Civil Rights
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It looks like people we recognize. I keep coming back to this because cruelty rarely announces itself as something obvious or extreme. Most of the time, it shows up quietly, carried by ordinary people defending it. Neighbors justifying harm, violence, even death, as long as it’s aimed at someone they’ve decided is in the way.…
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You know, they say every generation of LGBTQ+ people stands on the shoulders of the accomplishments of the one before it. That is true, at least in part. And yet lately, it can feel as if we have faltered some along the way. I catch myself in those darker hours of the night, when sleep…
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There has been a lot of talk lately about the possible use of extraordinary federal powers. The Insurrection Act is being mentioned more frequently, and that language understandably unsettles people. There are courts that are already preparing to challenge any misuse of it, and those legal fights matter. At the same time, people living in…
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The voice promised renewal. It promised safety. It promised pride. It spoke about enemies without ever fully defining them. It spoke about “them” with just enough vagueness that anyone already disliked could be folded into the category. Outsiders. Intellectuals. Journalists. Artists. Minorities. “Degenerates.” The list stayed flexible on purpose. At first, nothing felt extreme.
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If you believe in free speech and the First Amendment, then you also have to believe in the right of others to speak their minds, even when what they say clashes with your own beliefs. That is the hard truth at the center of democracy. Free speech was never meant to protect only the voices…
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For years I told myself I would find a man and build a life that did not have to exist in bars or bathhouses. I wanted something steadier. I wanted a partner I could grow old with, a man I could have a family with, someone who would walk beside me in the ordinary days…
