Julian, Sandy, and I were lucky enough yesterday to attend the LGBTQ Pride Month Commemoration event at the White House. President Obama and First Lady Michelle were there, along with some of NCLR’s closest colleagues and so many who have fought tirelessly for this moment. The Advocate asked me to write about my thoughts on the day. A link to that piece is below. We know we are far from finished. Yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case will make it more difficult to...
Our Voices
Even as the LGBTQ community enjoys huge gains in understanding and acceptance. Even as we have key leaders from every sector and across every spectrum supporting our full equality and rejecting rank bigotry. Even as we seem closer than ever to winning the freedom to marry nationwide, a persistent and longstanding threat has reemerged. You have likely heard or read a chorus of anti-LGBTQ voices in the last few weeks supporting so-called “conversion therapy,” the vile practice used by some...
I was sad all day yesterday. It was only in the moment of hearing the news of Dr. Maya Angelou’s death that I realized how much her living had meant to me. I never met Dr. Angelou, but like so many of us, when we heard this news, I felt like I had lost a beloved sister, aunt, neighbor, or mentor. I was 13 when I read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” I was in 8th grade in Ogden, Utah. I was white and Mormon in my overwhelmingly white and Mormon public school. I had nothing in...
The column was not exactly as advertised. This week, I finally got around to reading the blog posted on May 1 by ardent same-sex marriage foe Maggie Gallagher. A number of sources had described the blog variously as her abandoning the fight or conceding failure, noting this passage: “Hiding or pretending is not going to help us, now. We have to face the truth. And we have to find the love at its heart. And we will have to do new things, not simply do what failed, over and over again, harder.”...
That could be the opening to a great joke, but the story here ends with something better than a punch line. My sister Sharon and I could not be more different. In high school, she was the super-popular and uber-cute homecoming queen, student officer, and North Ogden Miss Cherry Days. I was immersed in debate, girl’s athletics, and general rowdiness, while Sharon was the perfect Mormon daughter. On top of that, it seemed to me back then that we didn’t even look alike. Sharon, with her dark hair...
Even as we celebrate a new breakthrough every week, we must be vigilant for threats to our community. Case in point—Arizona. This week, the Arizona legislature passed a bill which would allow businesses to refuse service, based on their religious beliefs, to LGBTQ people or anyone else. The bill is patently unconstitutional, but we cannot just sit back without taking action. This bill is one of the most brazen attacks our community has ever faced—and it jeopardizes basic anti-discrimination...
January 2014 has barely begun and already we are off like a rocket. On December 20th, federal district court Judge Robert Shelby ruled that Utah’s Amendment 3 is unconstitutional and that same-sex couples could begin marrying there immediately. Our community, and everyone committed to justice for LGBTQ people, has been buzzing ever since. In our home, Judge Shelby’s ruling was particularly electrifying. I grew up in Utah, and I came to consciousness as a feminist and a lesbian at Weber State...
In August 2012, I had (another) bike crash. It was my own idiocy that caused the crash. I was riding down a hill in San Francisco, just blocks from home, when, in trying to beat the light, I swerved around a MUNI train. My bike tire got wedged in the MUNI track and I was thrown to the ground. I landed on my head (thank the goddess I always wear a helmet). A very sweet guy stopped to help me. He called 911, I called Sandy, an ambulance came, and I was taken to the emergency room. Everything I...
Wednesday’s Indian Supreme Court decision reversing a lower court and recriminalizing same-sex sexual intimacy marks a dreadful new judicial low for international LGBTQ human rights Even as we in the U.S. enjoy ever increasing visibility and protections for our community, life for many of our brothers and sisters in other countries is going from bad to intolerable. It is repellent that extremist religious opposition worldwide is such a corrosive impediment to basic human rights. The...
I never thought that in my lifetime I would live to see the incredible progress the LGBTQ movement has experienced in just the last few months. So many have been working for decades to reach this moment, but even for those of us doing this work, the gains of the past year have been breathtaking. Gains such as the striking down of a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and seeing the demise of Proposition 8 are tremendous victories for the LGBTQ community and for a nation that prides...