Today New Yorkers celebrated the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, the uprising credited as the beginning of the LGBTQ liberation movement. I wasn’t aware of it until my friend Kate told me about it, and like so many movements, this one appears to have started by accident. On June 28th, 1969, patrons at an unlicensed, speakeasy … Continue reading Celebrate Stonewall, Celebrate Change
So North Carolina has been all over the news for what many have dubbed “The Bathroom Bill.” I’ve been doing a lot of head shaking over it, when I wasn’t thanking my lucky stars I was born and raised in Chicago, and spared a lot of the foolishness that people in southern states seem to … Continue reading Trans Fear Goes Beyond Bathroom Policies
The Pentagon may announce a plan this week to lift the ban on transgender individuals in the military. The goal is to formally end one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military service. If the announcement happens, “the services would have six months to assess the impact of the change and work out … Continue reading The Military May Soon Lift Its Ban on Transgender People #LGBT #transgender
When it rains, it pours — in a good way. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal across the nation, and this week, the word cisgender was one of some 500 new additions to the Oxford English Dictionary. The word is defined as “designating a person whose sense of personal identity corresponds … Continue reading The Word Cisgender Is Now Official #gender #identity #LGBT
I’m thrilled for Caitlyn Jenner. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her to deny who she was her whole life. I have to give her props for accomplishing so much despite what must have been a big hole in the soul based on what I’ve read and heard her say on TV. 
At times, I imagine it must have been horrid to walk around hiding from everyone, feeling so isolated, so trapped behind a mask, I suppose you might say. A mask that enabled her to look out, but no one else to look in.
She’s going to do a lot to bring awareness and hopefully acceptance to transgender people and the struggles that they, and many of us, go through trying to be our authentic selves. But I saw something on Instagram that made think about the disparity between black and white, rich and poor, known and unknown as it pertains to personal freedom of identity. Continue reading “Caitlyn Jenner Will Be OK, But What About Her Black, Poor Counterparts? #transgender #bias”
A Life Not Grey 