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 »

The holiday season is a time to immerse oneself in a fantasy land of a fat, jolly, old man with bad fashion sense coming down the chimney to reward good children with toys, and an infant savior in "swaddling clothes," born in a manager with the grandest of delusions of grandeur. … Read full post »

I had seen Pedro around the Castro for years, though I didn’t know him personally. He volunteered at Under One Roof, a store that raises money for AIDS organizations, and at the Country Club, the only clean and sober space in a neighborhood full of perpetually packed bars. Sometimes as I… Read full post »

In a word, Time Magazine’s designation of “the protester” as person of the year means nothing to me. I’ve been a protester for most of my 60 years on this planet, starting in my teens when I took to the streets in civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demos and later with… Read full post »

Hypocrisy at its worst: the Obama administration is calling on Russia to allow peaceful protests and not permit the police to deny the rights of those who want to take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the way things went down with the recent election in the former “evil… Read full post »

It’s that time of year again when atheists and christians fight for attention with dueling billboards at the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Last year, the atheist billboard showed a picture of the three wise men heading to see the little kid in the manger. It featured a very… Read full post »

At a book signing in South Carolina, Michele Bachmann, a U.S. Representative and a contender for the GOP presidential nomination next year, was approached by an eight-year-old boy who whispered to her, “My Mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing.” 

Michele certainly didn&… Read full post »

December is a difficult month for me. Not only because of that holiday I hate and try harder every year to ignore (how does one ignore an elephant that big?), but because December 20 is my mother’s birthday.

Which shouldn’t be a sad thing, but she’s been dead for 21… Read full post »

Another reason that I think saving Mother Earth is completely and utterly hopeless: I needed replacement blades for the razor someone gave me about four years ago to thank me for some computer work I did for him. I’ve never changed the blades because, frankly, they always worked fine. Bu… Read full post »

The following monologue was part of a show I did about AIDS in 1986. The show, "Miss Alice and other heroes," won an award and much critical acclaim. Since this Thursday, December 1 is World AIDS Day, I thought I'd offer it as a reminder of how it was 25 years… Read full post »