When the letter-sized, hand-addressed, white envelope arrived at my workplace, it was like something from a mystery movie. At first I was confused. It was from my hometown, Philadelphia, but with a return address I didn’t recognize. Then I remembered that someone was sending me something that h… Read full post »

Bob Filner, a San Diego congressman of the Democratic persuasion, wants the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to name the next Navy ship after Harvey Milk. As in the famous gay activist and San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official turned Hollywood star.  

Filner’s rationale… Read full post »

In this country it’s far easier to get attention if there’s sex involved in the story. Consider the priest sex scandals. How much coverage would they be receiving if clergy members were being charged with physical and psychological abuse instead of sexual shenanigans?

Not as much,… Read full post »

I ran for a good portion of my life. I ran from bullies in grade school and in the neighborhood, bullies who made fun of me because I was a sissy. I jumped rope and played with dolls with my sister and her friends. I preferred reading in the local library… Read full post »

To all extraterrestrial beings:

We, the various species of mammals, fish, plants and birds of the blue planet called Earth, implore you to declare a quarantine around our world so that no one can either come here or leave. We urge you to surround it with a force field so… Read full post »

Have you ever really thought about what time actually is? In a very simple everyday sense, it’s a measurement of our planet’s progression around the sun repeated ad infinitum, the tyranny of hours, days, weeks and months, those things we designate to order our “civilized” live… Read full post »

It’s time to say it loud and proud: the kick-ass activists of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), who 25 years ago this month staged their first demonstration on Wall Street in New York City, are true American heroes.

They’re heroes because they challenged a hateful society t… Read full post »

Republican presidential-hopeful Rick Santorum is unfortunately what many people these days expect Italian/Americans to be. Ultra conservative. Maybe not as nutty conservative as he is, but definitely leaning to the right of the political spectrum. It’s funny because Italian/Americans didn&rsquo… Read full post »

An article featured on yesterday’s Bloomberg financial news site (“Wall Street Bonus Withdrawal Means Trading Aspen for Coupons”) wants me to feel sorry for those in the 1% of top wage earners in this country. I’m not joking. It may read like an Onion satire, but it’s no/… Read full post »

That summer in 1970, my next door neighbor, who reminded me of Joan Baez with her long black hair and olive skin, especially after we took a picture of her on my Polaroid Swinger with a friend’s folk guitar, gave me the strangest album for my birthday. Entitled “On My Way… Read full post »

Despite what they say in all those Harlequin romances or in the lyrics of those old fashioned love songs, you aren’t drawn to your partner by some mystical force that can’t be explained. Nor the love arrow of some winged brat with his genitals covered who’s got nothing better to do… Read full post »

When a group of us calling ourselves Occupy the Castro took over the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) store on December 3 to read a proclamation that the group needed to make housing, jobs and healthcare for all priorities on both the national and local levels, some folks were quick to criticize… Read full post »

The most overused word in the English language today is “terrorist.” I’m so sick of it. Anybody can be a terrorist. Every leftist protest is an act of terrorism to some right-wing nut job. 

The Tea Party holds gatherings, but those are considered patriotic, even when its… Read full post »

Two women are juxtaposed in my head after reading a heart breaking story in the Mission Local about a homeless Latina mother with three kids and the endless hurdles to her finding permanent housing in a city where rents are immorally high and even most SROs (single hotel rooms) are priced/… Read full post »

Imagine Harvey Milk, when he was San Francisco’s first out gay supervisor, introducing legislation at the Board of Supervisors to restrict use of public space in the Castro for those in the LGBT community who need a place to rest the most: the homeless, especially homeless youth who have fled h… Read full post »

It was one of those moments when you realize that San Francisco is not what it is hyped up to be.

Late yesterday afternoon, as I came through the doors of San Francisco City Hall heading for a meeting with some folks, I noticed immediately that something was different. There… Read full post »

Back in the late 70s in my hometown of Philadelphia, I worked for the national office of a program called Green Circle. Started by Gladys Rawlins, an African American teacher in the Philly school system, it was designed to help kids deal with human differences in a positive way. 

The… Read full post »

I still read the comics. Every morning, one of the first things I do after I check email is to go to two of my favorite internet comics sources and check out the latest adventures of some of my favorite strips (the ones that are still running). It’s a habit I’ve… Read full post »

Does anyone really feel hope right now? Does anyone really believe that things are going to get better for the poor, working- or middle-class person in this country, the so-called 99% that we hear so much about? 

Does anyone think that those we elect really feel that they represent us… Read full post »

How well I remember Buddy Lawrence, the tomboyish character on the TV series Family. It was the late 70s and I was already out of the closet and involved with gay rights organizations. I had come out to my family and friends. I worked at an organization that promoted human rights… Read full post »

Like the proverbial bad penny, Ted Haggard, the evangelical minister involved in a gay sex scandal a few years ago, keeps popping back up in the limelight. Last night, he and his family appeared on the reality show “Celebrity Wife Swap,” after he and Hollywood actor Gary Busey traded wive… Read full post »

Okay, so let me get this straight. The world is supposed to end on December 21 of this year, because the current Mayan calendar runs out on that date and some New Agers have decided it means humans are kaput. 

Here we go again. We’ve been down this path before.… Read full post »

Things we can expect to see in 2012:

Arizona will continue to bash immigrants like there’s no tomorrow. With a recent court ruling that an ethnics studies program in its public schools may violate state law because it supposedly presents Latino history in a “biased, political and e… Read full post »

I can’t tell you how much I hated going with Papa to the neighborhood barber shop in South Philly. In those anything but “Happy Days” before the mop-topped Beatles set a new standard, pre-teen boys like myself were regularly subjected to that classic military crew cut. 

 … Read full post »

As bad as 2012 may get (and trust me, it can get pretty damn bad), the lowest point will most likely be the Republican National Convention with its lineup of some of the worst presidential candidates in American politics since Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the brain dead one, not the… Read full post »