puberty blockers and gender confirmation surgery to help minors (under 16) change their gender was defeated this past week. It’s stalled for a year anyway and I hope forever! If the bill had passed, South Dakota doctors who were caught performing gender-affirming…
Hallmark Should Cater To All Families
Original Dec. Ad with Same-sex Brides Reinstated Last month, One Million Moms (1MM) launched a campaign calling on Crown Media, Hallmark’s parent company, to pull several ads for the wedding planning site Zola. A Hallmark account representative told a Zola ad buyer that “we are not allowed to accept creative that are deemed controversial.” The…
“What God Has Wrought, Let No Man Put Asunder”
My husband is a Methodist, one of 13 million strong of the second largest denomination. I probably am too as I was named after my father John Wesley whose namesake was the founder of Methodism, and with his brother Charles, wrote many hymns sung from the Methodist hymnal. Last week, United Methodist Church leaders from…