Books for LGBTQ+ History Month

  In observance of LGBTQ+ history month, I want to talk about some of the books that were instrumental in helping me understand the gay world of the 1920s as portrayed in Medicine for the Blues. I encourage anyone interested in gay history to check out some of...

Trump & McConnell vs. Durrenmatt’s Truths

  The Swiss writer Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-1990) has created an intriguing and challenging body of work that is as relevant today as it was when he was coming of age during the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Two specific aspects in Durrenmatt’s work epitomize...

Before Stonewall…early fights for LGBTQ rights

  This month is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, considered the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. I didn’t hear about the Stonewall riots until years after it happened. But my partner, who was in the military at that time, was subscribing...

Overpopulation and the LGBTQ Community

  With the UN report on the danger of losing one million species to extinction within our lifetime and continued reports on the growing perils of systemic global climate disruption, we must confront the fact of human overpopulation. The World Population...

Werewolf Politics from Paris to Portland

book cover: The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore, 1933, mixes politics and horror.   My friend J D Chandler is writing a serialized werewolf story inspired by The Werewolf of Paris (by Guy Endore, 1933) but Chandler’s is set in Portland and titled,...

From Gillette & #MeToo…to Empathetic Listening

  Originally, I imagined writing this blog about the flap over Gillette’s controversial #MeToo commercial alongside a discussion of beauty standards and what’s being called “beauty-standard denialism.” First, the Gillette ad has been both praised and damned. From...

Black, Lesbian, Visionary: Ernestine Eckstein

That’s Ernestine in the white-framed sunglasses. Her sign reads: “Denial of Equality of Opportunity is Immoral.” Photo from the Making Gay History website, referenced below. I recently discovered the Making Gay History podcast, now in its fourth season, and I can’t...

Queers, Cold War, McCarthy, & now Cutler!

  photo from The Guardian article of 30 Dec. 2018   Medical historian Merilee D Karr alerted me to a recent Guardian article about a new book: Ike’s Mystery Man, Peter Shinkle’s biography of Robert Cutler. “…the big headline is about Cutler’s shepherding of...